ISPOR Interpretive Reports Are Designed to Provide an Accessible Summary of Health Economic and Outcomes Research (HEOR) Findings
Lawrenceville, NJ, USA—October 27, 2026—ISPOR—The Professional Society for Health Economics and Outcomes Research announced today that it has launched its first Interpretive Report on the HARPER Protocol Template, which establishes shared expectations for how researchers should document and communicate the scientific decisions underlying their real-world evidence studies.
ISPOR Interpretive Reports are designed to provide everyday language summaries of ISPOR Good Practices Reports for the field of health economics and outcomes research (HEOR). This Interpretive Report, “Improving Transparency and Credibility of Real-World Evidence Research: The HARPER Protocol Template,” is the first that the Society has published. In future, additional Interpretive Reports will be published on other Good Practices Reports.
The HARPER protocol template was designed to improve the clarity, completeness, and structure of real-world evidence studies. This is important as the use of real-world evidence is increasing dramatically. These studies can help healthcare decision makers better understand how treatments perform for patients in the real world. Yet despite the value of real-world evidence, lack of transparency in study design can raise questions about the credibility of some studies. Consistent use of HARPER by researchers has the potential to significantly improve the reproducibility, transparency, and trustworthiness of real-world evidence studies. Patients benefit by having their coverage and prescribing decisions better grounded in sound evidence.
“We are very excited to feature the HARPER Protocol Template for ISPOR’s very first Interpretive Report publication,” stated ISPOR CEO Rob Abbott. “Interpretive Reports are intended to make important HEOR insights accessible and understandable for everyone who might benefit from them. The HARPER Protocol Template is an ideal publication for ISPOR’s first Interpretive Report because of its importance in making real-world evidence studies more transparent and trustworthy.”
The original publication can be found here.
The citation for this article is:
Wang SV, Pottegård A, Crown W, et al. HARmonized protocol template to enhance reproducibility of hypothesis evaluating real-world evidence studies on treatment effects: a Good Practices Report of a joint ISPE/ISPOR Task Force. Value Health. 2022;25(10):1663-1672.
Additional information:
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ABOUT ISPOR
ISPOR—The Professional Society for Health Economics and Outcomes Research (HEOR), is an international, multistakeholder, nonprofit dedicated to advancing HEOR excellence to improve decision making for health globally. The Society is the leading source for scientific conferences, peer-reviewed and MEDLINE®-indexed publications, good practices guidance, education, collaboration, and tools/resources in the field.
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