Dr James D. Chambers Talks Future Health Economics Trends He Is Watching

James D. Chambers, PhD, MPharm, MSc, of Tufts Medical Center was named the 2017 recipient of the Bernie J. O'Brien New Investigator Award at the ISPOR 22nd Annual International Meeting. He highlights the trends he is most looking forward to seeing develop over the next year and the next 5 years.

Transcript

As the winner of the 2017 ISPOR Bernie J. O'Brien New Investigator Award, what trends do you feel will be most important in healthcare over the next year, and the next 5 years?

Well it was very special to win the award. Bernie O'Brien was a leading figure in the ISPOR organization before untimely death. And Bernie actually studied at the same university that I did, and had the PhD advisor that I did: Professor Martin Buxton of health economics research at Brunel University in London. And I was one of Martin's final students, so it was very nice to be able to tell Martin that I was the recipient of the Bernie O'Brien award.

I think that over the next year that we'll see greater discussion around these value frameworks. What I'm excited about and looking forward to, is hopefully within the year, greater clarification of how these value frameworks will be used, and how payers will use them, and how they will inform decision making. Because although I think they're maybe a harbinger of what's ahead in terms of consideration of value in decisions, I think it is still very unclear of how they're actually informing decision making. So over the next year that's something I'm very excited about. And at the ISPOR conference this week, we've seen a lot of discussion about these value frameworks.

Over the next 5 years, that's a tougher question of course, but if I was to choose one thing, it would maybe be outcomes-based contracting. With the introduction of some real important innovations in the pharmaceutical space, and along with that comes the high costs of those innovations, and with the increase in pressures and budgets within payers and within the healthcare system as a whole, I think that outcomes-based contracting, or trying to tie payment to results, is something that has real opportunity to increase the value of care delivery and the use of these high-cost treatments.

I think also with the development of EMR, electronic medical records, I think that provides an opportunity to collect data that will allow us to tailor these risk-sharing agreements or performance-based agreements in a way that really ensures that we're getting value for the money we spend on these new innovations.