Partnership between Washington Research Foundation and The CHOICE Institute at UWSOP creates opportunities for students and researchers at non-profit research institutions in Washington state
The CHOICE Institute at UWSOP is pleased to announce a partnership with the Washington Research Foundation (WRF) that will create four new fellowships per year designed to support non-profit research institutions and life science researchers.
Health economics and outcomes research (HEOR) is increasingly being used at earlier stages of product development for healthcare and life sciences to inform decision-making. While this expertise is commonly available at larger companies it may be inaccessible or unaffordable to researchers and technology developers within non-profit research institutions that have arguably the greatest need for that kind of service.
The WRF-HEOR Fellowship aims to address this gap by providing high quality health economic and outcomes research services to technology developers (scientists, engineers, inventors and entrepreneurs) at non-profit research institutions in Washington state while also providing a valuable training activity for graduate students at Washington state research institutions. On the UW side, the Fellowship will be led by Lotte Steuten of The CHOICE Institute at UWSOP and Fred Hutch. Dr. Steuten specializes in developing and applying quantitative (Bayesian) methods for estimating and comparing the expected health and economic benefits of new approaches and interventions in disease prevention and treatment, and prioritizing data collection to efficiently build the evidence for such promising new interventions.
“At the Washington Research Foundation, we see a clear need for reliable health economic and outcomes research to support the advanced technical and scientific work happening in Washington state, “ said Will Canestaro, Manager of Strategic Investments at WRF. “As healthcare costs continue to rise it is increasingly important for researchers to understand how their innovations translate into real-world value for patients and the healthcare system.”
Through this fellowship program at The CHOICE Institute, we aim to increase the number of decision-making tools available to researchers and technology developers. Ultimately this is democratizing this expertise and making it available across the state—all to the benefit of patients and the healthcare systems in Washington.
–Will Canestaro, Ph.D., Washington Research Foundation
Fellows and projects will be selected by a committee of faculty in The CHOICE Institute based on academic merit. Generally, awards will be made to second and higher year students in CHOICE. Fellows will have a CHOICE faculty mentor as well as an advisor from WRF.
The projects will evaluate a health technology (such as a diagnostic, therapeutic, or software), with preference for the most novel and high-impact technologies for patients or the healthcare system. Each fellow will create deliverables for the technology developer they are working for with the ultimate goal of providing meaningful insight that can improve their research and development process. Examples of project types include creating a cost effectiveness model to estimate the value of a technology in real-world practice, measuring the budget impact on the healthcare system of a technology, and measuring the human and economic burden of disease to patients and society.
“We appreciate the partnership developed with the Washington Research Foundation,” said Anirban Basu, Director of The CHOICE Institute. “Our student fellows will now have a wonderful opportunity to advance their research and training in a way that helps their local community and the state. We look forward with great anticipation to the first class of fellows and seeing what their research helps advance in health care.”