Joshua Ray, MBA, MSc has built a career based on a passion for clarity, progress, and curiosity. Currently at F. Hoffmann-La Roche, Josh leads a multidisciplinary team of over 50 health technology assessment (HTA) practitioners, with a focus on developing the HTA and health economics and outcomes research (HEOR) evidence packages used to inform access and reimbursement decisions around the world. In this role he has most recently co-established and championed Roche’s Real-World Evidence (RWE) Operating Model. He has also focused on furthering the application of RWE to support the pivot to “living HTA” utilizing more continuous evidence reviews and transportability, where RWE collected in one country can inform decision making in other localities. He has also worked to further other methodologies, including treatment effect adjustment in the presence of treatment switching in clinical trials.
Prior to Roche, Josh’s career has spanned many disease areas, lifecycle stages, and locations, giving him a thorough insight into the complexities and nuances of the field. Starting the Centre for Outcomes Research in Switzerland, to roles in the United Statesv(Genentech and Flatiron) and Australia, Josh has driven health economic modelling (and related methodologies) of new technologies across cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and oncology. He is also experienced in evidence generation across the product life cycle, including early clinical development to the increased trend of reassessments and renegotiations.
Josh holds a Masters degree in health economics from the University of Sheffield. After realizing the need to better understand and communicate the statistical underpinnings of many HTA and access decisions, he later completed a Masters in applied statistics from Sheffield-Hallam University. His commitment to furthering education and knowledge in the field of HEOR has been a constant throughout his career. Over the past 20 years, he has collaborated on over 30 peer-reviewed publications, with colleagues from both academia and the private sector. In addition, he has spent much of his career contributing to teaching and training programs; most recently as a guest lecturer at the Copenhagen Summer University Market Access course.
ISPOR Vision Statement by Joshua Ray
I have been an active member of ISPOR for over 15 years and am a believer in and advocate for its importance in leading the HEOR field, developing methods, and guidance to furthering efficient and equitable allocation of healthcare resources. During this time, I have had the honor to contribute to multiple task forces, attend and present at ISPOR’s annual conferences in both North America and Europe, and contribute to Value in Health. This active engagement drives both my passion to continue contributing, and excitement for the potential opportunities ahead as a member of ISPOR’s Board of Directors, if elected.
We are at a point of inflection globally, and we can significantly shift the way we approach and leverage existing and emergent technologies to truly evolve the HEOR field. ISPOR is uniquely positioned to be at the forefront to drive this change across the industry, during which I would be honored to serve ISPOR members. In order to maximize this opportunity, I believe we need to continue strengthening collaboration to focus ISPOR’s significant reach within the HEOR field - we have more than 20,000 members in over 110 countries. Potentially more critical is to broaden the capture of the Society’s engagement, furthering the application of its guidance to contemporary policy development and decisions around the world.
We should continue facilitating more robust decision making in response to this changing world. One opportunity is through strategic collaborations and advancing the use of targeted technologies, to amplify the solutions HEOR brings across jurisdictions (in both nascent and advanced HTA systems). One example is the advancement of standardized data packages and structures, which has the potential to lower the overall costs of evidence generation and support more robust decision making in response to the increased amount of evidence published. For example, leveraging the processes and methodologies developed during the European Union HTA implementation to facilitate decision making across the world affords us a unique opportunity, as does the establishment of common data structures. This aligns with ISPOR’s strategic direction to (1) utilize our resources to educate, communicate and lead; (2) promote use of sound HEOR research practices.
I believe that, by putting ourselves as an industry outside our comfort zone we will not only be able to further the future of HEOR, but also motivate and inspire future talent to continue advancing this field towards the advancement of improved access to healthcare. Importantly, if elected, I would be honored to represent ISPOR, focusing on increasing the influence of ISPOR’s contributions towards tackling the emanant challenges and identifying opportunities to remove barriers faced by health systems around the world striving for efficient and equitable distribution of health resources.