Investing in health not only benefits individual well-being but also drives societal and economic growth. Better health increases productivity, helps to relieve the burden on health systems, and drives long-term growth.
To make this connection visible, WifOR has developed the Health ROI Assessor – an innovative tool for evaluating the economic and societal value of health investments.
WifOR’s Health ROI Assessor Framework
WifOR’s Health ROI Assessor estimates long and short-term value created by allocating resources to a new health intervention – and thus unravels the economic gains of health investments. With the proposed framework, we establish a new generation of policy decision tools.
The Health ROI Assessor supports:
- the efficient allocation of resources within and beyond the health sector
- contributes to the sustainability of health systems
- promotes economic growth
The Health ROI Assessor framework encompasses two pivotal elements of interconnected economic impacts: Human Capital Formation and Health Economy Footprint.
The two impact levels of the Health ROI Assessor
1. Human Capital Formation
This first part of the model analyzes how improvements in health, such as reduced illness and death, lead to increased productivity. The core idea is that when people experience better health or spend less time sick, they are able to work more effectively, both in paid jobs and in unpaid roles like caregiving or household labor. This improved productivity contributes to economic growth by increasing workforce participation, reducing absenteeism, and extending working life.
Additionally, healthier individuals tend to have fewer healthcare needs, which reduces overall costs. Ultimately, investing in health supports stronger economies by enhancing labor force efficiency and reducing long-term disease-related economic burdens.
2. The Health Economy Footprint
The second part of the model illustrates how health investments impact the economy through direct, indirect, and induced effects.
- Direct effects: Value creation and employment generated within the Health Economy as a result of targeted investments.
- Indirect effects: Economic impacts along the supply chain.
- Induced effects: Increases in consumer spending driven by higher incomes resulting from the direct and indirect effects.
WifOR’s ROI Assessor enables you to:
Uncover the relationship between a targeted health investment and economic and societal gains
Get valuable insights crucial for defining national budget allocation priorities (e.g. within the health sector)
Introduce a complementary viewpoint to traditional health economic evaluations by showcasing the comprehensive value of specific intervention programs
Explore how a healthcare or preventive program could be implemented with new collaborative business models
Use Cases:
Evaluating novel CVD prevention approaches in Estonia – presented at ISPOR Europe 2023
In 2023, WifOR’s Health ROI Assessor was applied for the first time to evaluate a real-world prevention program in Estonia, in collaboration with Novartis. This health intervention is proposed by the Prevent Cardiovascular Disease Coalition (P-CVD), focusing on reducing low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) and lowering the risk of cardiovascular diseases (CVD) in adults aged 30 to 79 with no history of CVD.
Results
The results show that the short-term impact (15 years) of investing €20 million over five years into the P-CVD program is projected to generate €50 million in economic value (GDP contribution) and create 1,178 jobs through direct, indirect, and induced effects over 10 years. The 315 deaths and 928 non-fatal events avoided by the P-CVD program generate €127.04 million of value in terms of increasing paid and unpaid work productivity during the first 15 years.
This evaluation demonstrates the significant economic and social benefits of investing in prevention. By reducing cardiovascular events, the program not only improves individual health but also boosts productivity and creates jobs, proving that health is an investment in economic growth.
Novel approaches assessing the value of cancer prevention in Germany – presented at ISPOR Europe 2024
Cervical cancer is the second most common female cancer globally, inducing considerable amount of costs and tremendous health burden to the patients. In the past decades, discussions around investment in preventative interventions focused narrowly on immediate costs, while broader economic and societal impacts were most commonly overlooked.
The Health ROI Assessor Framework was applied to the example of investing in cervical cancer screening prevention program (Pap testing) in Germany. The aim was to illustrate how this intervention generates value within and beyond the health sector, fostering health-related productivity gains to society.
Results
For every €1 million invested in cancer prevention in Germany, almost €2 million in GDP contribution and 32 jobs are created within and beyond the healthcare sector over three years. A yearly screening frequency yields the highest human capital gains, with 33 million hours in paid and 11 million hours in unpaid work, corresponding to a monetary value of €328 million.
The Health ROI Assessor framework opens a new perspective on health economic valuation. Our results illustrate how investment in cancer prevention in Germany translates into value to society and may support policy decision-making about effective resource allocation in the healthcare sector.
