Dan Ollendorf, PhD is chief scientific officer and director of health technology assessment (HTA) methods and engagement at the Institute for Clinical and Economic Review (ICER), with responsibility for managing the organization’s internal health economics capacity and program of external collaboration with academic researchers and institutions, as well as collaboration with international HTA bodies and other stakeholders on key process and methods topics. From 2007-2018, Dr Ollendorf was chief scientific officer for ICER, where he oversaw the broader HTA process and managed relationships with multiple stakeholders and research collaborators.
From 2018-2023, Dr Ollendorf served as the director of value measurement and global health initiatives at the Center for the Evaluation of Value and Risk in Health (CEVR) at Tufts Medical Center, where he focused on value assessment methods, drug pricing policy, and building international capacity for and interest in HTA. His research accomplishments included assessments of the global HTA community’s consideration of treatment novelty and value in appraisals, examinations of the broader economic value of vaccines and other health interventions, analyses of the potential impact of international reference pricing in the US, and development of a guide for translating HTA appraisal results between high and low-middle income settings. In addition to his current role at ICER, Dr Ollendorf maintains a faculty appointment at CEVR and continues to teach in the Center’s graduate certificate program as well as participate in ongoing research. His 35-year career also includes experience in the health system, insurer, informatics, and contract-research settings.
Dr Ollendorf has been an ISPOR member since the Society’s inception in 1995. He has served on ISPOR’s Medication Compliance and Persistence Special Interest Group, Working Group on Challenges of HTA in Pluralistic Health Systems, and a joint society Task Force with Health Technology Assessment International (HTAi) on deliberative processes in HTA. He has also served as faculty for ISPOR’s regional HTA training program, and is currently codeveloping a short course on HTA for ISPOR’s online training platform.
Dr Ollendorf holds a PhD in clinical epidemiology (Universiteit van Amsterdam), an MPH in epidemiology and health policy and management (Boston University) and a BA in health policy and English (University of Rochester). He serves as a nonresident Fellow in Global Health at the Center for Global Development and is the current Chair of the HTAi Global Policy Forum. Dr Ollendorf also served on the US Medicare Evidence Development and Coverage Advisory Committee (MEDCAC) from 2015-2019. He has authored over 125 articles in peer-review journals and is co-author of The Right Price: A Value-Based Prescription for Drug Costs (Oxford University Press).
ISPOR Vision Statement by Daniel Ollendorf
The ISPOR mission focuses on two important constructs: (1) promotion of scientific excellence in health economics and outcomes research (HEOR); and (2) to improve decision making for health globally. If I am elected to the ISPOR Board, my goal will be to move both constructs forward in a way that reflects the pressures that health systems are currently facing.
My experiences, both as an HEOR practitioner and in helping to build a health technology assessment (HTA) organization, can directly inform the two pillars of the ISPOR mission. First, as noted in the 2024 ISPOR Strategic Plan Update, we as a community must demand that the application of HEOR be science-driven, professional, and ethical, and not beholden to any specific special interests. There are exciting methods developments in both the “HE” (eg, generalized cost-effectiveness analysis, novel value elements) and the “OR” (eg, applications of real-world evidence, development of external controls) spaces, but these concepts must be rigorously evaluated and empirically tested to ensure their responsible integration into research practice and policy. As the scientific leader of the Institute for Clinical and Economic Review (ICER), I welcome the energy around novel methods and am committed to ensuring that the HTA community stays abreast of and collaborates on these developments.
Another priority for me would be to foster opportunities for better communication and collaboration (a core pillar of the 2024 update) around the application of HEOR in an HTA setting. My concerns are as informed by my experience outside of and observing ICER as my time inside the organization. While the science and process of HTA has advanced over the years, at its foundation successful HTA is a conversation. Communication must be transparent, stakeholders must not only be included but should also feel that their participation is meaningful, and all parties (including the HTA organization) should be open to learning from these interactions. My time away from ICER made it clear that HTA bodies should foster new partnerships with academic and industry researchers, payers and policymakers, and most importantly, patients, so that the wider community can moved beyond testimonials on the disease experience to meaningful data collection and integration into HTA analyses.
Health systems are struggling worldwide. Any challenges with inefficiency and waste have been compounded by workforce shortages, stagnant budgets, and antiquated systems coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic. ISPOR can play a critical role in fostering the principled application of HEOR to ensuring not only that valuable new treatments are adopted and made accessible by HTA and payers, but that systems are ready to implement these recommendations, and that additional efficiencies are realized to make headroom for innovation. ISPOR-led workshops and seminars can help bring about this necessary evolution.
If I am elected to the ISPOR Board, I will work to amplify the Society as not only the place to learn about the latest developments in HEOR, but as a living laboratory to evaluate these developments and integrate them into real-world decisions.