NPC Presentations at the ISPOR 18th Annual International Meeting

NPC staff members and collaborators presented on several recent research projects at the International Society for Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research (ISPOR) 18th Annual International Meeting that was held May 18-22 in New Orleans. Accountable care organizations (ACOs), CER and innovation, real-world evidence (RWE) and individual treatment effects were among the topics discussed during the meeting. Among the highlights:

• The CER Collaborative Initiative--a joint effort by NPC, the Academy of Managed Care Pharmacy (AMCP) and the International Society for Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research (ISPOR)— led an educational symposium sharing tools the group and their members developed to assist in the assessment of evidence for formulary decision-making. Following up to this symposium, a plenary session was presented, “Assessing the Evidence for the Health Care Decision-Maker—A CER Collaborative Presentation,” later in the week.
• NPC Chief Science Officer Dr. Robert Dubois moderated a panel discussion on real-world observational studies. Panelists, who included the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality’s Jean Slutsky, The Lewin Group’s Paul Wallace and HealthCore’s Dr. Marcus Wilson, focused on the utility of observational studies that have large sample sizes and heterogeneous patient populations in clinical and policy decision-making.
• NPC Director of Comparative Effectiveness Research Dr. Jennifer Graff spoke about the development and application of a tool for health care decision-makers to assess and consider heterogeneity in coverage decisions. Joining her on the subject were Karen Van Nuys, PhD, senior research economist, Precision Health Economics, and Michael X. West, PhD, senior payer medical science liaison, GlaxoSmithKline.
• Dr. Dubois discussed how ACOs can strive to increase quality and lower costs of care by optimizing their use of pharmacotherapies with fellow panelist Marv Feldman, MS, RPh, managing principal, consulting services group, Premier Inc, and moderator Eleanor Perfetto, PhD, MS, senior director, reimbursement & regulatory affairs, federal government relations, Pfizer Inc.
• Three poster presentations highlighted research projects, including one on the “exploration of heterogeneity in distributed data networks,” another on the GRACE principles checklist, and a third looking at the impact of CER on innovation, presented by NPC Director of Policy Research Dr. Daryl Pritchard.