Big Changes for HEOR in 2017

As we make our way through the first quarter of 2017, there are a lot of exciting changes happening in the field of health economics and outcomes research (HEOR) that may have important implications for how researchers generate and disseminate evidence.

Here are some of them, in no particular order, with commentaries to follow over the coming days and weeks:

• Institute for Clinical and Effectiveness Research (ICER): New guidelines for the development of economic models for upcoming ICER evaluations.  Over 300 pages of comments were distilled to 3-4 key changes, with important assumptions about drug costs and thresholds for value. Be sure to read Matt Sussman’s article for more details.

• Panel on Cost-Effectiveness in Health Care: The long-waited 20^th anniversary of the original Gold Report now includes two perspectives: societal and healthcare system. It also includes additional documentation in the form of checklists and inventories.

• 21^st Century Cures Act: New legislative update to FDAMA 114, that expands the use of real-world evidence in the development of dossiers and, potentially, drug labelling.

These major updates and changes should keep the HEOR community busy throughout 2017 and beyond, creating new economic models and expanding the array of observational database studies performed.  There is no better time to be an health economics outcomes researcher!