In the rapidly evolving healthcare landscape, health economics and outcomes research (HEOR) and market access professionals face numerous challenges and opportunities. The recent ISPOR 2024-2025 Top 10 HEOR Trends report highlights the most pressing issues shaping the field. At Nested Knowledge, we don’t just develop great evidence synthesis software; we also help HEOR and market access teams address the bigger picture. From helping you implement faster AI-assisted workflows which speed up your team by up to 75%, to helping you think through how to design your next project with the new JCA requirements in mind, Nested Knowledge has you covered.
If there is a singular through line that ties these top trends together, it’s this: evidence synthesis is getting more complicated, not less.
By cultivating a long-lasting relationship with us, we can help you meet increasingly complex evidentiary requirements for your pharma and medtech clients, both large and small.
To learn more about partnering with Nested Knowledge or get a demonstration of what our software can help you do, meet us at ISPOR, booth #921. If you are not attending this year but would like to meet virtually, feel free to fill this form out anyway, because we’d still love to meet with you.
In the meantime, read on to learn more about how we are thinking about this year’s top trends.
Fill out the form below to send me (Jeff) an email. I’ll get back to you as quickly as I can and we can set up a time to meet at ISPOR.
1. Real-World Evidence (RWE)
Clocking in at #1 this year, real-world evidence has become increasingly crucial in pharmaceutical decision-making. When it comes to tackling the challenges of RWE generation, the ISPOR report emphasizes the increasing importance of RWE in augmenting randomized controlled trials and providing a more realistic view of patient outcomes in clinical practice. However, the report also highlights the challenges associated with generating high-quality RWE, including issues related to data quality, transparency, and the need for standardized definitions.
To address these challenges, Nested Knowledge is partnering with Navidence. This collaboration directly addresses these challenges by leveraging AI-powered solutions from Nested Knowledge, Navidence is able to develop and maintain standardized Computable Operational Definitions (CODefs) across a wide range of disease states and therapeutic areas. By establishing a common language for defining key elements of RWE studies, such as patient populations, exposures, and outcomes, Navidence’s RWE Sherpa software platform enables researchers to design and conduct studies with greater efficiency, transparency, and reproducibility.
RWE Sherpa, is a transformational platform for RWE Design and RWD Assessment using AI-informed indication-specific libraries of Computable Operational Definitions (CODef). By plugging in directly to the RWE Sherpa platform, RWE research teams can design with confidence, knowing that a given set of study design elements for each RWE project are aligned to current scientific approaches and existing data assets.
To learn more about this collaboration, read the recent press release.
2. Drug Pricing
Drug pricing is undergoing a seachange in both the U.S. and Europe. With Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) passage in the United States, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) is allowed to negotiate drug prices for a select (but growing) number of drugs for the first time. As the CMS adopts the role of value-assessor (and sets the maximum price for eligible molecules), drug manufacturers will need to provide evidence supporting the efficacy and safety of their drugs, as well as the unmet clinical need.
Starting as soon as January 1st of 2025, a European Union (EU) program will take effect to evaluate the relative benefit and cost-effectiveness of cancer medications and gene therapies. The program, called EUnetHTA 21, will expand to rare disease drugs in 2028. The regulation aims to centralize the Health Technology Assessments (HTAs) across the EU. While the regulation’s aspirations may resolve heterogeneity of countries’ requirements, the scope of assessments is large and difficult to undertake in the time allotted; manufacturers must prepare early and adapt swiftly.
Bottomline: poor evidence management, and lags in updates to evidence, will place drug manufacturers at a disadvantage to competitors. However, the Nested Knowledge software can help evidence synthesis teams ramp up their efficiency and gain unique insights into the deluge of data. Click here to read more about the IRA, and learn how Nested Knowledge is purpose-built for the exact evidence synthesis process demanded for HTA. Click here to read more about the JCA, and learn how Nested Knowledge can help you build a living evidence library and an evidence strategy will anticipate likely PICOs before the final PICO determination.
3. Artificial Intelligence (AI)
Last year, AI was #10 on ISPOR’s trend list; this year, it rises in importance to #3 on this list. It’s safe to say, one ignores this trend at one’s peril. Gone are the days of using spreadsheets to screen records and extract data. Even without AI augmentations and automations, collaborative software like Nested Knowledge is required to manage complex evidence synthesis project timelines, especially when it comes to updating data as new evidence emerges. With AI, we’re seeing our partners reach unprecedented speed while maintaining data quality.
While the technical team at Nested Knowledge has been integrating various machine learning (ML) algorithms as optional augmentations into the workflow for years, the advent of powerful large language models (LLMs) brings additional automations and flexibility to our software, dramatically improving both speed and accuracy of a variety of evidence synthesis workflows. For example, we recently added Smart Tag Recommendations, which can achieve up to 60-80% recall in qualitative data extraction tasks. For the first time ever, we are seeing our platform used to conduct “AI Reviews,” where most of the work is entirely automated. While not as accurate or systematic as similar work done manually, such reviews are useful when a client needs to ascertain the shape of the literature rapidly, and can serve as a jumping off point for humans to step in and fill in the gaps.
