Answering key questions with a HEOR advisory board

Developing a cost-effectiveness model with global health technology assessment (HTA) experts

A medical affairs team looking at data to get funding for a specific cancer treatment wanted to hold a health economics and outcomes research (HEOR) virtual advisory board. With the ultimate goal of increasing access to treatment, the team knew it needed to gather feedback on developing a cost-effectiveness model (CEM) for using the drug.

The team’s primary questions included:

1. What can we learn about global CEM approaches for the drug as an adjuvant treatment for patients with the disease?
2. What updates do we need to consider to proposed modeling approaches and methodologies?
3. What challenges could arise when submitting the CEM to HTA authorities in different countries?

The team contracted nine advisors from three continents to participate in an over-time virtual session on the Within3 insights management platform, allowing each participant to log in and contribute input whenever convenient. During the 12-day session, the advisors answered 18 questions, including an ice-breaker question to allow the advisors to get to know one another as the meeting began.

Questions in the session included What key subgroups, if any, would you expect are needed for the HTA submission dossier or CEM? and What are the key challenges you expect in an HTA submission for an adjuvant indication? During the session, the moderators were actively involved and asked follow-up questions to keep the conversation moving or probe for more information. Advisors also received periodic emails to remind them to answer new questions or respond to comments from their peers.

The medical affairs team got the information they needed to develop the CEM. When considering their choice to conduct the advisory board via asynchronous group engagement rather than a typical in-person meeting, the team was able to attribute the following positive outcomes:

1. 100% advisor participation despite the advisors’ busy schedules, geographic distance, and multiple preferred languages
2. Ability to add a large number of session observers, who could follow the discussion and suggest areas of interest for follow-up to the moderators
3. Complete session transcripts viewable by question or by the individual advisor, saving time on manual processing and analysis

Learn more about how medical affairs teams use insights management technology for more efficient orphan drug development.