To evidence generation and beyond! Editor’s picks ahead of virtual ISPOR 2020
Ahead of the newly redesigned, virtual ISPOR 2020 meeting (18—20 May), our Editor shares her top picks for not-to-miss sessions at the meeting!
What is ISPOR?
The International Society for Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research (ISPOR) is a global professional society for all health economics and outcomes research (HEOR) stakeholders.
Due to the COVID-19 outbreak, the society’s annual meeting — due to be held in Orlando (FL, USA) over 18—20 May 2020 — will instead be taking place over the same dates virtually!
This year’s annual conference theme is ‘HEOR: advancing evidence to action’, which will include an additional, new plenary focusing on HEOR in the era of COVID-19 specifically.
What should I look out for?
The fields of real-world evidence and HEOR generation have gained much traction in recent years; a pressing question many stakeholders are now facing is: what steps need to be taken to advance insight gleaned from these real-world data into actionable outcomes?
It is fitting that such a topic should represent the theme of this year’s annual event, given the accommodations that have had to be made due to the COVID-19 outbreak. During this unprecedented time, the real-world evidence and HEOR communities have been coming together and collaborating on an international scale to collect and disseminate essential real-world data that can help inform healthcare policy and decision making, in the absence of clinical trial and historical data.
Key future-looking sessions I am looking forward to at the event include:
- Moving from ideas to action — what is the role of global collaboration? (Monday, May 18, 11am) — this panel discussion, moderated by Pall Jonsson (NICE, Manchester, UK), will feature Bart Barefoot (GlaxoSmithKline, Brentford, UK), Alison Bourke (IQVIA, London, UK) and Nirosha Mahendraratnam Lederer (Duke-Margolis Center for Health Policy, DC, USA) as panelists. Together, they will discuss the next steps in moving from ideas and concepts, to the development of methods and techniques to operationalize the use of real-world evidence in healthcare decision making, highlighting the global collaborative efforts from all stakeholders required.
- Real-world evidence guidance and frameworks — what elements are necessary to promote quality, transparency and validity in real-world evidence? (Tuesday, May 19, 10:30am) — While regulatory and health technology assessment agencies are proactively evaluating the role of real-world evidence in their decision-making, they are at different stages of guidance development and adoption. In this session, Nicolle Gatto (Aetion, NY, USA), Hans-Georg Eichler (EMA, London, UK), Pall Jonsson (NICE, Manchester, UK) and James Wu (Amgen, CA, USA) will debate what study designs and methodologies for regulatory and health technology assessment guidelines are necessary to promote high-quality and validated real-world evidence generation and use.
- HEOR and clinical decision making — advancing meaningful progress (Tuesday, May 19, 12:30pm) — the second plenary of the event will explore roles of big data and artificial intelligence in the collection and analysis of point-of-care, real-world data, to drive decision making. Jan Hansen (Genentech, CA, USA) will moderate the panel, which will include Marc Boutin, (National Health Council, DC, USA), Rachael Callcut (University of California, San Francisco Medical Center, CA, USA) and Nigam Shah (Stanford University, CA, USA), discussing collaborative approaches to clinical decision making and ways that HEOR could both strengthen health service delivery and enhance the patient experience.
- Non-randomized, real-world evidence — are we ready for action? (Tuesday, May 19, 2:30pm) — as real-world evidence becomes increasingly important for supplementing evidence obtained from randomized clinical trials on the safety and effectiveness of medications, it is essential that methodological flaws in real-world evidence studies, which can induce bias, are remedied. In this session, Jennifer Graff (National Pharmaceutical Council, DC, USA), Pamela Bradt (Institute for Clinical and Economic Review, MA, USA), Katsiaryna Bykov (Brigham and Women’s Hospital, MA, USA) and Jessica Daw (Optima Health, VA, USA) will discuss the current state of non-randomized, real-world evidence, and potential paths to improve its validity
A range of exciting discussions addressing some of the important reimbursement and methodological questions facing the filed, especially as we are seeing rising numbers of advanced and curative therapies reaching the market, are also promised at the event. I am particularly looking forward to:
- Addressing gaps in value assessment methods — where do we start? (Tuesday, May 19, 2:30pm) — Jennifer Bright (Innovation and Value Initiative, VA, USA), Louis Garrison (University of Washington, WA, USA), Leah McCormick Howard (National Psoriasis Foundation, OR, USA) and Eric Stanek (Healthcore, Inc., DE, USA) will briefly explore advancing methods in value assessment, the current state of the science and areas in greatest need of improved methods and assessment capability, from both industry and patient perspectives, with ample time for live questions and debate.
- Is shared decision-making worth it? Evidence of impact on cost and utilization and unintended consequences (Tuesday, May 19, 5:30pm) — As we progress towards value-based care delivery, shared decision-making has been referred to as ‘pinnacle of patient-centered care’. However, shared decision-making definitions and processes are inconsistent across the field and stakeholder organizations. Moderated by Kimberly Westrich (National Pharmaceutical Council, DC, USA), Alan Balch (Patient Advocate Foundation, VA, USA), Karen Fields (Moffitt Cancer Center, FL, USA) and Theresa Schmidt (Discern Health, MD, USA) will debate the cost—effectiveness of shared decision making and patient decision aids, and controversies surrounding their use.
- Pricing for the ‘promise’ of cure — how real-world evidence may become the new lever for payer renegotiations (Wednesday, May 20, 1:45pm) — In this workshop, Fabrizio Gianfrate (University of Ferrara, Italy), Judith Glennie (J.L. Glennie Consulting Inc., ON, Canada), Maximilian Hunt (CBPartners, NY, USA) and Melanie Whittington (University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, CO, USA) will discuss the evolving role of real-world evidence in pricing and reimbursement evaluations of innovative, one-time treatments, such as gene and CAR-T therapies.
Get in touch!
Though we will be unable to meet with you at the event in person as planned, we encourage you to get in touch — and follow us @EvidenceBaseFSG, as we will be live tweeting during the event — to share your top picks ahead of the event, or discuss contributing to interviews or conference reports!