Developing a strong HEOR governance framework to drive high-impact market access outcomes

Project background

When HEOR is undervalued or its strategic role is not fully understood, market access teams often work in isolation, and processes evolve organically instead of through deliberate planning. While often invisible at first, this creates inefficiencies that eventually undermine cross-collaboration, ultimately delaying reimbursement and patient access.

Our client’s HEOR department faced significant internal misalignments that limited its strategic influence across the broader organization. To address this, we launched an initiative to reposition the department, streamline workflows, and improve the relevance and usability of its deliverables for key stakeholders. The result was a comprehensive HEOR governance framework developed for our client.

Challenges faced

Building a HEOR governance framework requires engaging multiple cross-functional stakeholders, each with their own established processes and timelines—often with limited exposure to HEOR's specific role. The core challenge was to create alignment without infringing on process autonomy. To achieve this, the framework had to strike a careful balance, serving both as an educational reference and a practical coordination tool that enabled teams to agree on realistic timelines and collaboration points.

Our solution

We developed a governance framework that fostered a shared understanding and provided operational guidance. The framework clearly defined the role and impact of HEOR in market access and translated it into a transparent timeline of HEOR deliverables throughout the product lifecycle. Each deliverable was linked to cross-functional touchpoints, clarifying responsibilities, dependencies, and required inputs without interfering with existing departmental ownership. Through multiple stakeholder alignment sessions, we identified a realistic “sweet spot” for timelines and collaboration processes, ensuring broad buy-in and creating a shared working model across functions.