Because health economics and outcomes research are becoming increasingly important in health care decision-making, a thorough understanding of these disciplines is necessary for health technology companies to support their products in the marketplace. For this reason, many companies are deciding to invest in training their staff.

Fourth Hurdle Consulting has extensive experience in providing awareness-raising sessions as well as formal training courses at all levels. These sessions are important because the techniques used in health economics and outcomes research differ from traditional clinical research. In addition, few health professionals have experience in identifying and using the messages generated by these techniques.

Improving a company’s skill base in health economics and outcomes research will:
• Help clinical development staff incorporate these techniques effectively into research programmes
• Allow marketing staff to use information gained from these disciplines to develop successful
  marketing strategies
• Enable sales staff to use promotional messages to the best advantage
• Improve communications within project teams and departments

How Fourth Hurdle Consulting Can Help

Fourth Hurdle Consulting provides training programmes designed to help employees in all departments and at all levels of an organisation to better understand information generated by health economics and outcomes research. We offer a full range of activities including:
• Short (1-4 hour) training sessions to raise awareness of the importance of health economics
• Introductory training courses (1-2 days)
• Custom courses tailored to meet the specific needs and expertise of our clients
• Collaborative training sessions, with leading academic researchers

In addition to understanding techniques used in health economics and outcomes research, it is also important for all members of the product team to appreciate the relevance of health outcomes information to their customers.

The Fourth Hurdle Approach

At Fourth Hurdle Consulting, we believe that training should be focused on gaining skills with ‘real world’ applications. Our team members have many years of experience working as health economists. We understand the practical application of the discipline for manufacturers and health care decision-makers. We focus on ensuring that all attendees leave our sessions with the ability to apply their learning directly to their work.

To make the learning process more enjoyable, and therefore more successful, we use an interactive approach in all our training sessions. Where appropriate, we also include outside experts to enhance the learning experience.

We are experienced trainers with excellent communication and presentation skills, and are comfortable with trainees whose first language is not English. Our various backgrounds in clinical research, sales, marketing, health economics and outcomes research ensure that we appreciate a broad range of perspectives and needs.