In 2018, I contributed to the publication of a special theme section in Value in Health on assessing the value of clinical genomic testing. You can read a blog post about this publication here, and access the special issue here. My contribution to this was as a member of the Global Economics and Evaluation of Clinical Genomics Sequencing Working Group (GEECS), formerly known as the Population Genomics Health Economists Working Group.

I’m pleased to say that we have just published a second theme section in the same journal, this time focused on evaluation methods for moving precision medicine into practice and policy. This theme section features five papers from the GEECS team and one paper by the ISPOR Special Interest Group on Precision Medicine and Advanced Therapies. As before, the work was chaired by Kathryn A. Phillips, PhD.

The papers form a common theme of describing methods of evaluation of sequencing technologies using different approaches and perspectives to facilitate the adoption of the technology when appropriate. They incorporate a wide range of perspectives and topics and use simulation models, medical record reviews, systematic reviews, interviews, payer coverage policy analysis, and case examples. The findings and recommendations are intended not only for health economic researchers but also for other stakeholders including health technology assessment organizations, payers, clinical researchers, and the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries. The full contents of the special theme issue are provided below:

1. Methods for Moving the Evaluation of Precision Medicine Into Practice and Policy. Kathryn A. Phillips. Link
2. Being Precise About Precision Medicine: What Should Value Frameworks Incorporate to Address Precision Medicine? A Report of the Personalized Precision Medicine Special Interest Group. Eric Faulkner, Anke-Peggy Holtorf, Surrey Walton, Christine Y. Liu, Hwee Lin, Eman Biltaj, Diana Brixner, Charles Barr, Jennifer Oberg, Gurmit Shandhu, Uwe Siebert, Susan R. Snyder, Simran Tiwana, John Watkins, Maarten J. IJzerman, Katherine Payne. Link
3. Use of Real-World Evidence in US Payer Coverage Decision-Making for Next-Generation Sequencing–Based Tests: Challenges, Opportunities, and Potential Solutions. Patricia A. Deverka, Michael P. Douglas, Kathryn A. Phillips. Link
4. Insights From a Temporal Assessment of Increases in US Private Payer Coverage of Tumor Sequencing From 2015 to 2019. Julia R. Trosman, Michael P. Douglas, Su-Ying Liang, Christine B. Weldon, Allison W. Kurian, Robin K. Kelley, Kathryn A. Phillips. Link
5. Quantifying Downstream Healthcare Utilization in Studies of Genomic Testing. Zoë P. Mackay, Dmitry Dukhovny, Kathryn A. Phillips, Alan H. Beggs, Robert C. Green, Richard B. Parad, Kurt D. Christensen, and the BabySeq Project Team. Link
6. Addressing Challenges of Economic Evaluation in Precision Medicine Using Dynamic Simulation Modeling. Deborah A. Marshall, Luiza R. Grazziotin, Dean A. Regier, Sarah Wordsworth, James Buchanan, Kathryn Phillips, Maarten Ijzerman. Link