Training Pharmaco-Economics & Disease Management

The 3-day training Pharmaco-Economics & Disease Management will take place in 2012 (to be confirmed). Thiscourse will be taught in English.

In the current context of health care, activity and safety of drugs are not sufficient any more. Drugs need to provide “value for money”. The same is also valid for medical devices and diagnostics.

Economic evaluations (Health Technology assessment – HTA- of “health care technologies”) (drugs, medical devices, diagnostics) are important elements in the development and use of these technologies. Such evaluations allow allocating more efficiently the available budgets to those treatments, which provide the most health profit for each Euro invested.

The number of economic evaluations is steadily growing and some governments are explicitly asking for these results during the “decision making” concerning reimbursement.
Issues that will be addressed during the course:

• Definition of these evaluations.
• How does one start such studies?
• What methods exist?
• Quality of these studies and how to check it?
• How does one communicate the results?

Disease Management (DM) is a concept developed as an approach to patient care coordinating resources throughout the system of health care and through the entire course of a disease (prevention, cure, revalidation...). The DM-concept is a result for more efficiency in health care.

Objectives of the course:
The aim of this program is to provide you with a substantial basis and insight into this matter. It should allow the participants to:

• Understand and evaluate the literature on the subject
• Acknowledge the relevance and applications with regards to HTA
• Appreciate the relevance of health economical evaluations
• Assess a health economic analysis for quality
• Step from health economics to disease management
• Create a pharmaco-economic case to be submitted to the commission drug reimbursement (CTG – CRM), through practical advice given by Prof. Hugo Robays.

The first part focuses on the basic theory, e.g. definitions, basic principles, an overview of different methods and techniques. Attention is paid on health economical problems in general, but also the concept of cost effectiveness analysis is being treated. Moreover there is a specific elaboration of the methods including decision trees.

During the second day of the program applications of health economics in disease management and clinical path ways are developed. Health economical evaluations are being addressed with an overview of methodological guidelines and a practical exercise evaluating a published study.

Finally a real project is discussed from start to finish, including all methodological and practical challenges and pitfalls. In conclusion reflections are made on the relevance of health economical evaluations in policy making.

Your speakers / Faculty members: for more details see under

• Prof. Lieven Annemans - Professor Health Economics UGent - VUB (I-CHER), Senior Fellow ITINERA, thinktank
• Dr. Karen Moeremans -IMS Health Consulting
• Dr. Frank Nobels -O-L-Vrouw Aalst
• NEW: Dinner speaker Prof. Dirk Ramaekers - General internist -He established in 2003, as General Director, the KCE. As from 2008 he is the General Medical Director of ZiekenhuisNetwerkAntwerpen (ZNA).
• Prof. Hugo Robays (UGent & CTG/ CRM)

Bio's:

Lieven Annemans:
Lieven Annemans, PhD, MMan, MSc, Professor of health economics, Ghent University, Brussels University.
Lieven Annemans is a Full Professor of Health Economics at Ghent University and Brussels University (VUB) and co-founder of the Interuniversity Centre for Health Economics Research (I-CHER).  He is Past President of ISPOR, the International Society for PharmacoEconomics and Outcomes Research, member of the Flemish Council for Health and Wellbeing (advising the Minister of Health), and external expert to the Belgian Health Care Knowledge Centre (KCE), the Belgian HTA body. He has 17 years experience in health-economic evaluations of pharmaceutical drugs, vaccines, medical devices, diagnostics, and preventive health actions in various medical areas.
He is author of the book “Health economics for non-economists: an introduction to the concepts, methods and pitfalls of health economic evaluations1” and of the recent report “towards valuable innovation in the EU” (Background report to the EU council of Ministers of health). His main research interests are epidemiological models, Health Technology Assessment, retrospective/prospective health-economic evaluations, and physician payment systems. He has published >130 papers in peer-reviewed journals, presented >250 posters/papers at conferences, and has given >350 lectures and trainings on health-economic evaluation. 1. Annemans L. Health economics for non-economists: an introduction to the concepts, methods and pitfalls of health economic evaluations. 1st ed. Belgium: Academia Press; 2008. (available in English, Dutch, French, Turkish and Russian). 
 
