Cutting Edge Information
Helping Businesses Calculate FMV without Toil

Historically, inconsistency plagued industry models for calculating the fair market value (FMV) of consulting engagements with healthcare professionals (HCPs) and non-HCPs. Traditional calculations typically used combinations of physician salaries and historical remuneration rates, which only go part of the way in identifying true fair market value. Expand this exercise to every possible healthcare market and every type of specialist, technician, and non-HCP in the life sciences and the hunt for accurate FMV rates becomes truly daunting.

Thankfully, modern analytics and data-driven modeling offer a far more accurate way to identify FMV. The secret ingredient in this approach is raw data drawn directly from the marketplace. Actual hourly FMV rates from pharmaceutical, biotech, and medical device companies, coupled with economic indicators such as gross domestic product (GDP), fuel astoundingly accurate FMV rates for every possible type of physician, allied health professional, and technician in countries around the globe.

With a cornucopia of FMV experience at its fingertips, Cutting Edge Information (CEI) is a powerhouse market research company that specializes in collecting and analyzing this type of global FMV data. The company’s database covers more than 130 countries and provides hourly FMV rates for over 270 different medical and non-medical roles, specialties, and titles.

As Eric Bolesh, the COO at CEI, states, “Our data’s strength comes from our reach. If a company is trying to identify FMV for different HCPs and non-HCPs, it’s just a mammoth undertaking. Having collected, analyzed, and prepared that data for deployment, we make it easier.”

CEI differentiates itself by gathering payment information from the industry, which means collecting hundreds of thousands of rate data points directly from life sciences companies via the actual rate cards and documentation that companies use internally and share confidentially with CEI.

When plugged into CEI’s FMV model, those data points provide remarkably accurate hourly rates for the industry’s external experts. To accomplish this, CEI relies on its talented data team, which annually runs this information through its model to produce hourly FMV rates. The team combines raw hourly rates with salary data (where available), plus up to 200 other factors and economic indicators. The result is a learning algorithm that improves its understanding of global FMV rates year after year.

Needless to say, the rates published are highly comprehensive and pertain to various countries and specialties spread across four tiers of HCP influence, from international prominence all the way down to the local levels of influence. The current 2022 data produced by CEI is based on more than 146,000 different data points, presented in the form of hourly rates. CEI delivers this data via an innovative online portal called FMVConnect, which gives users access to hourly FMV rates for the specific markets and types of HCPs/non-HCPs they’re most interested in.

None of this would have been possible without the kind of trust, built over 20 years, that CEI has developed with companies across the biopharma and medical technology space. Bolstered by CEI’s sophisticated statistical capabilities, also based on decades of innovation, these capabilities combine to make CEI a unique external FMV expert in the market and clients benefit as they identify industry standards related to FMV, HCP engagement, and compliant remuneration.