News
Advisory Panel Recommends New US Institute for Health Technology Assessment
April 2021
With continuing concerns about high and rising healthcare costs in the US, in the Spring of 2019, the USC Schaeffer Center collaborated with Aspen Institute to establish a 21-member stakeholder advisory panel to develop policy recommendations on the future of value assessment in the US. Anticipating a potential change of the political winds in 2021,…
How Oncology Clinicians Learn and Share on Social Media
April 2021
Social media is a powerful tool that oncology clinicians increasingly use to access emerging clinical evidence, engage with patients, and learn about experiences from the field. However, like any tool, it must be used deliberately, with an understanding of its limitations, to maximize benefits and avoid undesirable effects. This second blog in Discern Health’s Journal…
Patient Voices in Value-Based Cancer Care: Priorities for the Biden Administration
April 2021
The Biden administration has an opportunity to prioritize patient perspectives in innovative value-based payment models for oncology by incorporating meaningful patient-reported measures (PRMs) and patient-reported performance measures (PR-PMs). In a new perspective article in the Journal of Clinical Pathways, the National Pharmaceutical Council, Discern Health, and Drs. Mark McClellan and Ethan Basch draw from previous…
W2O Becomes Real Chemistry, a Global Health Innovation Company
March 2021
Healthcare is undergoing a radical transformation that has only accelerated since the outbreak of COVID-19. To evolve along with the changing healthcare landscape, earlier this month W2O Group announced that it has transformed into a new kind of healthcare company named Real Chemistry. Discern Health, which was acquired by W2O in July 2020, is now…
Key Takeaways from the 2021 CMS Quality Conference
March 2021
From March 2-3, the CMS Quality Conference convened leaders across the health care spectrum, to explore how patients, advocates, providers, researchers, and champions in health care quality improvement can develop and spread solutions to address America’s more pervasive health system challenges. This year, themes included COVID response, addressing health inequities, identifying high value quality measures,…
Christine Juday Brings Deep Life Sciences Leadership Experience to Discern
February 2021
Christine Juday, MPH recently joined Discern Health as a Vice President. In this role, Chris applies her deep experience in life sciences to connect with clients on a range of issues centered on health care quality and value. Having worked in a variety of life sciences roles, Chris can translate quality and value concepts into…
Nina Regenold Brings Multicultural Care Experience to Discern
February 2021
Nina Regenold, MSc recently joined Discern Health as a Project Analyst. In this role, Nina supports projects related to value-based care, policy, provider consolidation, and vaccination. Nina brings a strong qualitative research background and knowledge of innovative, international, and multicultural care approaches to help clients improve care and navigate the health system. Prior to joining…
Quality Outlook: Recognizing and Testing Telehealth Models in Oncology Care First
February 2021
Acceleration of the availability and use of telehealth, spurred by the COVID-19 pandemic, has created the opportunity and need for alternative payment models (APMs) that encourage implementation and enable evaluation of telehealth services. In the latest installment of Discern Health’s Quality Outlook blog series in the Journal of Clinical Pathways, Partner Tom Valuck, Director David Blaisdell, and Vice President…
Five Drug-Pricing Predictions for 2021
January 2021
W2O’s Value + Access team shared 2021 predictions for drug pricing, value, and access. Check out the team’s estimates below, and see how they tracked against last year’s predictions here. 1. Transparency Will Make a Comeback We went all-in on “transparency” two years ago, reasoning that a combination of state legislation and DTC-ad policies would…
Quality Outlook: Using Social Media to Measure Cancer Patient Experience and Outcomes
January 2021
In the last few years, social media has come to dominate much of public discourse, including for health care. In the latest installment of Discern Health’s Quality Outlook blog series in the Journal of Clinical Pathways, Partner Tom Valuck, Vice President Theresa Schmidt, Director David Blaisdell, and Manasi Tirodkar explore ways social media and the process of “social listening” can offer a…