covid-19 Archives - OMNY Health

The International Society of Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research (ISPOR) annual conference was held May 14-17, 2021. Although the conference assumed a virtual format like last year due to the pandemic, it did not disappoint, as it was filled with lots of thought-provoking content and engaged interactive discussions. As expected, many of the sessions were focused on COVID-19 and its impact on health economics and outcomes research (HEOR). Here are a few highlights:

The opening plenary session, which consisted of a diverse group of panelists from around the globe, focused on the response of various health systems on the COVID-19 pandemic. Topics of discussion included the strengths and weaknesses of health systems exposed by the pandemic, their swift and cohesive responses, and the collaboration with the pharmaceutical industry to help bring vaccines to market in record time. Other particularly interesting sessions on the first day included access and inequalities of COVID-19 vaccines, quantitative bias analysis in measuring treatment effects in real-world data, and the effect of the pandemic on the real-world evidence generation.

The second- and third-day plenary sessions generated several lively discussions on methodological issues of HEOR assessments in the wake of the pandemic and the new types of collaborations in the HEOR space between traditional players (e.g., regulators, payers, and providers) and new players (e.g., digital health startups and technology companies). General sessions and issue panels focused on various topics, including access to combination therapy in oncology, the application of public health data to evaluate COVID-19 interventions, the increasing dependence on real-world evidence, handling missing data in analysis, real-world data transparency, and machine learning methods as they relate to HEOR topics.

Finally, the poster sessions provided much valuable information on a diverse range of HEOR topics. OMNY Health contributed 4 posters based on the analysis of real-world data from our platform on the topics of psoriasis, pressure ulcers, identifying COVID-19 patients from unstructured clinical notes, and the COVID-19 hospitalized patient experience.

These though-provoking sessions that primarily revolved around COVID-19 provided interesting perspectives into the impact of the pandemic on the acceleration of innovation in healthcare. As we re-surface from the pandemic and additional data and discussions about the reach of healthcare and utilization of data evolve, it will be interesting to see where the remainder of 2021 takes us.

To learn more about this story and how to partner with OMNY Health, please contact us.

Most health system executives will agree: this pandemic has made an already tough situation worse. According to a 2018 BCG report, around 50% of US hospital capacity had a negative operating margin. Health systems were facing financial insecurity long before COVID-19, mainly from the twin pressures of declining reimbursement rates and rising operating costs.

Unfortunately, the end of the pandemic might not mean the end to providers’ financial problems. With elective surgeries postponed during COVID-19, revenue projections for this year have dropped sharply; there are estimates that about 25% of rural hospitals are at risk of closing due to financial strain. To simply stay solvent, many hospitals have found themselves faced with the decision to lay off front-line workers at a time when they are needed the most.

As the country begins to normalize and we begin exiting our first post COVID-19 peak, leaders at hospitals will have to start facing some tough decisions. The stimulus bills passed by Congress have helped, but not enough, and at best hospitals will currently recover only a fraction of the costs they have incurred. Based on recent figures from the American Hospital Association hospitals stand to collectively lose $202.6 billion through June. Last month (April 2020) has been one of the worst on record for hospital finances: operating margins plummeted almost 300% compared to the same period last year. The solutions for hospitals in the past have always been operations focused: opportunities around system efficiencies, revenue cycle management, and value-based care to improve cost-savings. New challenges require new approaches, and we at OMNY Health™ feel there is an important untapped channel to explore: leveraging data to create new opportunities for healthcare systems.

Over the past two years, our team at OMNY Health have worked with some of the largest health systems in the country to operationalize their data assets and drive new innovations in the life sciences space. In partnership with our team, these providers have taken control of their data’s destiny via our secure, compliant, and friction-less platform. Via OMNY, our health system partners have turned their latent data assets into a means to support patient care and clinical innovation. In this current crisis, every healthcare organization needs to explore new options to stabilize their future – our nation’s health care infrastructure depends on it.