The “Valuating Personalized Healthcare” initiative
Background: In recent years, there is a growing need to provide evidence and precisely measure the value of genomic medicine interventions so that policymakers are well-informed for decision making related to adoption and reimbursement. Despite the growing scientific evidence and hype regarding the potential applications of genomic medicine, this effort was not matched with reciprocal advances in economic evaluation studies to demonstrate cost-effectiveness of these interventions:
Aims and goals: The “Valuating Personalized Healthcare” initiative, launched in 2013, is a global multicenter effort aiming to provide the necessary economic evidence that genomic medicine interventions are indeed cost-effective and, as such, can help to reduce the overall healthcare expenditure. The initiative is both patient-centered and doctor-driven, is unfolded in 4 different healthcare settings in Europe and involves Oncology and Cardiology patients. Economic evaluation is performed both experimentally and also theoretically, implementing existing and improvising new economic models for genomic medicine, so that cost-effectiveness of genomic medicine interventions is assessed, based on the demonstrated improvement of survival rates and increase of the quality-adjusted life years. Also, addressing deficiencies of the existing genomic education and awareness level of the participating healthcare professionals and clinicians is a core component of the adopted methodological approach.
Preliminary results: Current findings show that in all 4 healthcare settings, genomic medicine interventions both in Cardiology as well as in Oncology, represent a cost-effective and, in most cases, a dominant choice with the potential of being reimbursed by payers. So far, the “Valuating Personalized Healthcare” initiative has largely achieved its initial goal and with its current upscaling both in terms of medical specialties and healthcare settings in different countries, these genomic medicine interventions are likely to start being reimbursed by healthcare systems very soon.
Conclusions: Overall, providing evidence to regulatory authorities and healthcare payers that genomic medicine interventions are readily applicable in the clinic and that cang enuinely improve the quality of life and increase life expectancy of patients in a cost-effective manner is more than ever urging. So far, the “Valuating Personalized Healthcare” initiative has largely achieved its initial goaland with its current upscaling both in terms of medical specialties and healthcare settings, these innovative interventions will likely start being reimbursed by healthcare systems.