For a full list of optional AI automations to augment your workflow, read more here.
4. Fostering Innovation
Bringing innovative health technologies to market requires demonstrating their value. Nested Knowledge streamlines evidence generation, helping HEOR and market access teams showcase the benefits of groundbreaking treatments. Our platform facilitates the development of compelling value propositions, supporting market access efforts which in turn enables patient access to innovative therapies, especially in fields where new evidence is rapidly emerging.
For example, effective Alzheimer’s therapies are proving to be of incredible value to a large number of patients (even while being somewhat disruptive to payer’s budgets, as noted by ISPOR’s trend report). In a field like Alzheimer’s, where the evidence landscape is shifting rapidly, it’s vital to have evidence synthesis software capable of rapidly ingesting and assimilating new evidence. In a recent case study, we show how one of our partners completed a full systematic literature review project on the role of FLAP Inhibition and leukotriene signaling in neuroinflammation and neurodegeneration. Despite encountering a range of evidence types from preclinical studies of cell lines to clinical studies of novel drugs, the Nested Knowledge platform is flexible enough to take on complex biological questions and reduce complex mechanisms to the associations of each mediator in the pathway.
5. Health Equity
Addressing health disparities is a critical priority. Nested Knowledge allows HEOR teams to incorporate social determinants of health data into their analyses, assessing the health equity impact of interventions. Our platform enables researchers to identify disparities in care and develop strategies to promote equitable access to healthcare.
Beyond what our tool is capable of, and in the spirit of improving health equity the world over, Nested Knowledge is committed to providing affordable access to our software for those who need it most. We provide steep discounts to our partners who operate in LMIC geographies, and work to connect these researchers with other resources whenever possible. To learn more about the ways we are exploring the complex interplay between health and economics globally, watch this recent webinar where we discussed this topic among others with our friends at INAHTA (representing South Africa) and GCES (Based in India). It was a late night for us here in the U.S., but well worth it!
Additionally, we are committed to offering low prices to academic researchers and institutions. As big believers in peer-review, we want to ensure academics have access to high quality evidence synthesis software too.
6. Accelerated Drug Approvals
For therapies with accelerated approval, post-marketing evidence generation is crucial. Nested Knowledge enables efficient analysis of real-world data to confirm clinical benefit and safety. Our platform helps HEOR teams generate the necessary evidence to support regulatory requirements and ensure the continued availability of promising therapies.
7. Value Measurement
Capturing the full value of health technologies requires a holistic approach. Nested Knowledge supports comprehensive value assessment by integrating multiple value elements and stakeholder perspectives. Our platform goes beyond traditional QALYs, enabling HEOR teams to consider patient preferences, societal benefits, and other relevant factors in their value assessments.
8. Patient-Centricity
Putting patients at the center of healthcare research is essential. However, implementing patient-centered HTAs is challenging. Doing so demands large budgets for research, modeling, and patient outreach. In the seventeen years since researchers first proposed “patient-based health technology assessments,” key institutions have made progress. PCORI, ICER, and other agencies invite patient comments on HTAs and listen to patients on their advisory panels. Avalere, a healthcare consultancy, published guidance on assessing patient-value. Nonetheless, the methods for including the patient perspective in HTAs are neither well-defined, nor widely adopted. Read more about of our thoughts on patient-centricity in our recent article.
Do you want to further the development of patient-centered HTA methods? Share your ideas with us at ISPOR, we welcome input from users on how to design AI-research technology to support patient centered research.
9. Precision Medicine
Precision medicine holds immense promise for improving patient outcomes. One of the key recommendations in ISPOR’s report is the need to build consensus among stakeholders on value measures for precision medicine. Nested Knowledge’s platform facilitates this process by providing a centralized, user-friendly interface for collaboratively analyzing and interpreting published clinical studies.
Our platform’s interactive visualizations and customizable dashboards enable researchers, payers, providers, and patient advocates to explore the evidence landscape together, fostering a shared understanding of the value drivers in precision medicine. By promoting transparency and collaboration, Nested Knowledge helps stakeholders reach consensus on the most appropriate value measures for specific precision medicine interventions.
10. Public Health
Evaluating the impact of public health interventions is vital for informed policy decisions. Nested Knowledge’s analytics capabilities allow HEOR teams to assess the population health impact and cost-effectiveness of public health programs. Our platform facilitates the generation of evidence to support evidence-based public health policies and improve population health outcomes.
Conclusion
Nested Knowledge is committed to empowering HEOR and market access professionals to address the top trends shaping the field. Our comprehensive software platform provides the tools and capabilities needed to generate robust evidence, inform decision-making, and ultimately improve patient outcomes. By leveraging Nested Knowledge, HEOR and market access teams can navigate the complexities of the healthcare landscape and drive meaningful impact in their organizations.
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In the realm of conducting systematic literature reviews (SLRs), the question invariably arises: how do these new technologies compare to the trusty spreadsheet? Spreadsheets offer
