As the healthcare industry undergoes a sector-wide shift toward a value-based care (VBC) framework, stakeholders are connecting to discuss how data will be shared to support this paradigm best.
Value-based care is an evidence-based methodology that relies on large, complex data sets such as EHR, patient population data, claims data, and clinical trial reports. Specialist IT tools are used to view and analyze this data to measure performance according to quality initiatives, improve patient outcomes, and reduce costs. But data exchange between stakeholders is not always straightforward.
The Future of Health Data Exchange in Oncology
At the 2022 summit of the Association for Value-based Cancer Care (AVBCC), Integra Connect COO Cory Wiegert joined peers from across the precision medicine technology sector to discuss the advantages and challenges of value-based agreements and what the path forward could look like. The following are just a few of the highlights from the panel.
Importance of Social Determinants of Health (SDOH)
Any VBC solution must, at a minimum, include financial and clinical data, but the next step is integrating data on what happens outside of the clinic. Health equity is a key element of VBC, and this should consider ethnicity, economic stability, access to healthcare, healthcare literacy, and other factors collectively known as social determinants of health.
It is hard to gather accurate information on SDOH, but it can make all the difference in treating a disease as heterogeneous as cancer. Although modern communications technology allows for the collection of patient population data, sorting out the signal-to-noise ratio to ensure the data is actionable is a key challenge.
Patients are unlikely to engage with frequent surveys if they can’t see them as relevant to their health outcomes. To make sure that this kind of data gathered is accurate and valuable, the panelists suggested three key points:
Finding the gaps in information that are going to impact your patients
Reducing survey fatigue around social determinants
Monitoring the real-world impact of decisions to inform the next cycle
Delivering Valuable Insights
Given the huge amount of data being processed, what should a good VBC IT system do to help practices know what to prioritize? VBC tech solutions in oncology should be able to:
Help the organization and clinicians understand the impact of their choice of drugs and treatments on the patient population (e.g., an originator drug vs. a biosimilar)
Communicate the guidelines of their organization to the physician
Automate workflows for efficient and cost-effective solutions that lead to the best patient outcome
Preserve the trust between the patient and physician
Impact of Real-World Data
Simply looking at the real-world impact of clinical decisions and supply chain issues can be lifesaving for patients. One example given by Integra Connect COO Cory Wiegert was how his company’s data platform detected that unpredictable delays in test results were prompting clinicians to begin chemo, only to switch therapies after the results came back. Thanks to physicians championing the use of real-world data and electronic automation in their organizations, a 76% effective testing rate was improved to 92% effective testing based on data from the practices, labs, and payers.
A Successful Three-Way Agreement
Payers, providers, and pharmaceutical companies must enter into legal agreements on data sharing, with high standards, to make value-based care work. No party wants another to use data to “game” the contract and exploit its partners.
Panelists at AVBCC concluded that the best practice for VBC IT vendors is to optimize for the success of the VBC program first, building trust among all stakeholders and ultimately achieving optimal results for all, including patients. There are many opportunities to create more robust and effective agreements, especially when integrating data outside the clinical setting.
The full AVBCC panel, Future Data Exchange Requirements to Support Value-Based Agreements can be listened to here.