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Integrated Delivery Networks Vaccine Selection
Key Takeaways
- Manufacturing capabilities that are valued by integrated delivery networks include patient experience, evidence design and execution, clinician education, reimbursement services, and healthcare stakeholder relationships.
- IDNs have a stronger working partnership with manufacturers that have “initiated programs that assist physicians and their treatment teams in navigating the challenges of managed care (including attaining prior authorizations and easing the burden of patient access to medication) with resources, such as treatment access portals.”
- Integrated delivery networks look for guidance from Key Opinion Leaders (KOLs). They are thought leaders who are medical experts in their respective fields.
Introduction
Insights surrounding how integrated delivery networks select products from pharma companies have been provided below. In addition, general guidelines on the vaccine selection process have been provided in the brief.
Factors Considered by Integrated Delivery Networks in the Product Selection Process
- During the product selection process, integrated delivery networks consider brands that align with their top operating priorities. Patient engagement and experience is considered a top operating priority for integrated delivery networks (IDNs). These organizations look at how brands engage with their patients and look for initiatives such as support mechanisms for engaging patients in their care.
- Other top operating priorities for IDNs include clinical excellence, patient satisfaction, physician engagement, operational effectiveness, community stewardship, and health information technology leverage.
- Manufacturing capabilities that are valued by integrated delivery networks include patient experience, evidence design and execution, clinician education, reimbursement services, and healthcare stakeholder relationships.
- IDNs consider manufacturers that share clinical support mechanisms for better patient engagement. According to an IDN CEO, “pharma has knowledge about how to manage patients effectively from clinical trials and they need to be bringing that to us.”
- Pharmaceutical product selection for integrated delivery networks is largely influenced by integrated payer/provider entities. As it stands, payers are competing with hospitals for control when it comes to purchasing decisions, which has made the drug sales market complicated for pharma companies.
- IDNs value data that helps them in the decision-making process. Despite these organizations analyzing trends and practices to keep them informed, they prefer manufacturers that provide additional tools, such as patient portals and health apps, which give them insights into the behavior of patients that use their brands.
- IDNs have a stronger working partnership with manufacturers that have “initiated programs that assist physicians and their treatment teams in navigating the challenges of managed care (including attaining prior authorizations and easing the burden of patient access to medication) with resources, such as treatment access portals.”
- IDNs prefer partnering with manufacturers that try to deal with the logistical challenges of patients getting treatment, such as sponsored ride-sharing-programs.
Key Opinion Leaders
- Integrated delivery networks look for guidance from Key Opinion Leaders (KOLs). They are thought leaders who are medical experts in their respective fields.
- KOLs have expert knowledge, are renowned researchers, and are active in their area of speciality serving on boards of several professional associations and speaking at major medical conferences. In addition, they are increasingly having a strong social media presence and sometimes referred to as Digital Opinion Leaders (DOLs).
Additional Findings
Provider Vaccine Selection Process
- According to the Washington State Department of Health, providers should understand the differences between vaccine brands during the vaccine selection process.
- Patients must always be considered. In this case, providers are advised to select brand characteristics that are in line with patient needs.
- In addition, providers should analyze the vaccines they currently use and determine if the current brands are the best fit for patient needs or if other brands are better.
- Furthermore, providers should find out if there are aspects of the patient population in relation to the vaccine brands that should be considered.
Research Strategy
For this research, we leveraged the most reputable sources of information that were available in the public domain including media and industry sites, such as Biopharma Dive, PM360, and the Department of Health. After an extensive search, we did not find specific information into how IDNs select vaccines. We first attempted to look through industry and media sites, such as Medical Communications, Dove Medical Press, and NCBI but did not find relevant information. Therefore, we tried to look at the vaccine selection process for specific IDNs in the US and use them as examples of how IDNs select vaccines. We looked at top organizations, such as Ascension Health, Tenet Healthcare, and Trinity Health but they did not provide information about their vaccine selection process. For these reasons, we expanded our scope and looked at factors IDNs consider during the product selection process. We looked at these factors with the assumption that the same are used during vaccine selection. However, we found limited information from industry sites, which we presented in our findings. In addition, we presented information on the factors providers are advised to consider during the vaccine selection process.