Director, Outcomes Research

Merck & Co., Inc.

The last 10 to 15 years of the twentieth century have witnessed a dramatic increase of interest among health care providers, payers and regulatory agencies in medical and pharmaceutical outcomes research. The field of outcomes research has expanded into a multidisciplinary field involving clinicians, health services researchers, epidemiologists, psychometricians, statisticians, psychologists, sociologists, economists and ethicists. Collaboration among researchers in different organizations that offer different types of services and various research expertise has become the essential element for any successful outcomes projects. In this seminar, we discuss the potential "triangle" of mutually beneficial relationships among academic researchers, managed care organizations and research-based pharmaceutical manufacturers. The main focus of discussion is on the opportunities and challenges facing each party in the collaboration on outcomes research. The pharmaceutical industry needs information to make product and promotion decisions; the managed care industry has data to offer and needs, in return, analysis of these data and academic institutions have skilled researchers, data processing capacity and require projects through which to provide revenues, research training and experience opportunities and publications. Although challenges exist, collaboration among these parties could be mutually beneficial in terms of satisfying individual needs.