Leader in health economics, value assessment, policy research, and product value strategy.
Just got back from ASHEcon and I want to encourage folks to get it on their calendars for next year. For those wondering, ASHEcon is the annual meeting of the American Society of Health Economists. And, like it sounds, it’s an academic conference primarily featuring analyses of US healthcare data (BTW, often using very interesting datasets created by linking multiple data sources). So, yeah, it’s geek-fest, but a hidden gem that may fly under the industry radar since the research is not product-level HEOR work. But that is actually a key reason to pay more attention. Many ASHEcon presentations are essentially above-brand analyses of costs, patient access and outcomes, or provider behaviors; studies that are typically motivated by changes in formal policy at various levels of the US health system. That is, potentially useful health policy research. The 2nd reason to ramp up participation is that contextual discussions of US health policy lack voices of those outside academe who have relevant policy experience. One panel discussant, for example, opined that the DPNP might somehow motivate the industry to focus on value when developing drugs and avoid drugs for "very small patient populations" that are increasingly "not reimbursed in Europe". What could have been an enlightening talk for many researchers probably did more harm than good. Multi-stakeholder engagement is a good thing. So, I hope to see more industry colleagues next year in Nashville (https://lnkd.in/gKRNzG-Z) to engage with academic economists at this important conference.