Celebrating two years of the European Alliance for Value in Health
As the end of the year fast approaches, the European Alliance for Value in Health has hit its next milestone – we are now two years young! It’s time to look back on what we achieved so far, and also to look forward to next year.
Two years ago, 12 associations launched the European Alliance for Value in Health, with a joint Vision of a Europe where health systems are value-based, sustainable, and people-centred. Our Mission is to partner to facilitate health system transformation, by disseminating knowledge and best practices, and engaging with policy makers and stakeholders – at European, national, and regional levels.
To work towards our Mission and Vision, all relevant stakeholders in the healthcare ecosystem need to work together; from patient groups, care givers and healthcare practitioners, to policy-makers, payers, research groups and beyond. However, there can sometimes be a misalignment in communication and understanding surrounding value-based healthcare (VBHC). This is especially true given how VBHC has evolved since its conception, and the use of language relating to VBHC has evolved alongside this.
Looking back: what we have achieved
To address the potential misalignment in communication, and enable better and more impactful communication, we need a common language surrounding VBHC. This year, we aimed to do just that, by developing a VBHC Taxonomy.
The Value-Based Healthcare Taxonomy
The VBHC Taxonomy includes a list of terms which are commonly used in VBHC, and their descriptions. Depending on how well the term is defined in the literature, one of the following approaches was taken:
- Terms which are well-defined in the literature (27 terms): descriptions were taken directly from the literature
- Terms which are not well-defined in the literature, or have multiple definitions in use (14 terms): an Adapted Delphi methodology was employed to develop descriptions, in collaboration with the Partners of the Alliance, their members, Affiliated Organisations and additional VBHC experts.
The Adapted Delphi consisted of 2 Delphi survey rounds (to gather qualitative and quantitative insights on the potential descriptions of VBHC terms and understand the level of consensus per term), and 3 Engagement Meetings (to refine the descriptions through collaborative discussions).
The full report on the VBHC Taxonomy will be published under “Our Publications” in the coming weeks, and the Glossary page will be updated shortly – watch this space!
A Library of VBHC Literature
In addition to the VBHC Taxonomy, we have kept a strong focus on collecting and disseminating relevant knowledge and best practices this year.
We have built up a rich repository of VBHC literature on our website, currently consisting of >60 external publications and 13 case studies. We have also produced 4 of our own publications and a total of 6 blogs to date. This library has also been circulated amongst the VBHC community via social media, where we have ~2,900 followers on LinkedIn and over 900 on Twitter, and post biweekly.
Please help us to build further on this knowledge base and spread the word of VBHC, by:
- Sharing any relevant publications and case studies with us
- Following us on LinkedIn and Twitter
- “Liking” and sharing our messages on social media!
Looking forward: what you can expect
For 2023, our main focus will be an initiative on stakeholder engagement. More specifically, we aim to better understand how different stakeholders should work together in a value-based system, including the roles, contributions, and expectations from each stakeholder. This will help to bring stakeholders together in a structured and focused way, to drive a constructive dialogue on transitioning towards value-based health systems.
We also aim to build further on the VBHC Taxonomy developed this year. Ideally, we would like to spread the word of the Taxonomy and encourage uptake and usage of these terms, by encouraging dissemination of the report in 2023.
Through this work, we aim to take the next concrete step towards our Vision: a Europe where health systems are value-based, sustainable, and people-centred.
We hope that you will join us on this journey!
Best wishes,
Rebecca Steele & Casper Paardekooper
Secretariat for The European Alliance for Value in Health
