OBJECTIVES: To determine the top 10 trends in Health Economics and Outcomes Research (HEOR) by using a best–worst scaling (BWS) method.

METHODS: The BWS object case (Case 1) design was used to develop a web-based questionnaire survey. A total of 25 HEOR topics and 11 real-world evidence (RWE) issues were obtained from the discussions among ISPOR Health Science Policy Council committee members. Balanced incomplete block design was used to generate three sets of 10 HEOR choice tasks and one set of 11 RWE choice tasks. A total of 777 ISPOR members, a 10% subsample of the full Top 10 survey, were asked to identify the most and least important topics or issues from one set of the HEOR tasks and the RWE task. BWS score was calculated using frequency count of each topic or issue being selected as most or least important.

RESULTS: A total of 90 members completed the surveys. The majority of them worked in either pharmaceutical industry (33.3%) or health research/consulting firms (18.9%). Almost 50% of them were from North America. Approximately 41% of them identified their principal professions as either economist or outcomes researcher. Based on the BWS scores, the top 10 HEOR trends were real-world evidence (0.49), universal health coverage (0.37), novel curative therapies (0.33), value-based alternative payment models (0.25), digital technologies (0.23), price transparency (0.21), value assessment frameworks and process (0.21), aging population (0.21), drug pricing (0.17), and precision medicine (0.14). The top three RWE issues were RWE to establish comparative and cost effectiveness (0.28), improving credibility of real-world data studies (0.27), and use of real-world outcomes for risk-sharing agreements (0.17).

CONCLUSIONS: This BWS study identified RWE as the most trending HEOR topic. Among all RWE issues, the use of RWE to establish comparative and cost effectiveness was the most important issue.