Spreading the Word About a Value Assessment: Dissemination and Utilization Factors to Consider

The National Pharmaceutical Council recently unveiled Guiding Practices for Patient-Centered Value Assessment, which offer comprehensive considerations for the development and application of frameworks for assessing the value of health care. Value assessments are an evolving area, yet growing in use as health care stakeholders look for ways to evaluate the value of care that is being provided to patients. 

NPC’s guiding practices include 28 specific elements, which are broken out into six key aspects of value assessments: the assessment process, methodology, benefits, costs, evidence, and dissemination and utilization. 

This week we’re taking a closer look at each of these six main areas, along with our thoughts on budget impact analyses. Today, we continue the series with our post on dissemination and utilization factors in value assessments.

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Think about the last time you bought a new car, computer, or complicated gadget. All of those items were packaged with an instruction manual to help guide you through the various buttons and controls to minimize the chances that you might misuse their product. Why shouldn’t a health care value assessment be packaged in a similar way?

Let’s face it, assessing the value of a health treatment is incredibly complex. The results depend on a range of factors including the evidence considered, models used, method of analysis, and underlying assumptions framing the value assessment. For that reason, there is no single answer to a value assessment, which can make it challenging for users to interpret and apply the results in their health care decision-making.

As part of our Guiding Practices for Patient-Centered Value Assessment, we recommend three key elements when it comes to the dissemination and utilization of results:

• The results should be presented in a way that is simple for users to interpret and apply. Developing educational materials that go hand-in-hand with an assessment is one important way to address this issue.
• Value assessments should clearly state their intended use and audience to avoid misuse. For example, an assessment intended for payers might not be appropriate for a physician-patient conversation.
• Press announcements should be saved for the final assessment. Calling attention to and widely reporting on preliminary findings could mean that incomplete information is being circulated in the public domain, making it harder to issue updates or corrections to the information once it’s been finalized. In addition, once a report is finalized, public announcements or press releases should include information about the assessment’s limitations and a discussion about the range of results.

If we want decision-makers to use the results from a value assessment, then we need to make sure that they are meaningful and understandable. Clearly labeling assessments for their intended use, making them easy for users to interpret, and disseminating them only after they are finalized are important steps that could greatly enhance the use of this information.