IVI launches new project addressing patient-centered economic impacts in health care

IVI’s Phase II Project addresses patient-centered economic impacts (PCEI) in health care, engaging stakeholders to broaden understanding and improve patient-centered care.

The Innovation and Value Initiative (IVI), a non-profit research organization, has launched Phase II of its Patient-Centered Economic Impacts Project, titled “Uncovering The True Cost Of Healthcare.” This initiative aims to address the critical issue of PCEI, which are often overlooked in research and decision-making processes.

In Phase I, IVI developed “A Research Framework to Understand the Full Range of Economic Impacts on Patients and Caregivers,” providing guidance for research design. Phase II now involves interactive workshops engaging patients, caregivers, researchers, and other stakeholders to apply this framework, explore best practices for patient engagement, and incorporate patient-centered economic impacts in comparative effectiveness research (CER).

The project is funded in part by the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute® (PCORI) Eugene Washington PCORI Engagement Award, along with collaborative efforts from IVI members. The Steering Committee includes patients, caregivers and researchers to provide multi-perspective insights and recommendations as the project progresses.

According to Jason Spangler, IVI’s CEO,

“This two-year capacity-building project represents a significant step forward in fostering patient-centered health care. By broadening our perspective to address economic challenges faced by patients and caregivers such as co-payments, transportation costs, job impacts, and caregiver burden, we aim to provide a more comprehensive understanding of patient-centered outcomes. If we prioritize the economic realities of patients and caregivers that are often overlooked, we can truly advance patient-centered care.”

The project’s goals include fostering authentic connections among stakeholders, exploring measurement opportunities, and designing research responsive to patient and caregiver experiences. IVI’s approach involves stakeholder engagement to build capacity for considering patient economic outcomes in comparative clinical effectiveness research and value assessment. Through workgroup meetings and dialogue, the project aims to drive culture change toward considering economic impacts beyond medical costs.

The project collaborators, including the National Health Council and AcademyHealth, will contribute to the development and implementation of project activities. The long-term outcomes include increased knowledge and skills in patient engagement and prioritizing patient-centered economic outcomes in research. Through this initiative, IVI aims to bridge the gap between research and patient experiences, improving healthcare affordability and equity.

This project is particularly important as there is currently no national dataset or resource that guides understanding of patient-centered economic outcomes, creating a significant divide between research and the experience of patients. By partnering with patients and caregivers, IVI seeks to identify these impacts comprehensively and provide a more holistic understanding of patient-centered outcomes.