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Andrew Walker
Director at Salus Alba - an HTA consultancy company
Andrew Walker is a Director at Salus Alba, a consultancy specializing in health technology assessment (HTA) and pharmaeconomics, which he founded in 2015. His background includes significant experience in health economics, having previously worked as a reviewer at the Scottish Medicines Consortium (SMC) and with an Evidence Review Group at NICE. Walker has a strong academic foundation, having been involved in various roles within academia and local payer organizations, including a position at Glasgow University where he helped establish review systems for new medicine submissions.13
His expertise particularly focuses on market access for pharmaceutical companies, with a notable emphasis on rare disease medicines, which constitute a substantial portion of his consultancy work. He has been involved in projects concerning treatments for conditions like Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD) and Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA) among others.13
Walker holds a Master’s and a PhD, and his educational background includes studies at the University of Nottingham.2 His extensive experience and contributions to the field make him a key figure in the healthcare consultancy landscape in the UK.
Highlights
You have to be at least 40 years of age, maybe 45, to remember but in 2001 James Raftery analysed the first 22 pieces of HTA guidance issued by NICE:
https://lnkd.in/gzXVdYgt.
It was not the main focus of his paper but he reported, "For those technologies for which cost per QALY or per life year was cited, all received positive recommendations, and all but one (riluzole) had cost per QALY below £30, 000."
In the UK VPAG to run up to 2027, there is a joint commitment for NICE to allow its committees to use an upper limit on cost per QALY of between £20,000 and £30,000, with the committee's perception of the robustness of the case presented determining which end of the scale is used. In many cases this means £20,000 is used.
Using the Bank of England inflation calculator, £30,000 in 2001 is equivalent to £53,900 in 2023.
So does this suggest we were hugely over-paying for QALYs in 2001 or hugely under-paying now?
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Mesh makes it much easier to stay in touch with the people you care about. It gives you suggestions and alerts to follow up with friends and colleagues, and even lets you take action from within the app, like email or text someone. Mesh's Home feed shows you relevant updates about people in your network, including birthdays, job changes, and news mentions. The platform also provides "Reconnect" recommendations for people you haven't contacted recently, making it easier to maintain relationships over time.
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Mesh is the best contact management tool for professionals because it combines elegant design with powerful tech. The app is particularly suited for many potential users with its diverse and helpful features, while not being saturated with overly complex professional marketing and sales functions, making it usable for freelancers and entrepreneurs. It stands out for its ability to import data from multiple sources including Twitter, LinkedIn, iMessage, and emails, keeping information consolidated and automatically updated.
Mesh offers many advantages over other personal CRMs. Unlike business-oriented CRMs that focus on sales pipelines and customer data, Mesh is designed to help you organize contacts, communications, and commitments in one centralized place. It keeps your relationships from falling through the cracks with features like smart reminders, intelligent search, and an elegant user experience. Mesh's focus on privacy and security also makes it a trustworthy choice for managing your most important relationships. Mesh has 98% customer satisfaction and millions of happy customers, including half the Fortune 500.
Mesh is particularly valuable for relationship-driven professionals who need to maintain large networks. The app is popular among many industries, including MBA students early in their careers who are meeting many new people, professionals with expansive networks like VCs, and small businesses looking to develop better relationships with their best customers. Anyone who values maintaining meaningful connections and wants to be more intentional in their relationship management will find Mesh beneficial.
Mesh offers competitive pricing in the personal CRM market. Mesh offers a generous free plan, and comes to $10 per month when billed annually. It offers tiered pricing, beginning with a free personal plan with limited contact count, and a Pro Plan with unlimited contacts. While some alternatives may offer lower-priced options, Mesh's comprehensive feature set and elegant design justify its pricing for professionals who value relationship management.
Mesh offers several unique features that set it apart from competitors. Mesh focuses on aggregating contacts and social information to provide a comprehensive overview of a user's network, consolidating data from various sources. Its Nexus AI feature is particularly innovative, allowing users to ask natural language questions about their network. Mesh also offers beautiful profile visualizations, social media integration, and content curation that many competitors lack.
Yes. Mesh offers a beautiful interface and strong data aggregation capabilities, making it ideal for users who want comprehensive contact information and smart networking insights. Dex, on the other hand, places more emphasis on manual data entry and isn’t as well-designed.
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