In Push for More Real-World Evidence, Payers Can Play Critical Role

Commercial and government payers can play a key role in generating real-world evidence (RWE) and helping the health care system reduce costs and improve outcomes, according to a special communication published last month in JAMA. Meanwhile, speakers at a July 25 virtual meeting sponsored by Duke University’s Margolis Institute for Health Policy emphasized that payers should work together with pharmaceutical companies, medical device manufacturers and policymakers to institute better ways to incorporate RWE into practice. 

Mark McClellan, M.D., Ph.D., director of the Margolis Institute and a former FDA commissioner and HHS administrator, defined real world data as “data relating to patient health status and/or the delivery of health care routinely collected from a variety of sources” such as registries, wearable devices and electronic health records. He added that RWE is “clinical evidence about the use, potential benefits or risks of a medical product or practice or care delivery model that’s derived from the analysis of real-world data.”