Health economics and outcomes research has moved from a specialized academic discipline to a central pillar of pharmaceutical market access strategy. Payers in the United States, Europe, and increasingly in emerging markets require robust economic evidence—cost-effectiveness models, budget impact analyses, and patient-reported outcomes data—before making formulary and reimbursement decisions on new therapies. The International Society for Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research (ISPOR) estimates that health technology assessment submissions now require economic models as a standard component in over 40 countries.
For HEOR consulting firms, this demand translates into a growing pipeline of client engagements, each involving complex, multi-deliverable work products. The challenge is that health economists capable of building cost-effectiveness models, synthesizing clinical evidence, and designing patient outcomes studies are in short supply and expensive to retain. Deploying them on administrative coordination tasks is a cost no HEOR firm can sustain competitively.
The Administrative Weight of HEOR Engagements
A typical HEOR engagement combines systematic literature review, economic model development and validation, patient-level data analysis, and global value dossier preparation—often running in parallel tracks with interdependencies that require careful project management. Each track generates its own administrative requirements.
Literature reviews involve search strategy development, database query execution, citation screening, data extraction coordination, and PRISMA documentation. Economic model projects require version control, assumption documentation, validation logs, and client review cycle management. Global value dossiers—often submitted to 10 or more country markets—require country-specific adaptation, localization tracking, and submission deadline management across health technology assessment bodies.
ISPOR's 2023 global survey found that HEOR professionals spend an average of 32 percent of their working hours on project coordination, literature management, and document preparation activities that do not require health economic expertise.
How Virtual Assistants Support HEOR Operations
Literature coordination is one of the most time-intensive and VA-suitable functions in HEOR. A VA can execute database searches under researcher guidance, manage citation imports into reference management software such as Covidence or Rayyan, apply first-pass inclusion/exclusion criteria, organize abstract screening assignments, and maintain the evidence table and PRISMA documentation throughout the review. Health economists retain authority over methodological decisions while the VA manages the workflow mechanics.
Economic model project management benefits significantly from VA support. Version tracking for model spreadsheets and code files, distribution of models to client statisticians for independent validation, scheduling of model review calls, and maintenance of assumption change logs are all functions a VA can execute consistently, ensuring that model version control does not degrade during fast-moving development cycles.
Global value dossier coordination is a particularly strong VA use case. Tracking country-specific adaptation requirements, maintaining submission deadline calendars for EMA, NICE, IQWiG, and other HTA bodies, coordinating translation vendor relationships, and managing document review cycles across multiple country teams are functions that create enormous coordination complexity at HEOR firms with broad international practices.
HEOR firms building scalable operations should consider Stealth Agents for virtual assistants with professional research services experience suited to the precision and confidentiality requirements of health economics consulting.
Payer Meeting and Conference Support
HEOR firms regularly prepare materials for payer advisory boards, AMCP formulary submissions, and international HTA agency meetings. These events require slide deck preparation, pre-read document assembly, attendee coordination, and post-meeting follow-up documentation. VA support for these logistics keeps health economists focused on the scientific and economic content of payer presentations rather than production mechanics.
Conference submission management—tracking abstract deadlines for ISPOR, HTAi, and disease-specific congresses, formatting poster and platform presentation submissions, and coordinating with publication managers on congress deliverables—is another high-volume administrative function where VA support prevents missed deadlines at firms with active publication programs.
Building Business Development Capacity
HEOR firms compete for multi-year market access consulting contracts that require detailed capability proposals and budget estimates. VA support for proposal document management, capability profile maintenance, reference client coordination, and CRM data entry keeps business development workflows running without pulling senior economists away from active project work.
Sources
- International Society for Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research (ISPOR), Global HEOR Workforce Survey, 2023
- NICE, Guide to the Methods of Technology Appraisal, 2022
- Drummond, M. et al., Methods for the Economic Evaluation of Health Care Programmes, Oxford University Press, 2015