Los Angeles, CA – November 13, 2018 – The Innovation and Value Initiative (IVI) – a collaboration dedicated to advancing the science and improving the practice of value assessment in healthcare – will present research at this week’s ISPOR Europe 2018 conference showcasing different elements of the Open-Source Value Project (OSVP) initiative to facilitate assessment of value of healthcare technologies.

In four posters and one interactive workshop, lead health economists from IVI showcased the results of multiple research streams supporting its open-source approach to developing tools to perform value assessment. Presentation topics included:

  • Development of open-source software for developing economic models;
  • Introducing open-source IVI-non-small cell lung cancer model;
  • Implementation of a new approach for using public feedback to guide ongoing, iterative improvement of open-source value models; and
  • An evaluation of the patient-centricity of IVI’s work.

ISPOR Europe is the leading European conference for health economics and outcomes research. This year the conference addressed new perspectives for improving 21st century health systems.

“For the science of value assessment to continue to mature, we must be transparent about the approach, its benefits and limitations, and how to improve it,” said Jennifer Bright, executive director at IVI. “Our presentations at ISPOR Europe illustrate our vision for a more transparent and relevant approach to value assessment, which we hope will be applied to real-world decision-making. A specific focus of IVI’s research is acknowledging patient diversity in value measurement. IVI continually seeks to improve its process for developing models for value assessment, particularly by engaging patients earlier and more extensively than what is common practice.”

In the first poster, Devin Incerti and Jeroen Jansen, the lead economist and scientific advisor for IVI’s Open-Source Value Project (OSVP), presented new open-source software, developed by IVI, designed to support model developers by providing a framework for integrating statistical analysis for parameter estimation with simulation techniques for economic evaluation.

IVI also led a workshop focused on a related topic: the development of cost-effectiveness models using the open-source R programming language in place of the traditional Excel approach. IVI is leading the field in development of open-source R-based value models, and participants learned the fundamentals and advantages of using R to build faster, more transparent models.

The second IVI poster presentation introduced the next OSVP disease-specific model, which can be used to estimate to evaluate competing intervention strategies for epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) positive, non-squamous non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). The flexible open-source IVI-NSCLC model, accessible to both technical and non-technical end-users, enables a more constructive dialogue between stakeholders (e.g. patients, payers, providers, and manufacturers) with different beliefs about relevant clinical data, modeling approaches, and value perspective.

The third IVI presentation showcased how public feedback can improve an open-source cost-effectiveness model. After the introduction of IVI’s first disease-specific OSVP modeling platform for rheumatoid arthritis (R.A.) in fall 2017, the collaborative embarked on a three-month comment period in which 159 comments were submitted with suggested enhancements. A five-person technical expert panel then prioritized changes to the OSVP model for R.A. based on the public feedback.

The research presented at ISPOR Europe reported the methods IVI developed to translate public feedback into final recommendations and the results of this process – demonstrating the feasibility and benefits of asking for, gathering and assessing public feedback to improve value assessment models.

The final IVI presentation assessed IVI’s efforts to create a patient-centered model in R.A. compared with patient-centered value rubrics outlined by the National Health Council, National Pharmaceutical Council, PhRMA and FasterCures. IVI also received feedback on its degree of patient-centricity from a multi-stakeholder Working Group for Patient Engagement. IVI’s self-assessment concluded that its patient-centric model in R.A. scored well within a number of patient-centered rubrics, but earlier patient partnership is needed to improve future IVI open-source value models.

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Media Contact:
Eric Hoffman
Schmidt Public Affairs
Telephone: (202) 285-0810
E-Mail: ehoffman@schmidtpa.com

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About the Innovation and Value Initiative
The Innovation and Value Initiative (IVI) is a collaboration among thought leaders in academia, patient advocacy organizations, payers, life sciences companies, providers, delivery systems, and other organizations. It was created to raise the level of discussion regarding value in health care and find common ground in the approach to measuring and rewarding value. IVI’s Strategic Advisory Panel includes experienced leaders from across the health care industry. Their role is to provide advice and ensure the credibility and rigor in the research and policy products and to ensure all parties have a voice in IVI activities.