By Peter Neumann, ScD, Director
Today, the Center for the Evaluation of Value and Risk in Health (CEVR) at Tufts Medical Center officially welcomes Dan Ollendorf, PhD.
Dan brings vast experience to our growing team. Over the past 11 years, he served as the Chief Scientific Officer at the Institute for Clinical and Economic Review (ICER), where he led a research team focused on assessing the comparative effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of health care technologies. At CEVR, Dan will assume the role of Director of Value Measurement and Global Health Initiatives and will be an assistant professor at Tufts University School of Medicine.
Dan’s journey to CEVR began when he and I had lunch to catch up on things. I was particularly curious about ICER’s pending changes to its methodology - recruiting Dan to CEVR was not on the menu. But during our lunch, we began discussing career arcs and future plans. After 11 successful and intense years at ICER, Dan seemed open to considering a next phase of career and intrigued about the possibility of an academic position and the work CEVR was doing.
For my part, I was taken with the idea of Dan joining our Center as his background dovetails well with several areas of strategic importance for our Center. In particular:
- Cost-effectiveness analysis We are pursuing numerous projects to advance methods and applications of cost-effectiveness analysis. New initiatives include: estimating the cost-effectiveness of newborn screening tests; quantifying “family spillover” effects; and augmenting cost-effectiveness to capture outcomes important to patients.
- Value assessment frameworks CEVR members have been analyzing and writing about the work of ICER and other value assessment frameworks, and convening interactive workshops on value measurement.
- Coverage and pricing CEVR’s new Specialty Drug Evidence and Coverage (SPEC) Database provides insights into US commercial payer coverage of specialty drugs and the evidence base payers report reviewing. The goal is to understand the rational underlying payer decisions to cover or restrict specialty drugs, and to help move the system toward more transparent and evidence-based decision making.
- Global health Supported by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, CEVR continues to build its Global Health Cost-Effectiveness Analysis (GH CEA) Registry. New efforts are underway to examine the quality of methods underlying the studies and showcase, by country and region, the best opportunities for addressing non-communicable diseases.
In each of these areas, Dan brings a wealth of expertise and extensive networks among payers, industry, and public policy makers in the US and abroad. As ICER’s Chief Scientific Officer, he was on the front lines of efforts to link drug pricing to value and to involve diverse stakeholders in the process. He serves on ISPOR’s HTA Council Working Group, and HTAi’s Policy Forum.
Please join me in welcoming Dan Ollendorf to CEVR. As always, we invite your ideas and input, as we continue to build and advance our mission to measure and communicate value in health care.
