Report Aims to Inspire Equity-Focused Methods in Health Economics and Outcomes Research
Lawrenceville, NJ, USA—January 21, 2025—ISPOR—The Professional Society for Health Economics and Outcomes Research announced today the publication of a report from the ISPOR Health Equity Research Special Interest Group intended to establish key concepts for conducting health equity research that enables investigators to examine—and ultimately reduce—unfair social inequities in health. The report, “Primer on Health Equity Research in Health Economics and Outcomes Research: An ISPOR Special Interest Group Report” was published in the January 2025 issue of Value in Health.
"The conditions in which people are born, grow, work, live, and age are systematically associated with their health and with the volume, quality, and outcomes of care received. Disparities in health and healthcare between more and less socially advantaged groups are pervasive, multidimensional, and far-reaching," said the authors. “The field of health economics and outcomes research (HEOR) has an important role in supporting health equity goals."
The ISPOR Special Interest Group (SIG) on Health Equity Research was established in 2021 to advance equity-informative methods and data to better enable HEOR to reduce unfair social differences in health. The publication announced today was developed by the ISPOR SIG leadership team with input from the group membership. The primer provides an overview of health equity considerations across multiple domains of HEOR and is intended to establish a foundational understanding of key concepts and inspire increased engagement with health equity research in the HEOR community. It also provides a useful bibliography of key resources for health equity research.
Key points from the primer:
- Health equity considerations are relevant across the lifecycle of health technologies, from clinical research through reimbursement decision making and post-market access.
- Novel methods like distributional cost-effectiveness analysis can help quantify for decision makers the equity impacts of health interventions alongside traditional cost-effectiveness results.
- Improved data on health disparities and distributional effects are needed to support more routine and more wide-ranging application of equity-focused methods.
- Professional societies like ISPOR play an important role in building capacity for equity-informative methods in HEOR.
“Encouragingly, HEOR as a field is adept at using new methods, data sources, and long-standing best practices to inform important decisions in the face of data gaps and uncertainty,” the authors concluded. "By increasing engagement with, and understanding of, the field of equity-focused HEOR, this publication hopes to inspire a future generation of HEOR researchers to contribute to advancing methods, improving data quality, and influencing adoption-in-practice of equity-focused methods to ultimately drive improvements in equity in health and healthcare."
About ISPOR’s Health Equity Research Special Interest Group
Mission: To advance equity-informative methods and data for HEOR that help to reduce unfair differences in health.
Goals:
- Advance novel methods for assessing the health equity impacts of decisions on unfair differences in health, including application of equity-informative cost-effectiveness analysis across markets, conditions, and payer types.
- Establish a forum for members to engage in discussion related to the challenges of measuring and addressing health inequities in HEOR and healthcare decision making.
- Foster multistakeholder dialogue between policy makers, regulators, payers, advocacy groups, prescribers, patients, and researchers about health equity considerations at all stages of decision making—from inclusive clinical trials through health technology assessment and implementation.
- Improve data sources used by the HEOR community to study health inequities.
Background: Health equity is a long-standing and increasingly high-profile concern in healthcare and public health decision making. Although terminology varies between disciplines and countries, terms such as “health disparities” (used in the United States), “health inequalities” (used in the United Kingdom) and “health inequities” (used by the World Health Organization) all signify a shared concern to reduce unfair differences in health, healthcare, and financial protection from the costs of healthcare. The HEOR field is well suited to support this endeavor and affect positive change. The choices we make in healthcare innovation, reimbursement, and access can widen or reduce the health inequities seen across the world today. However, although a concern for equity is consistent across the mission statements of health technology agencies and healthcare research organizations worldwide, there is currently limited formal collection and analysis of data about the impacts of decisions on health inequities. With its rich patient- and disease-level data, empiric approach to scientific study, and strong track record of providing useful information to support decision making, the tools of HEOR can be fruitfully used to study and improve health equity. Click here to learn more.
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ABOUT ISPOR
ISPOR—The Professional Society for Health Economics and Outcomes Research (HEOR), is an international, multistakeholder, nonprofit dedicated to advancing HEOR excellence to improve decision making for health globally. The Society is the leading source for scientific conferences, peer-reviewed and MEDLINE®-indexed publications, good practices guidance, education, collaboration, and tools/resources in the field.
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ABOUT VALUE IN HEALTH
Value in Health (ISSN 1098-3015) is an international, indexed journal that publishes original research and health policy articles that advance the field of health economics and outcomes research to help healthcare leaders make evidence-based decisions. The journal’s current impact factor score is 4.9 and its 5-year impact factor score is 5.6. Value in Health is ranked 5th of 118 journals in Health Policy and Services, 15th of 174 journals in Health Care Sciences and Services, and 56th of 597 journals in Economics. Value in Health is a monthly publication that circulates to more than 55,000 readers around the world.
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