Karen Moeremans:
HEOR Scientific Project Coordinator
Karen graduated as an MD in 1993. She started at HEDM (now IMS Health Consulting) early 1998 as health scientist. Before joining HEDM she was active as CRA and as medical adviser for Novo Nordisk Pharma. She has gained several years of experience in the local follow-up and management of multicenter international Phase IIIa trials in diabetes and gynaecology and in providing medical information and support both to customers and within the company. Within IMS Health Consulting, she has gained experience in health economic evaluations in a variety of disease areas such as oncology, hematological oncology, gynaecology, dermatology, infectious diseases and psychiatric diseases. She has experience with a range of economic evaluation methods such as cost-effectiveness evaluations, health economic modelling, cost of illness studies, budget impact analysis, activity based costing analysis…. She is currently active as scientific project coordinator and supervisor within IMS Health Consulting. This involves management, conduct or review of HEOR projects, both at the national and international level.

Frank Nobels:
MD, PhD.
Training in internal medicine and endocrinology at the universities of Antwerp, Lille (France) and Rotterdam (The Netherlands). PhD thesis about neuroendocrine tumour markers at the Erasmus University of Rotterdam in 1999. Internist-endocrinologist at the department of endocrinology and metabolic diseases in the O.L.Vrouw Hospital Aalst since 1992, head of the department since 1999. Redactor-in-chief of Diabetes Info, the magazine of the Vlaamse Diabetes Vereniging (VDV) 1995-98.
President of the VDV 1999-2002. President of the professional section of the VDV 2003-2006. Coordinator of Diabetes Project Flanders to improve first-line diabetes care. Coordinator of the initiative for quality assurance and epidemiology (IKED) for Belgian diabetes centers. Member of the board of the Belgian Endocrine Society
Co-organizer of the yearly Erasmus Course in Endocrinology (EMCO) for Flemish and Dutch endocrinologists. Author of several scientific papers and book chapters on diabetes and neuroendocrine tumours.

Dirk Ramaekers:
Internal Medecin.
He started in 2003, as General Manager, the KCE in Belgium (Federaal Kenniscentrum voor de Gezondheidszorg - Centre Fédéral d'expertise des soins de Santé - BelgianHealth Care Knowledge Centre). Since 2008 he is General Medical Director of ZiekenhuisNetwerkAntwerpen (ZNA).

Hugo Robays:
PhD, graduated as a hospital-pharmacist from the University of Gent (RUG) in 1975. He is Head of the Pharmacy and Logistic Care Dept. UZ Gent since 1996. He is also lecturer at the Faculty of Pharmacy at the University of Gent. He is member of a large number of national and international professional associations. He is Chairman of the Pharmaeconomic Committee (PEC) of the BESPE and was Co-Chairman of the 3th European Conference ISPOR (Int. Soc. Pharmacoeconomics and Outcome Research) which took place in Antwerp 2000.

The Program:

Day 1

• Introduction
  (Lieven Annemans)
• Challenges of the current health policies
  (Lieven Annemans)
• Definitions and principles of health economical evaluations
  (Lieven Annemans)
• Methods for health economical evaluations
  (Lieven Annemans)
• Reading an article in preparation of day 2
• NEW - Dinner speaker: " Bad" economics: even inefficient treatment can become cost effective!
  (Dirk Ramaekers)
  • What is the added value?
  • How to prove clinical value?
  • Do's and Don'ts

Day 2

• Definitions and practical examples of Disease Management
  (Frank Nobels)
• Belgian guidelines for health economical evaluation (BESPE, KCE) including exercises
  (Hugo Robays) 
• "The Pharmaco-economic report": how to submit a file to the commission drug reimbursement (CTG-CRM)  (practical tips by Prof Robays)

Day 3

• Practical application of HTA from oncology
  (Karen Moeremans )
• Problems with current decision making based on health economical evaluations
  (Lieven Annemans)
• What will the future bring?
  Lieven Annemans)
• Questions and answers
  (Lieven Annemans)

Where?
The training Pharmaco–economics and disease management takes place in Auberge du Pêcheur , Pontstraat 41, 9831 Sint-Martens-Latem. Tel: 09 282 31 44 - Fax: 09 282 90 58. See for directions www.auberge-du-pecheur.be»

Registration?
You can register online here. The registration fee is 1.620 Euro excluding VAT. For non-profit organisations there is a 50% discount.
For lunches, refreshments and overnight stay there is a three-day arrangement with the Auberge du Pêcheur: price 585 Euro (VAT included).
Only cancelations in writing will be accepted (mail, fax or email). In case of a written cancellation until three months before start of the course, only administrative charges (100 EURO) are billed. In case of cancellation between one and three months before start of the course 25% of the fees remain payable. Cancelling within one month before, the full fee needs to be paid. Absence of the participant, even by “Force Majeure”, does not entitle reimbursement. When the registered person is not able to attend for one or more sessions, it is possible to be replaced by a colleague/employee, only upon notification to the IFB secretariat.