Connecting real-world datasets to provide deeper insights into the patient journey
At ISPOR Europe 2025, Bruce Feinberg and Nicholas Lazarou of Cardinal Health assessed practical methods for improving real-world evidence through connected datasets. Their session explored data-integration challenges, the contribution of community networks, and how platforms such as SoNaR can enhance survival analyses and support more robust, regulatory-grade evidence.
Long-term outcomes are difficult to assess using real-world evidence, particularly when community-practice data are incomplete, inconsistent, or fragmented across systems. Improving data capture in these settings is essential to bridge the persistent gap between clinical trials and real-world experience. Doing so requires moving beyond structured fields and curating information from multiple sources to build a complete view of each patient’s treatment journey.
At ISPOR Europe 2025, the session “The Real-World Mosaic: Uniting Data to Illuminate the Patient Experience” examined these issues through the lens of Cardinal Health’s experience in urology and oncology. Moderated by Bruce Feinberg (Chief Medical Officer, Cardinal Health) and featuring Nicholas Lazarou (Sr. Director, Clinical and Scientific Insights, RWD/E, Cardinal Health), the discussion focused on practical methods for integrating heterogeneous real-world data sources into a coherent analytic structure. The session assessed technical, operational, and methodological considerations involved in creating a “real-world mosaic” of evidence. This Deep Dive explores the session’s key themes.
About the speakers
Bruce Feinberg, DO
Chief Medical Officer, Cardinal Health
Bruce Feinberg, DO, is Vice President, Clinical Affairs and Chief Medical Officer for Cardinal Health. He is nationally recognized for his expertise in specialty oncology and the business of specialty healthcare. Dr Feinberg has been instrumental in the development of clinical pathways that aim to control costs, improve quality, and increase predictability, all of which are key factors in developing a sustainable approach for caring for patients with high-cost diseases. A highly sought-after researcher and speaker on healthcare policy, value-based care and RWE research, Dr Feinberg has over 200 publications in peer-review; and he is also the author of the bestselling Breast Cancer Answers and its follow-up book, Colon Cancer Answers.
Nicholas Lazarou, MPH, MBA
Sr Director, Clinical and Scientific Insights, RWD/E, Cardinal Health
Nicholas Lazarou, MPH, MBA, is an accomplished epidemiologist and expert methodologist driving innovation in health informatics and pharmaceutical analytics. As Sr Director of Clinical & Scientific Insights at Cardinal Health, he leads strategies that advance RWE and specialty care. Products under Nick’s leadership include intelligence visualization and delivery programs that optimize standards of care, clinical research, business operations, and payor contracting. His leadership helped propel Specialty Networks’ successful acquisition and continues to shape data-driven solutions impacting thousands of providers nationwide. A frequent contributor to peer-reviewed research and industry panels, Nick champions rigorous methodology to improve outcomes and deliver measurable value.
Sponsorship for this Deep Dive was provided by Cardinal Health.