Themes shaping ISPOR 2026: From expanding to RWD sources to fit-for-purpose RWE

As the global HEOR community prepares for ISPOR 2026, this series explores the key themes emerging across the program and what they signal for evidence generation, decision-making, and the future of the field.

Real-world evidence (RWE) has been determined by ISPOR—The Professional Society for Health Economics and Outcomes Research as the second-ranked trend in its 2026–2027 Top 10 HEOR Trends report, reflecting its growing importance across the field and its expanding role in regulatory, payer, and policy decision-making.

In part two of our “Themes shaping ISPOR 2026” series, we highlight sessions focused on real-world data (RWD) and RWE. Topics span regulatory use, applications in value assessment, rare diseases, medical devices, and later stages of the product lifecycle. There is also a spotlight on dissemination, with discussions on publication standards and how evidence is interpreted by journals, payers, and regulators.

Compared with previous years, the field has moved beyond positioning RWE as a complementary source of evidence, to whether it is fit for purpose, decision-relevant, and methodologically robust. The sessions at the conference this year reflect a more mature phase for RWE, where quality, transparency, and alignment with decision needs determine whether evidence is used in practice.

What can attendees expect to learn from these sessions?

Attendees will gain insight into how different data sources, including claims, electronic health records, registries, pharmacy data, and emerging sources such as social media and public datasets, can be used to address specific research questions. Sessions will examine approaches to strengthening study design, including trial emulation, external control arms, and comparative effectiveness methods, alongside strategies for ensuring evidence meets regulatory and payer expectations. A particular highlight will be the session featuring speakers from the US FDA, which will provide unique insights into the agency’s use of RWE in regulatory decision-making.

Selected sessions

The evidence advantage: How life sciences leaders are winning with real-world data

Date and time: Monday May 18, 2026, 12:05pm – 12:30pm
Moderator: Myla Maloney (Premier Applied Sciences)
Speakers: Thomas Dougherty (Novo Nordisk), Ryan Farej (Bayer US LLC), Stephen Johnston (Johnson & Johnson) and Cheng Yang (Takeda Pharmaceuticals)

Advancing patient experience data to strengthen patient-centered real-world evidence

Date and time: Monday May 18, 2026, 12:15pm – 1:15pm
Moderator: Alan Balch (Patient Advocate Foundation and National Patient Advocate Foundation)
Speakers: Elisabeth Oehrlein (Applied Patient Experience, LLC), Robyn Carson (Abbvie) and Angela Dobes (IBD Plexus at Crohn's & Colitis Foundation)

Beyond the claim: What your real-world evidence (RWE) may be missing without retail pharmacy data

Date and time: Monday May 18, 2026, 12:45pm – 1:15pm
Speakers: Joaquim Fernandes (CVS Healthspire™ Life Sciences Solutions) and Jonathan DeShazo (CVS Health)

Resolved that HEOR and RWE scientists should actively architect RWD vs be an end user of RWD: A debate

Date and time: Monday May 18, 2026, 1:45pm – 2:45pm
Moderator: Eberechukwu Onukwugha (University of Maryland, Baltimore School of Pharmacy)
Speakers: Aaron Kamauu (Navidence, Inc.), Mary Beth Ritchey (Med Tech Epi, LLC), Sandipan Bhattacharjee (Bayer US LLC) and Ernest Law (Pfizer)

Advancing real-world evidence in FDA regulatory decision making

Date and time: Monday May 18, 2026, 1:45pm – 2:45pm
Moderator Marie Bradley (FDA)
Speakers: Motiur Rahman (FDA), Joel Weissfeld (FDA) and Shirley Wang (Brigham & Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School)

Real-world patient voice at scale: Can social media listening inform US payer and access decisions?

Date and time: Monday May 18, 2026, 1:45pm – 2:45pm
Moderator Dimple Dang (MarksMan Healthcare Communications Private Limited)
Speakers: Shreekant Parasuraman (Incyte) and Mukul Singhal (Johnson and Johnson)

Closing the clinical impact evidence gap: Practical RWE strategies for medical devices and diagnostics using registries, research partners, and regulatory data

Date and time: Tuesday May 19, 2026, 10:30am – 11:30am
Moderator: Artem T Boltyenkov (Siemens Healthcare Diagnostics, Inc.)
Speakers: Colleen F Longacre (Medtronic) and Mattias Kyhlstedt (ATHAGORAS Holding GmbH)

Advancements in real-world evidence (RWE) to accelerate access in rare cancers: challenges, methods, and decision making

Date and time: Tuesday May 19, 2026, 12:15pm - 1:15pm
Moderator: Shilpi Swami (ConnectHEOR)
Speakers: Sandipan Bhattacharjee (Bayer US LLC), Diana Brixner (University of Utah) and Scott Ramsey (Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center)

Coordinating the quagmire: Real-world evidence in value assessment in later stages of the product life cycle

Date and time: Tuesday May 19, 2026, 1:45pm – 2:45pm
Moderator: Ambarish J Ambegaonkar (APPERTURE LLC)
Speakers: Shanthy Krishnarajah (Johnson and Johnson), Laura Pizzi (ISPOR) and Dan Ollendorf (Institute for Clinical and Economic Review [ICER])

Navigating strategies for comparative effectiveness from trials to real-world evidence

Date and time: Tuesday May 19, 2026, 3:15pm – 3:45pm
Moderator: Priti Jhingran (Genesis Research Group)
Speakers: Craig Parzynski (Genesis Research Group) and Alexandra Z Sosinsky (Genesis Research Group)

Raising the bar on RWE for publication: A discussion with leading journal editors

Date and time: Tuesday May 19, 2026, 3:15pm – 4:15pm
Moderator: Sebastian Schneeweiss (Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School)
Speakers: Shirley Wang (Brigham & Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School), Christine Laine (Annals of Internal Medicine), Gregory Curfman (Journal of the American Medical Association [JAMA]) and Daniel Solomon (Arthritis and Rheumatology)

The future of RWE: Claims and EMR were just the beginning

Date and time: Tuesday May 19, 2026, 3:30pm – 4:00pm
Moderator: Amy Eaves (Cardinal Health)
Speakers: Bruce Feinberg (Cardinal Health), Andy Klink (Cardinal Health) and Harlen Hays (Cardinal Health)

Rewriting the global evidence playbook: China’s emergence as a strategic hub for evidence generation

Date and time: Wednesday May 20, 2026, 8:00am – 9:00am
Moderator: Lung-I Cheng (AESARA)
Speakers: Sheng Feng (LinkDoc Technology), Kasey Fu (Vertex) and Hui Huang (CSD Partners LLC)

Beyond commercially available real-world data: Harnessing public data for HEOR research in the US and globally

Date and time: Wednesday May 20, 2026, 10:00am – 11:00am
Moderator: C Daniel Mullins (University of Maryland School of Medicine)
Speakers: Cameron C Cook (Amgen), Fang-Ju (Irene) Lin (National Taiwan University) and Lia N Pizzicato (IQVIA)

Coverage of ISPOR 2026 by The Evidence Base

Our editorial team will be attending some of these key sessions, where we’ll be sharing key insights in our daily round-ups published at the end of each day of the conference. Follow The Evidence Base on LinkedIn for live updates throughout the meeting. And for exclusive post-event analysis and session round-ups, register on our site to receive regular updates.