The Economist Intelligence Unit has developed a detailed macroeconomic model factoring inter alia, province-level income breakdowns, personal wealth, government policies and the insurance landscape. The model includes long-term (>20 year) forecasts. Leveraging our proprietary data and macroeconomic forecasting capabilities, we have been able to offer robust analysis of the demand for specific therapies at a subnational level within emerging markets. Our models are dynamic, designed for internal strategic use and can be directly integrated with the clients’ own forecasting models, allowing mapping of affordability levels to drug prices, reimbursement rates, incomes and disease epidemiology.

Novo Nordisk asked The Economist Intelligence Unit to calculate the economic cost of diabetes worldwide. The client wanted us to quantify the economic burden of disease in specific emerging and developed countries in order to fully understand the scale of the problem. Our in-house team of country analysts and skilled macroeconomists developed methodologically solid estimates and forecasts across a variety of markets. We developed a model estimating direct healthcare and non-healthcare related costs, as well as the impact of the illness on economic productivity. The results were incorporated in a white paper outlining the major challenges and opportunities in addressing the problem. This was released on the web for public consumption, and benefited from The Economist Intelligence Unit's editorial trademark.

Our client lacked existing products to access China’s fast-growing primary care and home healthcare segments. It asked us to undertake high-level discussions with government policymakers and advisory boards on development directions. We conducted in-depth concept tests with decision-makers and clinicians on product attractiveness and viability, as well as trade-off analysis to gauge the importance of price versus features. This enabled our client to gain insights on government initiatives that will affect product development, allowing it to adapt product design to local demand and to launch its product at the most effective price point and positioning.

Our client, a leading pharmaceutical company with a portfolio of drugs in chronic pain management, wanted us to review regulatory regimes governing how the cost of sick leave is shared in 17 European countries and to provide an assessment of quantitative information on the cost of chronic pain. We undertook a review of regulatory systems of the countries in scope and developed a data visualisation tool for the client to understand how the burden of sick leave is shared between the state, the employer and the employee. Our data provided insights on relative market opportunity for the strategic planning team, and enabled it to engage stakeholders and payers in productivity and healthcare conversations.

The World Bank wanted to stimulate debate around public-private interactions in Sub-Saharan African healthcare systems, to generate policy reform and attention, ultimately seeking to boost healthcare investment levels and efficacy in the region. We prepared data visualisation and comparisons for report country pages and liaised with journalists at The Economist to help to make the report more accessible to policymakers and the general public. The final product was a series of externally facing co-branded research and white papers, created to facilitate thought leadership and debate.

Our client wanted to evaluate the cost of providing vaccines to Sub-Saharan African countries. They also wanted to map the findings to the predicted domestic government contributions to financing the cost of these vaccines and to forecast the cost-funding gap from 2009-20. We leveraged our Africa team’s country economic and forecasting expertise to produce country-specific healthcare budget forecasts. Our in-house modelling expertise, partnered with key academic institutions, enabled us to prepare vaccine cost forecasts. Finally, we drew upon our data visualisation skill to house the data in a user-friendly spreadsheet model with country-specific drop-down menus and tabs showing different data aspects, which enabled the client to use the output for fundraising and planning purposes.

We have worked for a number of pharma and medtech clients to identify the key innovations in the healthcare sector and evaluate opportunities for greenfield investment and future business expansion. We design global studies, provide recommendations and moderate workshops and brainstorming sessions at a Board level. We analyse resulting themes and their impact/implications, and can present our findings to the board if required.

Payors like the NHS are increasingly demanding healthcare solutions rather than product offerings. This study illustrates work that we can do with suppliers to help them engage constructively with payors. Our client needed to understand the market potential, demand and case mix for renal replacement therapy and how it will evolve in the next five years. We developed an interactive demand and capacity model that informed our client’s planning process, factoring macro considerations such as disease prevalence rates, demographic changes and patient flows. The client uses the interactive model to plan capacity and to assess the potential impact of service configuration changes to the flow of patients, as well as to allocate budget.

Our client needed to develop deep customer insights to tap into upcoming opportunities in the new and low-volume workload segments in China and India in the next five years. We conducted in-depth interviews with opinion leaders to gauge views of demand dynamics and technology movements, and produced an activity-based gap analysis of a representative sample size of mid- to low-workload lab users to identify penetration and adoption opportunities. From this, we identified gaps that can potentially be converted into opportunities through activity-based analysis and advised on new trends that can shape demand.

BUPA recognised clinically unwarranted variation in the number of claims around knee arthroscopy procedures among its provider network. It needed to manage the variation in practice in a way that was clinically robust. We examined the evidence on effectiveness of the procedure in different patient groups. We then constructed a robust analysis, stratified by patient group and specific clinical criteria. From this, the client designed pre-authorisation processes and tools, and developed patient communications to assist with shared decision-making and informed choices. This has helped BUPA to standardise care and optimise value by eliminating clinically inappropriate claims. The broader effect is that the providers now know that the payer is performance managing from a clinical perspective, resulting in fewer claims and clinically appropriate use of the technique.

We conducted extensive research into a variety of innovative care models from around the world. At a workshop session, which brought together payers and providers, we examined these models and facilitated the development of implementation plans for models that were regarded as attractive. As a follow up to the project, we engaged on a one-to-one basis with the senior management of a number of participating providers, to examine and advise on key strategic issues, drawing on our sector expertise and research capabilities.

Our client lacked existing products to access China’s fast-growing primary care and home healthcare segments. It asked us to undertake high-level discussions with government policymakers and advisory boards on development directions. We conducted in-depth concept tests with decision-makers and clinicians on product attractiveness and viability, as well as trade-off analysis to gauge the importance of price versus features. This enabled our client to gain insights on government initiatives that will affect product development, allowing it to adapt product design to local demand and to launch its product at the most effective price point and positioning.