ISPOR Europe 2025: preview of the plenary sessions

Conference coverage on The Evidence Base continues with a first look at ISPOR—The Professional Society for Health Economics and Outcomes Research, who have announced details for ISPOR Europe 2025, taking place in Glasgow, November 9–12, 2025. This year’s theme, “Powering Value and Access Through Patient-Centered Collaboration,” underpins four days of patient-centered discussions focused on value, access, and innovation across Europe. In this preview, I explore the three plenary sessions that will frame the conference dialogue and share a “Why It Matters” perspective on what these discussions could mean for the broader HEOR and RWE community.

Plenary 1

Patient Engagement in Healthcare Investments—A Promise or a Practice?

Date and time: Monday November 10, 2025, 8:30am – 9:45am
Moderator: Joep Muijrers (Gilde Healthcare Partners, The Netherlands)
Speakers: Carole Longson (UK), Steffen Thirstrup (European Medicines Agency, The Netherlands), David H-U Haerry (Positivrat, Switzerland) and Luc Truyen (Argenx, USA)

Patient engagement has become a cornerstone of healthcare innovation and policy, but questions remain about its real-world impact. This plenary session will bring together stakeholders from across the health ecosystem, including investors and patient representatives, to examine what effective engagement looks like in practice. Discussion will focus on moving beyond consultation toward measurable outcomes that improve access, relevance, and efficiency, with the goal of defining concrete deliverables for the next five years.

Why it matters

At The Evidence Base, we’ve seen meaningful patient engagement emerge as one of the most discussed and, at times, divisive topics across our community. What I find particularly compelling about this session is its intent to move from conversation to concrete action – bridging the gap between principle and practice. By hearing directly from such a diverse group of stakeholders, I hope this discussion will help clarify what genuine patient involvement looks like in reality and how it can tangibly shape access and decision-making across Europe.

Plenary 2

Pragmatic Trials—Bridging Research and Real-World Care

Date and time: Tuesday November 11, 2025, 8:30am – 9:45am
Moderator: Denis Lacombe (EORTC, Belgium)
Speakers: Antonella M Cardone (Cancer Patients Europe, Belgium), Michael Zaiac (Daiichi Sankyo Europe, Switzerland), Beate Wieseler (IQWiG, Germany), Richard Sullivan (King’s College London, UK), Natasha Azzopardi-Muscat (WHO Europe, Denmark) and Francesco Pignatti (European Medicines Agency, The Netherlands)

This plenary will explore how pragmatic trials can help bridge the gap between research and real-world care. While traditional explanatory trials are essential for demonstrating efficacy, their strict eligibility criteria often limit the diversity and applicability of results. Incorporating pragmatic elements, including broader inclusion criteria, real-world endpoints, and streamlined designs, can make evidence more relevant to everyday clinical practice. The discussion will also consider how such trials could improve equity in research participation and accelerate therapeutic development, while addressing ongoing challenges around feasibility, regulatory acceptance, and resources.

Why it matters

Pragmatic trials have been gaining attention across the HEOR and RWE community, particularly as the field strives to embed greater patient centricity into evidence generation. With this year’s conference theme focused on patient-centered healthcare decision-making, it’s fitting that pragmatic trials feature as one of the plenary topics. I’m keen to hear how the panel addresses the growing call, from both regulators and HTA bodies, for evidence that better reflects routine clinical practice.

Plenary 3

RWE in European Healthcare Decision Making—What's in it for Patients?

Date and time: Wednesday November 12, 2025, 11:30am – 12:45am
Moderator: Karen Facey (University of Edinburgh, UK)
Speakers: Maria Dutarte (EUPATI, The Netherlands), Pall Jonsson (NICE, UK), Sofie Gustafsson (Pfizer, Sweden) and Renske Los (Erasmus MC, The Netherlands)

RWE is increasingly shaping healthcare decision-making across Europe – not only for systems and stakeholders but, most importantly, for the patients they serve. By capturing how treatments perform in routine clinical settings, RWE offers valuable insights into patient outcomes, experiences, and unmet needs. This plenary will bring together multiple perspectives to discuss how strategic cross-border partnerships and technological advances, including AI, can help realize the full potential of RWE. The session will also consider the challenges of data quality, interoperability, and governance, and how ongoing initiatives such as DARWIN EU are laying the groundwork for more connected and patient-centered evidence generation.

Why it matters

RWE has become growing theme in European healthcare policy, but its translation into patient benefit remains a central challenge. I’m particularly interested in how this discussion will address the shift from data collection to real impact and how insights from real-world sources can meaningfully influence access, safety monitoring, and treatment outcomes. The inclusion of perspectives from EUPATI and NICE will be especially valuable: EUPATI continues to champion meaningful patient involvement in evidence generation, while NICE’s experience in integrating RWE into health technology assessment provides practical lessons on applying these data to access decisions. With initiatives such as DARWIN EU and the European Health Data Space (EHDS) working to enable more connected, interoperable data use, this session should offer a timely reflection on what success should look like from a patient perspective and how Europe can ensure that RWE delivers tangible value in everyday care.

Coverage by The Evidence Base

As a media partner for ISPOR Europe 2025, I’ll be on site in Glasgow with my colleagues to provide comprehensive coverage of the conference. We’ll share in-depth plenary summaries, Deep Dive features on key sessions, and Peek Behind the Poster interviews with some of the experts presenting at the event. You’ll also find our daily round-ups and highlights on our dedicated ISPOR event page and across our social media channels.

Partner with us

Our ISPOR conference coverage consistently draws strong engagement from the global HEOR community, providing sponsors with enhanced visibility through high-quality content and thought leadership opportunities. If your organization would like to be featured on our dedicated event page – before, during, or after the conference – get in touch to discuss available options.

For more information about partnership opportunities around this key event, please contact Dionne Basterfield.