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Market Access Strategic Execution Consultant

Biostatistics

Giving Meaning to Data Can Save Lives

Giving Meaning to Data Can Save Lives

>>The risk difference for erectile dysfunction among the watchful waiting cohort compared to the radical prostatectomy cohort was 0.50 (P < 0.001).

>>There were 50 additional cases of erectile dysfunction per 100 patients in the watchful waiting cohort compared to the radical prostatectomy cohort. This was statistically significant.

Both of these sentences mean the same thing, but which one actually makes sense?

Taking time to make sense of data is an investment that pays off in dividends. It can even save lives.

How can decision-makers take action if they can’t even figure out what they’re looking at?

Context creates meaning.

Collaborations Among Stakeholders

Collaborations Among Stakeholders

How can us market access professionals (strategists, writers, editors, and everyone else) possibly do our work if we’re not curious enough to seek out our customers’ voice?

In market access, we often treat our asset as our own child and customers’ needs as a stepchild. This backfires on the business as the stepchild always turns out to be the Cinderella of the story.

Isn’t the goal of manufacturers, payers, and providers ultimately the same? To keep patients healthy enough so they stay out of the health care system? It’s just that the market demands each stakeholder to address this call in a different way.

AMCP’s Partnership Forum is a platform where these stakeholders collaborate on tactics and strategies to drive efficiencies and outcomes.

Tapestry Networks is another platform that brings together such stakeholders.

I wonder if there are other such collaborative platforms out there.

Interpreting Ratios

Interpreting Ratios

It starts with data and it ends with data. This is why it’s critical for market access professionals to understand biostatistics.

Here’s a cheat sheet of how to interpret ratios in biostatistics using a hypothetical example. It’s one of the few resources from pharmacy school that I still refer to even after a decade.

Morbidity from Prostate Cancer of 400 Men

Measure of Risk

Formula

Radical Prostatectomy (PR)

(n = 200)

Watchful Waiting (WW)

(n = 200)

# men with erectile dysfunction (ED)

 

160

90

Absolute risk reduction (ARR)

Risk in PR – Risk in WW

(160/200) – (90/200) =

0.80 – 0.45 = 0.35 = 35%

Risk of ED was 35% less with WW than with PR.

Relative risk (RR)

AR of PR / AR of WW

(160/200) / (90/200) =

0.80/0.45 = 1.8

Risk of ED with PR was 1.8 times that with WW.

Odds ratio (OR)

Odds of PR / Odds of WW

(160/40) / (90/110) =

4/0.82 = 4.9

The odds of ED with PR are about 5 times those with WW.

Number needed to harm (NNH)

1 / ARR

1 / 0.35 = 3

For every 3 men undergoing radical prostatectomy, 1 will experience ED.

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