In this debut episode, Gurmit presents his Value Assessment Dashboard (VAD)—a comprehensive tool designed to evaluate digital health technologies across seven key value domains. The VAD helps determine a technology’s potential for reimbursement, market access, and adoption, bridging the gap between innovation and patient access to better healthcare.
Developed as part of Gurmit’s MSc Medical Informatics research thesis, the VAD is built upon prior consultancy work in co-developing an orientation guide for assessing digital health technologies (1).
The framework serves multiple stakeholders, including startups, insurance companies, hospitals, governments, and health technology assessment (HTA) agencies.
🔹 Assessment Framework: The VAD consists of seven value domains (not prioritized) and 26 subdomains, covering:
✔️ Unmet medical need & current technology use
✔️ Technical product information & use
✔️ Usability & accessibility
✔️ Safety
✔️ Effectiveness
✔️ Cost impact
✔️ Ethical aspects
🔹 International Efforts & Contextualization for Switzerland :
- Switzerland currently assesses health technologies (including medical services and pharmaceuticals) using established frameworks (EAE/WZW). However, some Swiss digital health stakeholders recognize that digital health technologies may require tailored evaluation frameworks.
- The VAD received validation at the 2024 Health Technology International (HTAI) Conference in Seville, where Gurmit engaged with experts working on assessment frameworks for digital health from Catalunya, Denmark, and Italy.
- Some early adopter insurance companies are exploring the application of HTA-based frameworks for their internal evaluation of digital health solutions.
The ultimate goal of the Value Assessment Dashboard is to ensure that promising digital health technologies reach patients by applying rigorous, transparent scientific and quality measures to the evaluation process.
In our next episode, we’ll dive into Angelina’s work as an Attorney at Law in market access and her PhD research on reimbursement of DTx.
(1) C/CAN. (2023). Adopting digital health interventions in LMICs. Guidance for value assessment. City Cancer Challenge. https://cityc
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https://linkedin.com/in/gurmitsandhu | https://linkedin.com/in/angelina-rau
Share your experience, feedback, “pain points” or success with market access & reimbursement of digital health technology #medtech #meddevice :
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What to Read:
Reimbursement guide on digital health applications within the Swiss healthcare system | Created in collaboration with experts in insurance, law, pharma, and industry including Angelina Rau | Free access, in Eng & De =>
https://swisshealthcarestartups.com/en/reimbursement-guide
Kohler, Stefan / Rau, Angelina, Vergütung digitaler Gesundheitsanwendungen in der Schweiz, Life Sciences Recht Stämpfli, LSR 1/2023, S. 13-22, Januar 2023
Sandhu G, Mohamed Ghazali IM, Laurenzi E, Miho E. PP22 A Dashboard To Support The Value Assessment Of Digital Health Technologies For H...
