Overview Avant-garde Health was fortunate to have their very own Ana Etges, Research Associate, speak and present at the recent ISPOR 2023 conference in Boston, MA. Ana shared two poster presentations entitled "Utilizing Time-Driven Activity Based Costing to Explore Variation in the Value of Hip Arthroscopy for Acetabular Labral Repair” and “Identifying Factors Underlying Variation in the Cost of Acetabular Labral Repair or Debridement during Hip Arthroscopy - A Time-Driven Activity-Based Costing Analysis” and was featured in a panel discussion with the Value-Based Healthcare Implementation Special Task Force sharing about good practices of VBHC implementation, as well as methodological guidance on how to effectively use existing health economics and outcomes research (HEOR) instruments to drive VBHC initiatives forward. Here are some of Ana’s observations and takeaways from the conference.

Observations and Insights from ISPOR 2023 I enjoyed several extraordinary days at the ISPOR—The Professional Society for Health Economics and Outcomes Research 2023 conference in Boston, MA. In addition to the opportunity to share with the ISPOR community the studies we have done with several partnerships, it was an opportunity stop, think and discuss how we can improve a few traditional methods and increase the focus on patients as the center of care, use the technologies currently available to measure effectiveness from the system level to the individual patient level, and implement health policy improvements to positively impact population health.

During the conference, several themes dominated the discussions:

• The use of Real-World Data (RWD) is necessary for building a more patient-centered and effective healthcare system. An example of this is the use of patient-reported outcomes data collected by digital apps or wearables, to correlate results with supply cost metrics, procedural variations, and personnel.
• In a world where hospital costs and procedures (including labor costs) now account for more than 50% of healthcare expenses, there is a need to fully understand the financial impact of new technologies as we seek to improve efficiency and reduce the cost of care.
• In our efforts to improve the value of care, we also need to understand how patients consume resources (supplies, services, etc.), and which are linked to better outcomes.

Significant progress on these objectives is made practical by present-day technologies.
Scientific results achieved using the data generated by these technologies were presented by Avant-garde Health and the Massachusetts General Hospital Department of Orthopaedic Surgery at the ISPOR Conference. The results of this value-index analysis and TDABC (Time-Driven Activity-Based Costing) study in the field of sports medicine were shared for the first time. The studies focused specifically on acetabular labral repair in hip arthroscopic surgeries and are the result of a scientific partnership that Avant-garde Health establishes with its partner hospitals.

Thank you, ISPOR for this great conference. It is great to come back to daily work routines more motivated to collaborate on the continuing journey to build a more efficient, effective, and sustainable healthcare system.

Below are a few pictures Ana has shared from the conference of her presentations and panel.