Themes shaping ISPOR 2026: Making patient-centered evidence meaningful in decision-making
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.
Patient experience, preferences, and outcomes are increasingly shaping how evidence is generated and used in healthcare decision-making. Identified by ISPOR—The Professional Society for Health Economics and Outcomes Research as the sixth-ranked trend in its 2026–2027 Top 10 HEOR Trends report, patient centricity is becoming an increasingly central focus in HEOR.
In this third article in our “Themes shaping ISPOR 2026” series, we highlight sessions examining how patient input is being integrated across the evidence lifecycle, from clinical trial design to health technology assessment (HTA) and economic modeling. The sessions reflect a shift from engagement toward structural integration, with a focus on how patient insights shape endpoints, value frameworks, and decision-making. This marks a more mature phase, where the challenge is not whether patient perspectives matter, but how they are incorporated in a way that is explicit, methodologically robust, and relevant to decision-making.
What can attendees expect to learn from these sessions?
These sessions will examine how patient experience and preference data are being incorporated into evidence generation, from clinical trial design and endpoint selection to economic modeling and HTA. Attendees can expect discussion on the development and use of patient-reported outcomes, digital endpoints, and patient preference data, alongside emerging approaches such as AI-driven analysis and social media listening. A key focus will be how patient input moves beyond consultation to influence decisions in practice. Sessions will also address ongoing challenges, including how to balance patient insights with clinical evidence, and how to integrate these perspectives in a structured and methodologically robust way.
Selected sessions
Patient experience data as a non-negotiable: Can US payers afford to stay behind?
Date and time: Monday May 18, 2026, 10:30am – 11:30am
Moderator: Martin Rost (AESARA)
Speakers: Brian O'Rourke (Brian O'Rourke Health Care Consulting Inc.), Robyn Carson (AbbVie) and Denise Sánchez Palomo (Opus Regulatory)
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)
Collaborating with patients to define digital endpoints and biomarkers that truly matter
Date and time: Monday May 18, 2026, 3:15pm – 4:15pm
Moderator Anita D Burrell (Anita Burrell Consulting LLC)
Speakers: Bryan Bennett (Jazz Pharma), Angie Botto-van Bemden (Musculoskeletal Research International) and Arturo Cabra (GE HealthCare)
The NextGen of clinical trials: Patient-driven or tech-driven?
Date and time: Monday May 18, 2026, 4:45pm – 5:45pm
Moderator Danny Yeh (Aesara)
Speakers: Tracey Sikora (National Organization for Rare Disorders), Ebony Dashiell-Aje (BioMarin Pharmaceutical, Inc.) and Selena Daniels (US Food and Drug Administration)
Date and time: Monday May 18, 2026, 4:45pm – 5:45pm
Moderator Maja Kuharic (Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine)
Speakers: David Cella (Northwestern University), Robyn Bent (US Food and Drug Administration) and Courtney Hurt (Northwestern University)
Date and time: Tuesday May 19, 2026, 10:30am – 11:30am
Moderator: Shelby Reed (Duke Clinical Research Institute)
Speakers: Karen V MacDonald (IQVIA Canada), Juan M Gonzalez (Duke Clinical Research Institute) and Mo Zhou (Novartis)
Making preferences count: Patient-engaged values clarification for individual-level decision making
Date and time: Tuesday May 19, 2026, 12:15pm - 1:15pm
Moderator: Holly Peay (Faegre Drinker Biddle & Reath)
Speakers: Angie Botto-van Bemden (Musculoskeletal Research International), Christine Poulos (RTI Health Solutions) and Janine van Til (University of Twente)
The time has come for patient-centric composite endpoints in comparative studies
Date and time: Tuesday May 19, 2026, 4:45pm - 5:45pm
Moderator: Pishoy Gouda (University of Calgary)
Speakers: Shelby Reed (Duke Clinical Research Institute) and Satoshi Shoji (Duke Clinical Research Institute)
Date and time: Tuesday May 19, 2026, 4:45pm - 5:45pm
Moderator: Marco Boeri (OPEN Health)
Speakers: Jessie Sutphin (Duke Clinical Research Institute). Jennifer Whitty (Thermo Fisher Scientific) and Juan M Gonzalez (Duke Clinical Research Institute)
Date and time: Wednesday May 20, 2026, 8:00am – 9:00am
Moderator: Jennifer Miller (Yale School of Medicine)
Speakers: Pamela Gavin (National Organization for Rare Disorders), Alan Balch (Patient Advocate Foundation and National Patient Advocate Foundation) and Cosmina Hogea (Gilead)
Date and time: Wednesday May 20, 2026, 8:00am – 9:00am
Moderator: Christine Poulos (RTI Health Solutions)
Speakers: Holly Peay (Faegre Drinker Biddle & Reath) and Jason Roberts (US Food and Drug Administration)
From engagement to influence: What should patient-centered economic models actually look like?
Date and time: Wednesday May 20, 2026, 10:00am – 11:00am
Moderator: Joe Vandigo (Applied Patient Experience, LLC)
Speakers: Ramiro E Gilardino (R-Impact), Marina Richardson (ICER) and Eric W Low (Eric Low Consulting)
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.
Dedicated journal publishing to patient-centered research
The Journal of Patient Centricity (JPC), published by Becaris Publishing in partnership with the Patient-Centric Sampling Interest Group (PCSIG), is an open-access, peer-reviewed journal dedicated to advancing patient-centric approaches in the most impactful ways possible, helping transform innovation, diagnosis and treatment as healthcare continues to evolve. Through thorough evaluation and broad coverage, it offers its audience, including researchers, clinicians, patients, policymakers, and industry professionals, essential data and insights to advance the field. Authors interested in discussing their work on public and patient involvement to better patient-centered care, are encouraged to submit their work and contribute to this growing body of knowledge.
JPC welcomes submissions on PPIE, patient-centered methods, and practical implementation. We encourage contributions from multidisciplinary teams and from authors with lived experience, including patients and patient advocates, whether as co-authors or lead authors.
The journal welcomes research articles, reviews, methods papers, commentaries, and case studies. Submit your manuscript or share a proposal today to contribute to this growing evidence base and help strengthen patient centricity in practice.
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