Intellus Worldwide Institute 2023: Key Topics and Themes

Published October 12, 2023

Recently Trinity Life Sciences’ team members had the opportunity to attend the Intellus Worldwide Institute in Boston. The institute featured interactive discussions about topics impacting health insights and analytics, including the evolving payer landscape, increasing importance of patient segmentation and growing role of AI in healthcare.  

Evolving Payer Research Landscape  

Discussions about the payer research landscape centered on the importance of increasing the visibility of payer insights across research phases and brand verticals, especially in light of greater cost consciousness. 

Attendees discussed the impact of economic and political market fluctuation on payer decision-making, including trends shifting toward more value-based care models compared to traditional reimbursement mechanisms as a potential cost saving approach. Additionally, discussions highlighted growing requirements from payers for subpopulation stratification of both clinical trial and real-world evidence to demonstrate efficacy and safety across patient subgroups where applicable.  

One key market event impacting payer decision-making that was discussed in detail was the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). Max Hunt, Partner with Trinity’s Evidence, Value, Access and Pricing (EVAP) team, and Christopher Barnes, President with Escalent, provided an overview of the new law and commentary on the recent publication of the first ten Part D therapies selected for negotiation. Key questions for the future landscape included the role of commercial gross-to-net contracting in a post-IRA environment, evolution of the law amidst pending lawsuits and potential shifts in R&D decision-making as biopharma manufacturers seek to maximize revenue prior to negotiation eligibility.   

Importance of Patient Segmentation  

Across discussions of physician and patient research, patient segmentation was highlighted as a key tool to obtain meaningful insights. 

Steve Yonish, Partner with Trinity’s Primary Research Team, John Cove, Principal with Trinity’s Primary Research Team, and Julie D’Avignon, Head of Global Market Insights at Amylyx Pharmaceuticals, discussed how segmentation research can be leveraged to locate patients with rare diseases. In addition to locating diagnosed patients, patient chart audit research can help identify undiagnosed patients with symptom profiles indicative of certain rare diseases. These insights can help illustrate the patient journey and future demand in greater depth while also allowing for the evaluation of the drivers of treatment choice.     

AI in Healthcare 

Another prominent discussion topic at the conference was how AI can be used to amplify and expedite traditional market research, ensuring faster delivery of more relevant findings. Attendees discussed initial experiences with AI to assess claims data and supplemental marketing datasets, with potential applications of identifying media behaviors and messaging preferences of physicians and switching behavior and comorbidities of target patient populations in order to better approach brand communication. While attendees noted difficulties with overcoming initial adoption hurdles of incorporating AI technology into market research, mainly due to institutional hesitancy, some shared positive experiences. Ultimately it was agreed that while implementation may occur gradually, AI will likely continue to reshape the market research landscape in the coming years as stakeholders acclimate to its presence and continue to realize its potential.  

Authors: Max Hunt and Grace Mock