Blog written by: Kristina Dziekan
By Kristina Dziekan, Head of Market Access at Alcon Europe Surgical Franchise, and Alcon’s engagement lead with the World Economic Forum's healthcare platform
The Covid-19 crisis has underlined the urgency for health and care systems to become more value-based. Millions of people who need treatment are on backlogs because of non-urgent care being deprioritised at the height of the pandemic. At the same time, increased spending on Covid-19 measures has stretched budgets further. It’s never been so pressing that health and care systems avoid wasting resources on unnecessary or low-value interventions.
A value-based approach offers health systems a model of delivering high-quality outcomes cost-effectively, which leads to more people-centred and sustainable care.
In March 2021, to increase uptake of value-based health and care globally, the World Economic Forum (WEF) established the Global Coalition for Value in Healthcare and launched a network of Innovation Hubs to showcase best practice approaches.
NHS Wales was one of the organisations selected to join the four inaugural hubs. Each organisation went through an application process - conducted by the WEF and the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) - to assess their VBHC maturity based on eight-point criteria. Many stakeholders, including the VBHC Academy at Swansea University, were interviewed to provide evidence in support of applications. The panel identified Wales as a lighthouse example of how health systems can move towards value-based health and care at a national level.
The hub community serves as a collaboration platform to accelerate the pace of value-based transformation in health systems worldwide by identifying evidence-based matured pilots to prove the concept of value-based healthcare models. A link to the WEF approach and toolkit can be found here.
All hub members have agreed to two-year action plans to enhance their expertise and advance further areas of development. Collectively, the hubs are committed to generating impact by:
- Accelerating implementation of VBHC through shared learning
In peer-to-peer learning sessions, hubs share their respective experience in areas critical for VBHC implementation. These include measuring value, benchmarking, analysing the insights, integrating digital solutions, informatics, and payment models.
NHS Wales brings tremendous experience in measuring patient reported outcomes throughout whole clinical pathways and how to use the insights to deliver patient-centric care. These learnings will help other hubs accelerate their implementation journey.
- Supporting policymakers to transform health systems
The hubs and other WEF partners will focus on engaging and supporting policymakers to transform health and care systems, so they are value-based. Some of the biggest challenges in implementing VBHC include aligning financial incentives around value that benefits providers and payers and encouraging care teams to implement a fully value-based approach. Policymakers are central to mandating and creating the conditions that bring these elements together.
- Inspire others through best practice
The WEF will also compile the best practices of how hub members have successfully implemented VBHC and share them via its communication channels, blogs, publications, and events. With over 27m followers, WEF’s social media channel is highly effective. As is its partnership reach: the inaugural Open House online session to introduce the hubs in September 2021 attracted more than 130 participants, covering all stakeholder groups required for successful VBHC implementation - Policymakers, Payers, Providers, Health Systems, Academia, Industry, Digital platforms.
The WEF is looking to grow its VBHC hub and are encouraging applications from more organisations implementing and accelerating VBHC. Find out more about how to apply here.
Members of the WEF’s Global Innovation Hub for Value in Healthcare
NHS Wales: In 2018, the Welsh Government launched its value-based healthcare strategy as a way of delivering the principles of Prudent Healthcare and to create a healthier Wales for its three million citizens. Since implementation, outcomes have improved significantly in several chronic and episodic diseases through measuring and designing services around the outcomes that matter most to people and creating a standard operating model to improve patient experience, quality of care, and outcomes.
Diabeter: One of Europe’s largest diabetes specialist centres dedicated to providing comprehensive and individualized care for children and adults with type 1 diabetes. Currently managing over 3,000 patients with round-the-clock care and access to services, Diabeter delivers diabetes care with a value-based healthcare model across its five clinics in the Netherlands.
Health Cluster Portugal Cataract Initiative (HCP): A partnership between 13 private and public ophthalmology centres to implement a value-based healthcare delivery model for cataract care. HCP is shifting the paradigm to deliver the best outcomes to over 11,400 cataract patients to date, with 89% reporting significant improvement in their daily activities post-treatment.
Steno Diabetes Center Copenhagen – SDCC: As the first specialised diabetes hospital in Denmark, SDCC has produced results that have improved the prognosis for diabetes care, developing new integrated treatment, prevention methods and education that will benefit people with diabetes in Denmark and beyond. The SDCC initiative has reported significant impact to reductions in diabetes-related complications such as a decrease in diabetes-induced blindness to almost zero and leg amputations by 80%.
Video: The Global Coalition for Value in Healthcare
The content is based on publicly available information and is accurate to the best of the writer’s knowledge at the time or writing. Any views are those of the writer, not necessarily those of Alcon.
Blog written by: Kristina Dziekan, Head of Market Access at Alcon Europe Surgical Franchise, and Alcon’s engagement lead with the World Economic Forum's healthcare platform
Date published: 16/12/2021