Would you believe it if I said that in a few years, the term “HEOR” may go the way of man-buns and flip phones?

While the man-bun joke about the terminology may be a slight exaggeration, our field is indeed undergoing a notable change and we are leaving some old approaches behind. We will talk about these changes in HEOR in an interactive, live-streaming Fireside Chat with a Panel of leading industry executives from Pfizer, Teva, Oxford PharmaGenesis, and HealthEconomics.Com:

[Webinar] The Changing Face of Careers in HEOR & Value Demonstration: Fireside Chat with Pharma and Communications Agency Executives

February 22, 11am-12noon EST

Fortunately for you (and us), the science of HEOR (and its commercialization counterpart, Market Access [MA]) will likely remain highly relevant and continue to grow; however, the way we are applying it is evolving into “Value Demonstration”, and it is much more customer-centric.  This change is more than just semantics, or at least many of us think so.

Value Demonstration Tools

Value Demonstration refers to tailored evidence-gathering solutions that demonstrate the clinical and economic impact of products on patients and health systems, while linking outcomes to quality measures, all of which are strategically incorporated into product life cycle planning.

We are moving away from a brand, volume, and narrow clinical focus of pharmaceutical interventions, and broadening our scope to real world evidence that has a broader end-customer perspective based on their definition of value.

Are you and our industry adequately prepared for this new role?

Perhaps, but it will take Organizational Transformation.

The change to Value Demonstration and Real-World Evidence is playing out in all corners of the healthcare ecosystem. In a study of HEOR professionals conducted by HealthEconomics.Com, 90% of Biopharma and more than 80% of Consulting professionals say that market demand for RWE is increasing. Departmental siloeing is an albatross, and there are herculean efforts to work at an enterprise level and focus on the customer.

Simultaneously, many Pharma/Life Sciences, Consultancy/CROs, and Scientific Communication Agencies are showing growth in Medical Affairs and Payer Evidence/Patient Access commercialization departments. These groups are gaining clarity in their responsibility for RWE, Value Demonstration, Information Strategy & Data Analytics, and Value Translation.

Change brings opportunity (and challenges).

This change to Value Demonstration is an opportunity. An opportunity to positively impact the healthcare system and patients, an opportunity for innovative business models, and an opportunity for employees to bring new and needed skill sets to their organization.

According to the most recent Global Salary Survey for HEOR & Market Access of 500 industry professionals conducted by HealthEconomics.Com, the percentage of respondents who identify Value/Market Access as their main job grew by 20% in the past two years, while those that specifically identified HEOR as their main job function decreased by 24%!  Other job functions that grew in 2017 (vs 2015) were Pricing and Reimbursement (three-fold increase) and HEOR/Value-focused Medical Communication (two-fold growth).

Respondent-reported Job Function, 2017 vs 2015 Global Salary Survey

In addition to organization level changes, skill sets of employees are changing. In this same Global Salary Survey, we asked about the top 3 things to change about HEOR/MA. As shown in the figure below, involvement of HEOR in the early development phase and less separation of HEOR/Market Access from other departments were the main areas that needed the most change in our industry. Moreover, HEOR professionals expressed the need for additional cross-departmental/functional opportunities, more time with customers, and the need for more business experience (as opposed to technical) to establish better links between HEOR and other industry functions and customers.

Areas of Needed Change in HEOR/MA, Global Salary Survey, % responding

These issues related to strategic focus, organizational change, and skill sets for those involved in HEOR and Value Demonstration are pivotal. We, as an industry, need to develop strategies to address the pressing concerns in industry careers and job responsibilities of HEOR & Market Access professionals.  Register now for the collaborative February 22 webinar:

Led by Dr. Patti Peeples, CEO at HealthEconomics.Com and Dr. Richard White, Commercial Director at Oxford PharmaGenesis, along with industry expert Paenlists Dr. Riad Dirani, VP of Global HEOR, Teva, and Danielle Bargo, Director, HEOR (Gastroenterology), Pfizer, we will discuss:

• Trends in modern Value Evidence Job functions
• Staffing and training to develop employees to successfully manage new customer demands
• Trends in Compensation (Salary, Benefits, Bonuses) for HEOR, Market Access, and Value Demonstration
• A case study of new skill sets essential for Value Demonstration/Medical Affairs
• Salary trends derived from the 2017 HEOR & Market Access Salary Survey
• Substantial Q&A between Audience and Panelists

Drop us a note if you have issues you would like to see addressed in our webinar, or thoughts about this blog post.  See you on February 22^nd!

Written by:

Ankit Shah, MS, BS Pharm, Contributing Writer

Patti Peeples, RPh, PhD, CEO of HealthEconomics.Com