In this episode of Impetus Digital‘s Fireside Chat, I was joined by Farah Husein, Director, Evidence Generation, Canadian Centre of Excellence, at Takeda. We discussed all things evidence generation, including the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on HEOR, RWE, epidemiology, and PRO studies; where digital technologies will fit into these types of studies in the future; and much, much more.
Here is a sneak peek of our conversation:
Q: We can apply a myriad of definitions of what “value” is for a medication. As it relates to your version of “value,” how can value be ascertained for a new product, service, or medication?
A: Wow, this could go off in a lot of different directions. As you pointed out, that value really is in the eyes of the stakeholder. If I’m a patient, my first understanding of value is “Does it prolong my life?”, “Does it improve my quality of life?”, “Does it improve my functioning?”, “Does it relieve my symptoms?”. Those are the things that are probably the most important aspects of value to me, and then I have to weigh that with “Can I afford it in my personal budget space?”. In Canada, luckily, most of our medications are covered through the public health system and through each person’s private coverage as well, and that’s a whole other issue.
If you’re talking about health systems and HT bodies like CADTH and INESSS, and the decisions that they make and how those translate to the provincial payers, their understanding of value is informed by, sometimes, hard parameters like Quality Adjusted-Life Years relative to the cost of an item. It also is informed by patient values, whether those same things I just spoke about, those outcomes that are important to patients, are being achieved, and also if you’re able to achieve efficiencies or advantages to the health system. It’s kind of a big package of things that defines “value,” it’s not one thing…
For more of our discussion, you can watch the whole Fireside Chat with Farah Husein, or listen to the podcast version, below.
To check out previous Fireside Chats and to make sure that you don’t miss any future updates, subscribe to our newsletter or follow us on YouTube, LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook or our podcast. If you enjoyed this episode, kindly leave a review on iTunes.
About Impetus Digital
Impetus Digital is the spark behind sustained healthcare stakeholder communication, collaboration, education, and insight synthesis. Our best-in-class technology and professional services ensure that life science organizations around the world can easily and cost-effectively grow and prosper—from brand or idea discovery to development, commercialization, execution, and beyond—in collaboration with colleagues, customers, healthcare providers, payers, and patients.