Newswise — Baltimore, MD, USA—May 21, 2018—ISPOR, the professional society for health economics and outcomes research (HEOR), held a session, “The ISPOR HEOR Competencies Framework: Guiding Professional Development for the field of HEOR [F4],” this evening at ISPOR 2018 in Baltimore, MD, USA. 

In this session, speakers shared the vision and work to date for the new ISPOR HEOR Competencies Framework. The session was moderated by Bill Marder, PhD, MA, IBM Watson Health, Cambridge, MA, USA. Speakers included James F. Murray, PhD, Eli Lilly and Company, Carmel, IN, USA and Laura T. Pizzi, PharmD, MPH, Rutgers University, Piscataway, NJ, USA. 

The speakers reviewed the initiative’s objectives to comprehensively define the HEOR discipline, including the competencies professionals need for success in the field, competency gaps that are often seen in candidates and employees, and the training/education gaps that need to be addressed. 

A competency assessment inventory was developed to identify and codify a “super-set” of key competencies HEOR professionals need for success. Key competencies that have been identified include business management, career development, communication and influence, drug development, economic methods, health system and payer expertise, observational methods, HEOR methods, patient-reported outcomes and patient-preference methods, and statistics and modeling methods. 

The results of 2 surveys of ISPOR members were also presented. One survey was designed for those working in academia and provided results focused on how the representative HEOR degree-granting programs match and fulfill the competencies identified in the competency inventory. The other survey was designed for those working in industry and benchmarked the validity and relevance placed on the competencies by this stakeholder group. 

“The ultimate goal of the competencies framework is to better define the discipline of HEOR and the scope of career development offerings in the field,” noted Dr Murray. “Once developed, we see this framework as a core professional development tool that can guide professionals for their career development, as well as employers for hiring HEOR staff, and organizations offering education and professional development.” 

Future work on the initiative will include a final set of key topics within each competency, an assessment of whether the competency is best learned didactically or experientially, and a definition of the specialties within the competency inventory that practitioners should master to be competent in select areas (eg, patient-reported outcomes, real-world evidence). 

Additional information on ISPOR 2018 can be found here. Released presentations from the conference can be found here. Interested parties can follow news and developments from the conference on social media using the hashtag #ISPORBaltimore

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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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Meeting Link: ISPOR 2018, May-2018