ISPOR Annual 2026 — the annual meeting of the Professional Society for Health Economics and Outcomes Research — recently concluded in Philadelphia, and our Flatiron team left energized by the breadth, rigor, and real-world impact of health economics and outcomes research (HEOR) work currently taking place.
Today, HEOR is central to how we understand diseases, design clinical trials, articulate value, and continuously learn from routine care. This is especially important in oncology, where the rise of high-cost, single-administration, and specialty therapies has made robust budget impact modeling and long-term, whole health outcomes tracking essential ahead of any launch.
We were proud to contribute meaningfully to this year’s program, with 18 accepted research presentations, including 7 posters and a spotlight panel. But even more importantly, we came away with fresh perspectives, practical insights, and inspiration for the year ahead.
Three themes stood out across sessions and discussions this year: AI, access, and real-world evidence (RWE). Here are our key takeaways.
Theme #1 — AI: from experimentation to trust
It’s not surprising that AI dominated the conference agenda this year, with dedicated tracks on generative AI, agentic AI, multimodal LLMs, and digital twins. For ISPOR, 2026 is the year AI became a core HEOR competency1. HEOR researchers today are expected to keep up with new AI breakthroughs and integrate them into their workflows.
The potential is undeniable. AI is already helping HEOR teams streamline literature reviews, accelerate data curation, and model economic impact at unprecedented speed. But the conversation has moved beyond model performance. The real question HEOR teams are asking now is whether AI can be trusted where it matters most?
This question was front and center in the spotlight session we participated in, which focused on balancing efficiency gains with the rigor required for high-stakes use cases such as regulatory and HTA submissions. The consensus was clear: speed is no substitute for clarity. For stakeholders to trust AI outputs, concerns around hallucinations, bias, interpretability, and generalizability must first be addressed through transparent, defensible validation frameworks.
This was also a great opportunity for us to educate the audience on the VALID Framework, a peer-reviewed approach to verify that the EHR data we’re extracting with LLMs aligns with expert human abstraction, makes clinical sense, and can be safely used to replicate established clinical findings.
Clearly, the HEOR community has moved beyond experimentation with AI, and building trust is now a top priority.
Theme #2 — Beyond outcomes: redefining the cost of cancer
The plenary session on day three explored “the true cost of cancer” and how best to align innovation with access and affordability. Recognizing that “the economic burden that cancer imposes on patients, families, health systems, and insurers extends well beyond clinical outcomes,” the panelists explored cost drivers across the full continuum of care and offered a more expansive view of value — one that reflects not just outcomes, but the lived realities of patients navigating treatment.
One message came through clearly: clinical effectiveness is only one part of the value equation. Even the most innovative therapy has limited real-world impact if it remains inaccessible to the patients who need it most.
For HEOR teams, assessing value now requires close monitoring of treatment patterns, identifying access gaps, and a deep understanding of what actually drives patient and physician decisions. Are choices guided by clinical evidence, or by cost, timing, and logistical constraints?
Addressing these questions was a key focus of our conversations at the conference, and the impetus behind Flatiron’s newest service offering to help HEOR teams generate the insights they need to understand real-world decision dynamics and close the gap between efficacy and access.
Theme #3 — The rise of RWE: from supporting role to decision driver
The third theme that stood out at this year’s conference is the evolving role of real-world evidence (RWE) in HTA decision-making. Historically viewed as supplementary to clinical trial data, RWE is increasingly becoming central to how value is assessed — though not without friction.
HTA bodies continue to differ in how — and when — they incorporate RWE into their appraisal processes. But compared to just a few years ago, there is substantially greater openness, particularly in post-launch use cases where richer, more representative data is more readily available.
At Flatiron, we’ve established meaningful data partnerships across the UK, Germany, and Japan — with many more to come. Our life sciences partners are increasingly relying on this depth of local evidence to support HTA submissions and strengthen their local value narratives.
Where local data gaps persist, new models of collaboration are emerging. Through initiatives like Flatiron FORUM, we’re working alongside industry, HTA bodies, and academic experts to explore how evidence generated in one jurisdiction can be responsibly and reliably translated to another — unlocking the potential of cross-border RWE while maintaining methodological rigor.
Across the board, the profile of RWE is rising, and so are expectations.
As influence grows, so does responsibility
Buoyed by advances in RWE, AI, and an expanding definition of value, HEOR teams are playing a pivotal role in regulatory and HTA decisions around the world. But they can’t live up to those expectations without access to reliable data at scale.
Looking ahead, the future of RWE lies in large-scale, multimodal, high-fidelity datasets that not only reflect the complexity of real-world care but are readily accessible to support fast, confident decision-making.
Whether you’re preparing for pricing negotiations, planning an HTA submission, or accelerating your evidence strategy with AI, we can help advance your HEOR strategy. Connect with our partnerships team today.
