Mon 9 Nov
8:30 - 10:00
Plenary Session 1: Opening Remarks and Special Address
Join us as we kick off ISPOR Europe 2026 with opening remarks from Rob Abbott, ISPOR’s Chief Executive Officer, and a special address from Olivér Várhelyi, Commissioner for Health and Animal Welfare, European Commission. Under this year’s conference theme, Shaping the Future of Access through Science and Policy, Rob Abbott’s welcome will highlight the transformative role of health economics and outcomes research in advancing patient-centered care, strengthening global health systems, and addressing pressing challenges such as affordability, adoption, and health disparities. Commissioner Várhelyi’s message will offer a European policy perspective, setting the stage for discussions on how science and policy can advance access, support innovation, and improve outcomes that matter to patients.
Speakers
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Rob Abbott
ISPOR, Lawrenceville, NJ, United States
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Olivér Varhelyi
Health and Animal Welfare European Commission, Brussels, Belgium
Plenary Session 1: The Science of What Matters: Rethinking Value in Healthcare
Scientific innovation is reshaping our understanding of disease and creating new possibilities for improving health. This session will examine whether current approaches to disease classification, healthcare system design, and value assessment are limiting our ability to realize the full value of healthcare innovations for patients, societies, and health systems. Through provocative perspectives from thought leaders outside the HEOR field, a fireside chat, and audience participation, the session will challenge attendees to consider whether advances in science and mounting pressures on healthcare system sustainability require a rethinking of how value in health is defined, measured, and realized.
Moderator
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Sandra Nestler-Parr, MPhil, MSc, PhD
Biocryst Pharmaceuticals, London, United Kingdom
Speakers
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Harald Schmidt, PharmD, PhD, MD
Maastricht University, Maastricht, Netherlands
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Sally Lewis, MBBCh, MSc, FRCGP
Kintsugi International, United Kingdom
Tue 10 Nov
Plenary Session 2: We Optimize Treatments—But How Do We Optimize the System?
Building on the opening plenary’s exploration of what value means, this session shifts the focus to where value is created across healthcare systems. HEOR has developed sophisticated methods for evaluating individual health technologies, yet existing practices, care pathways, and delivery models that may provide limited value are often subject to far less scrutiny.
Through brief expert perspectives and an interactive moderated discussion, the session will examine how HEOR can evolve from product-centric assessment toward system-level value creation. Speakers will explore the barriers to more holistic resource allocation—including system inertia, political will, professional resistance, and methodological limitations—and highlight opportunities to identify low-value activities, optimize care delivery, and redirect resources toward innovations that improve population health and system performance.
Moderator
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Rasmus Gjesing, MSc Pharm, MSc HPPF
Copenhagen, Denmark
Speakers
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Ricardo Baptista Leite, M.D.
Geneva, Switzerland
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Jakub Dvorácek, MHA
Pluxee, Praha, Czech Republic
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Carole Longson, PhD
University of Manchester, Manchester, United Kingdom
Carole Longson has over 30 years of executive and board experience in life sciences and is an internationally respected leader in Health Technology Assessment and Market Access. After a career in drug discovery at GSK, she spent 18 years at NICE pioneering its Technology Appraisal and Health Tech Evaluation programs, later serving as Chief Scientific Officer at the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry. A former HTAi President and EUnetHTA Executive Committee member, she has advised the European Commission and WHO. She is currently Vice Chair of Medicines Discovery Catapult UK and senior counsel in HTA and market access.
Plenary Session 2: Presidential Address, and Keynote Speaker
Begin day two of ISPOR Europe 2026 with inspiring insights from ISPOR’s President Beth Devine and our Keynote speaker Ricardo Baptista Leite, CEO of NOVA Center for Global Health.
Immediately following the opening presentations, the scientific plenary panel will take the stage.
Speakers
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Beth Devine, MBA, MSc, PharmD, PhD
University of York, York, United Kingdom
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Ricardo Baptista Leite, M.D.
Geneva, Switzerland
Wed 11 Nov
11:30 - 13:00
Plenary Session 3: Closing Reflections and the Scientific Future of HEOR
As ISPOR Europe 2026 draws to a close, join us for final reflections and forward-looking perspectives from the Society’s leadership. ISPOR’s Chief Executive Officer will highlight key takeaways from the conference, while the Chief Science Officer and Executive Director of the new ISPOR Institute for Healthcare Transformation will share updates on ISPOR’s evolving scientific priorities and opportunities for member engagement.
Immediately following the opening presentations, the scientific plenary panel will take the stage.
Speakers
Plenary Session 3: Fit for Purpose: What HEOR Evidence Must Become
Bringing the conference to a forward-looking conclusion, this plenary asks: If healthcare systems are asking new questions about value, what evidence will they need—and how must HEOR evolve to deliver it?
As priorities expand to include population health, system resilience, sustainability, and long-term societal outcomes, decision-makers need evidence that extends beyond individual interventions and spans pharmaceuticals, medical technologies, care delivery, prevention, and public health. Through perspectives from payers, clinicians, evidence-generation experts, and data science leaders, the session will explore how more integrated evidence ecosystems can support complex resource-allocation decisions and align stakeholders around shared outcomes.
The discussion will also examine the potential of artificial intelligence and advanced analytics to enable faster, more adaptive evidence generation, continuous monitoring, and predictive decision support. It will consider the accompanying challenges of credibility, trust, methodological rigor, and implementation—and what HEOR must do to remain relevant and actionable in an increasingly interconnected healthcare landscape.
Moderator
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Malina Müller, BA, MA, PhD
WifOR Institute, Darmstadt, Germany
Speakers
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Nick Guldemond, PhD
Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, Netherlands
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Marie Gerstrøm Kristiansen, MSc
Amgros, København Ø, Denmark
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Nirosha Lederer, PhD
AstraZeneca, Washington, DC, United States
I am a life sciences real-world evidence, medical and corporate affairs executive with a track record for building and scaling innovative functions to accelerate patient access to medications through data.
As a health policy and data science expert, I’ve dedicated my career to healthcare transformation through innovation and value. I fundamentally believe data, evidence, and AI are critical tools to improving patient lives and building a better healthcare system.
Drawing from experiences at FDA, Capitol Hill, consulting, industry, academia, and thinktanks, I broker relationships between decision-makers across the ecosystem and build novel partnerships to accelerate patient access to drugs and improve care quality.
At AstraZeneca, I am building the company’s global health policy evidence generation capabilities - a first-of-its-kind industry function. We are also collaborating with global stakeholders to advance the development and implementation of resilient and sustainable health delivery models.
