2026 FALL NEWSLETTER

Director's Letter

Utilization management of cancer therapies continues to expand, as CEVR researchers document in a new paper published in JCO Oncology Practice.

In other work, we are examining policies to strengthen the FDA’s accelerated approval program, quantifying the value of knowing one’s risk of developing neurodegenerative diseases, and developing a new framework for assessing the value of medical technologies.

Happy Fall,

Peter

Peter Neumann, ScD

Director, Center for the Evaluation of Value and Risk in Health

Institute for Clinical Research and Health Policy Studies

Tufts Medical Center

FEATURED RESEARCH AND ANALYSIS

Back to economic fundamentals: A welfare-based accounting framework for societal value in health technology assessment

(Health Economics Review)

This paper presents a welfare-based framework for assessing the broader societal value of medical technologies, integrating traditional and emerging elements of value while improving transparency, clarifying overlaps, and avoiding double counting.

Meng Li, PhD

Trends in utilization management for oncology therapies amongst US commercial health plans: 2017-2024

(JCO Oncology Practice)

Utilization management (UM) for oncology therapies has increased substantially since 2017, driven by growth in step therapy and prescriber requirements.

Julia Rucker, MSW, MPH

Lessons from TAVR for Medicare’s 'coverage with evidence development' program

(Health Affairs Forefront)

Medicare’s experience with the Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement (TAVR) offers important lessons about sustaining progress in data collection and retiring permanent mandates.

Paige Lin, PhD

Sean Tunis, MD, MSc

Value of knowing the risk of developing a neurodegenerative disease: A discrete choice experiment

(PharmacoEconomics)

US adults value knowing the risk of developing neurodegenerative disease, especially when perceived risk is high, or testing is for a child.

Patricia Synnott, PhD

Variation in coverage of atopic dermatitis therapies across commercial payers

(JAMA Dermatology)

US commercial payers vary widely in their coverage criteria for atopic dermatitis therapies, including step therapy, prescriber restrictions, and diagnostic requirements.

Claire Brennan, BA

Can real-world evidence reliably fill evidence gaps in accelerated approval?

(Health Affairs Forefront)

As the availability of post-market real-world evidence expands, more attention to its promise, limitations and oversight in the context of accelerated approval is needed.

Peter Neumann, ScD

Grace Hatfield, BA

Click for More Research and Analysis

NEWS AND ANNOUNCEMENTS

Tara Lavelle awarded R01 grant on genomic newborn screening

Tara Lavelle received an NIH R01 award to examine ethical, legal, and social implications (ELSI) of implementing genomic newborn screening.

Exploring drug costs

Peter Neumann joined Kaiser Permanente’s Stephen Parodi, MD and Maisha Draves, MD in October for an online webinar “Can We Afford the Cure? Exploring Drug Costs, Access, and Outcomes.”

View the webinar: Can we afford the cure? Exploring drug costs, access, and outcomes - Permanente Medicine

How worried should HEOR professionals be about the future of the field?

In an interview with The Evidence Base, Peter Neumann shares insights on CEVR’s recent survey on the future of HEOR.

Read the interview here

Financial and productivity impacts of dementia care at AAIC 2026

Paige Lin and Patty Synnott shared their research at the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference (AAIC) in July, highlighting out-of-pocket costs and productivity impacts associated with dementia care.

Ching Lin named platinum winner of AMCP NEXUS 2026 poster tour

Congratulations to CEVR’s Ching Lin on being selected as a Platinum Winner of the AMCP NEXUS 2026 Moderated Poster Tour!

View Ching's poster, "Do prices and doses differ for initial and follow-on indications? An analysis of multi-indication orphan drugs."

CONGRATULATIONS ON PROMOTIONS

Paige Lin, PhD

Paige Lin has been promoted to Professor in the Department of Medicine at Tufts University School of Medicine.

Dan Ollendorf, PhD

Dan Ollendorf has been promoted to Associate Professor at Tufts University School of Medicine.

Patty Synnott, PhD

Patty Synnott has been appointed Assistant Professor of Medicine at Tufts University School of Medicine.

CEA REGISTRY UPDATE

The CEA Registry is a powerful tool containing more than 17,500 cost-utility studies, an intuitive dashboard, and advanced search capabilities. Visit our website for more information.

CEA Registry by the Numbers

Email to Request a Demo

The CEA Registry is now fully updated with cost-effectiveness studies published through the end of 2025.

Over the past year, we added 1,545 new studies to the Registry, representing analyses from 118 countries and spanning 22 therapeutic areas. Among these studies, 654 evaluated pharmaceutical interventions, 129 evaluated vaccines, and 110 evaluated medical devices or procedures.

Open-Source Model Clearinghouse

The Open-Source Model Clearinghouse has a new home. The Clearinghouse brings together publicly available health economic models in one searchable resource, making it easier for researchers, analysts, and decision-makers to find, explore, and build on existing modeling work.

Visit the updated Clearinghouse here and explore the growing collection of open-source models.

2026 Registry Fellowship

CEVR extends its gratitude to the 2026 CEA Registry Summer Fellows, who reviewed 255 CEAs, and conducted three research projects:

Are Preventive Interventions More Cost-Effective Than Therapeutic Interventions in Cardiovascular Disease? A Registry-Based Analysis of Cost-per-QALY Ratios from the Tufts CEA Registry

Reported Perspective and Included Costs in Opioid Use Disorder Cost-Effectiveness Analyses: A Registry-Based Methodological Review

CEA ratios for oncology pharmaceuticals between the United States and OECD comparator countries

Meet the cohort here

Applications for the 2027 cohort will open early next year.

SPEC UPDATE

James Chambers, PhD, MPharm

The Tufts Medical Center SPEC Database offers unique insights into commercial payer coverage of specialty drugs and the evidence base payers report reviewing in their decision-making processes.

SPEC converts publicly available specialty drug payer coverage decisions into structured, analysis-ready data.

SPEC includes:

618 specialty drugs and products

203 product manufacturers

16,500+ current coverage decisions

170,000+ archived coverage decisions

545,000+ citations

1,400 drug-indication pairs