ISPOR Real-World Evidence Summit 2024: event preview
ISPOR—The Professional Society for Health Economics and Outcomes Research has recently announced details of ISPOR Real-World Evidence Summit 2024, being held on November 17, 2024. The in person, one-day event will take place prior to ISPOR Europe 2024 in Barcelona, Spain.
The Summit will focus on practical approaches to utilizing RWE in research, decision-making, and policy implementation, featuring expert-led sessions on health technology assessment (HTA), causal inference methods, data heterogeneity, and advancing the use of RWE in decision-making for innovative medicines. The program has been developed by several industry leaders and researchers dedicated to the advancing role of RWE, led by the program committee chairs Massoud Toussi (Vice President, Global Head of RWE, Cytel, France) and Shirley Wang (Associate Professor, Brigham & Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, USA).
The Summit's program is organized into four sessions, each featuring a diverse group of experts who will lead attendees through the practicalities of utilizing RWE in research and development, decision-making and policy implementation.
Session 1: Unleashing the Latent Power of Real-World Evidence in Decision-Making
Shirley Wang will be joined by Ashley Jaksa (Aetion, Inc., USA), Maria Kamusheva (Sofia Medical University, Bulgaria) and Steve Williamson (National Institute for Health and Care Excellence [NICE], UK) to discuss the recent successes and ongoing challenges in using RWE for HTA, highlighting key successes while addressing issues including evidence transportability, data quality, and methodological limitations.
Session 2: Methods for Causal Inference Using Real-World Data
Moderated by Uwe Siebert (UMIT TIROL – University for Health Sciences and Technology Hall in Tirol, Austria and Harvard Chan School of Public Health Harvard University, USA), this session will explore methodological approaches and frameworks for causal inference, providing insights into mitigating potential biases in RWE. Barbra Dickerman (Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health, USA) will discuss the target trial emulation framework while Nicholas Latimer (University of Sheffield & Delta Hat Limited, UK) will explore hypothetical estimands in clinical trials and their relevance to RWD and cost-effectiveness. Sebastian Schneeweiss (Brigham & Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, USA) will focus on addressing differential measurement issues in external control arm analyses through calibration and hybrid designs.
Session 3: Embracing Diversity and Tackling Heterogeneity in Data, Methods, and Jurisdictions
Patrice Verpillat (European Medicines Agency [EMA], Amsterdam, The Netherlands) will lead the discussion exploring the sources of heterogeneity in RWD and strategies to address it, focusing on how differences in RWD across healthcare settings influence outcome variation. Speakers will discuss designs and statistical methods to assess and reduce this variability, enhancing the value of RWD for decision-making by regulatory bodies, HTA agencies, and payers. The discussants include Daniel Prieto-Alhambra (Oxford University, UK), Chantal Quinten (EMA) and Daniel Rosenberg (Johnson & Johnson – Innovative Medicine, Basel, Switzerland).
Session 4: Overcoming Obstacles: Charting the Path Ahead
The final session of the summit is based on the work of RWE4Decisions, a multistakeholder, payer-led, learning network seeking to understand the role and value of RWE in decision-making for highly innovative medicines. During this session, moderated by François Meyer (FIPRA, Paris), panelists will discuss new actions developed by the RWE4Decisions initiative aimed at enhancing the accessibility and quality of RWD and improving the use of high-quality RWE in HTA decision-making. Speakers, including Niklas Hedberg (Dental and Pharmaceuticals Benefits Agency, Stockholm, Sweden), Jana Hlaváčová (European Multiple Sclerosis Platform, Prague, Czech Republic), Piia Rannanheimo (Finnish Medicines Agency, Kuopio, Finland), Conor Teljeur (Health Information and Quality Authority, Dublin, Ireland), and Massoud Toussi (Cytel, Paris, France), will explore how stakeholders in HTA, industry, and analytics companies can implement these new actions.
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The Evidence Base team will be attending both the ISPOR Real-World Evidence Summit 2024 and ISPOR Europe 2024 to provide exclusive coverage of these important events. All content, including our conference round-ups, plenary insights and ‘Deep Dives’ of several key sessions, will be featured on our ISPOR event page and shared via social media channels.
If you’re attending the conference and are interested in meeting with the team to be interviewed for The Evidence Base, or you are interested in contributing to the Journal of Comparative Effectiveness Research, please email Jo Walker.