CER Daily Newsfeed

Video: The Power of Patient Engagement in Insurance, Decision-Making: Kimberly Westrich, MA

(10/30, Pearl Steinzor, The American Journal of Managed Care) “...By collaborating with patients from the very start and respecting their unique perspectives, decision-makers can create a health care environment that prioritizes real-world needs and delivers better results for everyone, says Kimberly Westrich, MA, chief strategy officer, National Pharmaceutical Council. Using an airport acronym, ‘IAD-EVE,’ Westrich shares how good patient engagement includes interaction at all stages of the decision-making process in order to bring patient experiences, values, and expertise to the forefront of health care.” View Video

Real-World Data Key to Optimizing CAR T-Cell Therapy Delivery, Outcomes

(10/29, Brooke McCormick, The American Journal of Managed Care) reports “...From a payer perspective, [Audaire Health’s Andy Berg, PharmD] emphasized that real-world data on CAR T-cell therapies can help address the challenges highlighted by his fellow panelists, arguing that better data leads to improved decisions and outcomes. At the patient level, he is particularly interested in remission rates, durability of response, and treatment outcomes. At the provider level, he focuses on network performance, differences between high- and low-performing sites, and value optimization to support contracting and network design.” Full

Turning Real-World Data into Actionable Drug Development Insights With AI

(10/30, Christopher Cole, PharmTech) reports “...Gustavo Ferrer, MD, CEO of Dr. Ferrer BioPharma and Moxie Health Group, discusses how artificial intelligence is rapidly reshaping how drug development and pharmaceutical manufacturing operate, compressing timelines, reducing costs, and enabling unprecedented real-world data integration. He explores how platforms like Moxie-Link—an AI-powered, Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR)-compliant clinical and research platform—are turning every clinical encounter into actionable intelligence, all while navigating the remaining barriers to wider AI adoption and maximizing innovation through cross-disciplinary collaboration.” Full

The 340B Drug Pricing Program As A Capped Safety-Net Grant

(10/30, Anthony M. DiGiorgio, Deborah Williams, Health Affairs Forefront) comments “...The current financial arbitrage model of 340B is fundamentally flawed. It acts as an inefficient, poorly targeted revenue stream for large hospital systems. Converting this program to a capped safety-net grant solves many problems including the program’s complexity and adverse effects on affordability, while ensuring funds follow low-income patients. Policy makers should prioritize this reform to promote competition and reward institutions which reliably provide access to low-income patients.” Full

Conversations We’re Expecting to Hear at ISPOR Europe 2025: How Can Health Economics Take a Whole Health Perspective?

(10/30, Joanne Walker, The Evidence Base) reports “...Can we have it ‘whole’? Barriers and opportunities for embracing a whole health perspective in HEOR...Building on earlier discussions of whole health, this session will move from concept to application by examining how broadening the scope of economic evaluation can reshape value assessment and policymaking. Using a case study on the societal return on investment of vaccines, panelists will demonstrate how adopting wider perspectives, such as cost-benefit or social decision-making analyses, changes both outcomes and interpretations of value.” Full