FAQ on HEOR

HEOR stands for health economics and outcomes research.Vitaccess provides evidence, development strategy, and implementation to optimize health technology assessment and reimbursement submissions. Our team of HEOR and market access professionals supports you to identify and deliver value. We understand that optimized HTA and pricing and reimbursement submissions are built on an integrated approach to value messages, economic models, and payer engagement. 

Health economics is generally focused on how healthcare resources are used to produce the greatest benefit to the population. Outcomes research seeks to evaluate the effect of healthcare interventions on patients. Health economics and outcomes research (HEOR) is the union of these two fields, with them working together to provide powerful data and insights for healthcare decision-makers. It is a scientific discipline that is used to complement traditional clinical development information (i.e., efficacy, safety, quality) to guide decision-makers regarding patient access to specific drugs and services.

HEOR stands for health economics and outcomes research and RWE stands for real-world evidence. Vitaccess provides HEOR and market access consulting services on a standalone basis, including strategic, quantitative, and qualitative analyses, or combined with digital real-world studies as part of a fully integrated evidence-generation strategy.

HEOR data is used to inform health economic modelling, including cost-effectiveness, disease transmission and progression, and health and economic disease burden modelling.

Market access in healthcare can be defined as the set of strategies, activities, and processes that pharmaceutical and MedTech companies develop to ensure their products (drugs, devices, other technologies) are made accessible and are fairly priced in a specific health system.

Pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies need effective market access strategies that attain the best reimbursement possible for their products while keeping those assets affordable for payers. This helps to ensure that patients have access to new, effective therapies as soon as possible.

To gain market access and remain competitive, pharmaceutical, and biotechnology companies must be able to demonstrate clinical and economic evidence to providers, healthcare decision-makers, and payers. In the past, market access for a medicine depended almost exclusively upon demonstration of efficacy and safety.

Global market access (GMA) is the process of determining applicable regulations and managing product compliance to those regulations with respect to accessing global markets.

Reimbursement is the negotiation of a price between the manufacturer and payer that allows the manufacturer access to that market.

Market access is a broad term that is used to describe activities and processes that pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies undertake to secure a reimbursed price that reflects the product's value for the broadest possible patient population within the shortest feasible timeframe.

Patient-centered care, also referred to as person-centered care, is defined by the World Health Organization (WHO) as “empowering people to take charge of their own health rather than being passive recipients of services.”

Patient-centered care often results in improved outcomes for patients, better use of resources, decreased costs, and increased patient and healthcare professional satisfaction with care. Decades of research have demonstrated that when patient values and preferences are prioritized, patients engage more in treatments, leading to better health outcomes. Hospitals and practices that implement patient-centered care report: Lower rates of emergency room (ER) visits Faster recovery Decreased utilization of healthcare resources Increased patient, family, and care team satisfaction Improved health outcomes.