Newswise — Princeton, NJ—November 23, 2015—The International Society for Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research (ISPOR) 18th Annual European Congress recently concluded in Milan, Italy. Health ministries and government officials from more than 40 countries convened in Milan on 7-11 November, 2015 with over 5,000 ISPOR delegates, including health technology assessment (HTA) bodies and decision makers, leading researchers and academicians, public and private payers, patients and patient advocates, and other key health care stakeholders.

The ISPOR European Congress provides an unbiased global platform for prominent experts involved in health economics and outcomes research (HEOR) to meet, share information, and discuss the use of HEOR research and scientific methods in health care decision making. The ISPOR Congress helps further ISPOR’s mission to promote health economics and outcomes research excellence to improve decision making for health globally.

Highlights of the 2015 ISPOR European Congress comprised several seminal HTA summits, including the Health Technology Assessment (HTA) Roundtable, and a multi-stakeholder Patient Representatives Roundtable.

Three notable plenary sessions were featured, including the 11 November session, Recommendations from the ISPOR Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) Emerging Good Practice Task Force and Remaining Controversies. MCDA is an increasingly important practice that uses a broad set of methodological approaches to assist healthcare decision making. MCDA has emerged as a important assessment tool in an era of expensive but valuable health technologies. The ISPOR MCDA Task Force Recommendations are the subject of a report that will be published in early 2016 in Value in Health, the official journal of ISPOR. Information on ISPOR’s MCDA in Health Care Decision Making Emerging Good Practices Task Force may be found at http://www.ispor.org/TaskForces/Multi-Criteria-Decision-Analysis-GRP.asp.

“ISPOR has become the ‘network of networks,’ leading the effort to facilitate global communication and collaboration around the use of HEOR to improve decision-making for health globally,” noted ISPOR CEO, Nancy Berg. “The ISPOR European Congress is a vital platform to drive critical conversations among leading health economists, scientists, researchers, academicians, health care bodies and decision makers, patients, and other key stakeholders, and features a virtual ‘who’s who’ in the field.”

This year’s influential Congress drew a total of 5,229 delegates from over 90 countries—a 9% increase over last year’s European Congress. The Congress was co-chaired by François Meyer, MD, Advisor to the President, International Affairs, French National Authority for Health (HAS), Saint-Denis La Plaine, France and Lorenzo G. Mantovani, DSc, Associate Professor of Public Health, Research Centre on Public Health (CESP), University of Milano-Bicocca, Monza, Italy. Released presentations from the ISPOR 18th Annual European Congress are available at http://www.ispor.org/Event/ReleasedPresentations/2015Milan.

ISPOR also recognized a number of 2015 Award Program recipients at the Congress. Notably, the ISPOR Avedis Donabedian Outcomes Research Lifetime Achievement Award was presented to Professor Anthony John (Tony) Culyer, CBE, Hon DEcon, FMedSci, Emeritus Professor of Economics, University of York, UK, who received a standing ovation from the Congress delegates. ISPOR’s Research Presentation Podium and Poster Awards were also presented at the Congress.

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ABOUT ISPORThe International Society for Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research (ISPOR) is a nonprofit, international, educational and scientific organization that promotes health economics and outcomes research excellence to improve decision making for health globally. Web: www.ISPOR.org | LinkedIn: http://bit.ly/ISPOR-IN | Twitter: http://bit.ly/ISPOR-T (@ISPORorg) | YouTube: http://bit.ly/ISPOR-YT |Facebook: http://bit.ly/ISPOR-FB

ABOUT VALUE IN HEALTH:Value in Health (ISSN 1098-3015) publishes papers, concepts, and ideas that advance the field of pharmacoeconomics and outcomes research as well as policy papers to help health care leaders make evidence-based decisions. The journal enjoys a 5-year Impact Factor of 3.373 and is ranked 7th out of 71 journals in health policy and services (social sciences), 13th out of 89 in health care sciences and services, and 14th out of 333 in economics (social sciences). Value in Health is published bi-monthly and has over 8,000 subscribers (clinicians, decision makers, and researchers worldwide).Web: www.ispor.org/valueinhealth | Twitter: http://bit.ly/ISPORjournals-T (@ISPORjournals)

Meeting Link: ISPOR 18th Annual European Congress