The Innovation and Value Initiative (IVI) recently published a data brief focused on health equity following a series of interviews with stakeholders through the Health Equity Initiative (HEI). Building upon a 2021 public dialogue series addressing the importance of health equity and current insufficiencies, IVI notes that there were “two common themes about needed change.”
One of the common themes was that power imbalances in design and design-making need to be intentionally addressed, to give “equal leadership to lived expertise from patients, families, and communities marginalized in research and care delivery.” The other theme was that data and research needs to “reflect real-world diversity across multiple dimensions to be considered relevant and reliable for decision-making.”
The interviews also found a “broad agreement” about the intersection of equity and value, noting that equity must be considered in who does the work of health technology assessment and that equity is multi-dimensional, in that it includes fairness, justice, access, and equal opportunity to experience health and well-being.
Some of the early action opportunities identified by IVI relate to integrating equity into all aspects of health technology assessment include: establish the benchmark that value cannot be measured without equity; change who sets the health technology assessment agenda (to include diverse patient and family communities in priority-setting processes); change health technology assessment processes; prioritize data sharing initiatives; acknowledge gaps in methods; and explicitly communicate equity implications of HTA.
IVI identified a handful of questions that can help to improve equity in health technology assessment, including who must be involved in prioritizing and designing HTA processes and structure, what expertise is needed on the team for equity to be a consistent driver of HTA work, how can processes and partnerships ensure data and methods are representative, and what methods for engagement of lived experience will ensure relevance of HTA results.
“IVI is proud to join other thought leaders in identifying and activating real change to promote and uphold health equity,” says Jennifer Bright, Chief Strategy and Engagement Officer at IVI. “As this brief demonstrates there is strong consensus that we cannot measure value without equity.”
“In the health technology assessment field, action must occur to ensure representativeness in all processes and data, test methods that include equity in analyses, and uphold transparency,” Bright explains. “Doing the hard work in all of these areas is foundational to patient-centered, equitable decision-making.”
IVI is continuing to work towards embedding health equity throughout its research projects, educational offerings, and engagement activities to promote equity in health access and outcomes.
For a copy of the data brief, visit here.