International Society for Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research (ISPOR) Annual Meeting (May 17-20, 2021 - Virtual Meeting).

COVID-19 has pushed us to think differently about health and its delivery, and following the declaration of pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO), value chains have been largely broken and must be rebuilt and redesigned. COVID-19 brought the whole world to a standstill, and its impact on overall healthcare utilization and cost trends is undeniable; as such, the importance of public health expertise and health economics outcomes research (HEOR) to support and inform public health cannot be overstated. The virtual International Society for Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research (ISPOR) meeting brought together experts and leaders in the HEOR field to explore topics that will shape healthcare decision making over the coming decades and to consider the useful lessons learnt from COVID-19 and how these will impact healthcare decisions in the post-COVID-19 era.

International Society for Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research (ISPOR) (November 4-6, 2019 - Copenhagen, Denmark).

With 2019 shaping up to be another significant year for health economics and outcomes research, and increasingly innovative health technologies affecting both the cost and impact of healthcare decisions, rapid change is affecting healthcare systems in real time. The theme of this year's International Society for Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research (ISPOR) Europe annual meeting was centered on digital transformation of healthcare; over 4,000 attendees from over 90 countries spent the day in the discussion of the changing roles and shared responsibilities of increased digitization, which involves major changes not only in technology but also in the way care is organized and delivered.

An unusual incident: carbon monoxide poisoning risk in 540 homes due to faulty wood burner installations.

BACKGROUND: This report describes the public health management of an unusual incident involving an increased risk of carbon monoxide (CO) exposure due to the installation of at least 541 wood burners in a local authority area in Wales. PUBLIC HEALTH ACTIONS: An incident management team (IMT) was convened. The IMT assessed and managed the public health risk associated with the wood burners and promoted CO awareness in the local population. OUTCOMES: At least 541 homes were found to have had a wood burner potentially incorrectly installed by a Heating Equipment Testing and Approval Scheme-registered engineer. Local residents were made aware of the dangers and provided with free CO alarms. CONCLUSIONS: This incident highlights that even registered engineers may fail to follow guidelines. It is important to inform the public of the need to have a working CO alarm at home, as well as educating the public and professionals about the symptoms and signs of CO poisoning.

American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) - 55th Annual Meeting (May 31-June 4, 2019 - Chicago, Illinois, USA).

The theme for this year's meeting of the American Association of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) was 'Caring for Every Patient, Learning from Every Patient'. The meeting consisted of oral, plenary and educational sessions, as well as poster presentations and discussions about important topics in the field of oncology, such as precision medicine, the latest in cancer research impacting patient care, new treatment options and insights for improving access to care. This 55th ASCO annual meeting was held from May 31 to June 4 in Chicago, Illinois, and was attended by over 40,000 cancer experts from around the world who followed a robust program providing opportunities to teach, engage and, most importantly, bring the oncology field together with the aim of improving care for patients with a cancer diagnosis. This report covers some of the later-stage developments and results presented at the meeting.

The Financial Times Global Pharmaceutical and Biotechnology Conference. Embracing Disruption for a New Era in Health (November 5-6, 2018 - London, UK.

The Financial Times (FT) Global Healthcare conference brought together top-level executives and leaders in global healthcare and technology around a fascinating and thought-provoking agenda. Consisting of a wide range of expert panel discussions chaired by the FT and Deloitte's specialist editors, as well as a series of keynote CEO interviews, the conference took an in-depth and nuanced view of the forces of disruption colliding in healthcare at the moment. Gains in R+D are implicit, but beyond this, technology and data disruption can potentially transform all aspects of healthcare through patient-centered care, the march of big data, advanced analytics and the entrance of new players in the market such as technology firms and app providers. While the economics may be intrinsically challenging, and uncertainty and complexity are inherent throughout, the FT conference assembled visionaries of this healthcare future providing a captivating insight of the forces which are so fundamentally altering the structure of the industry.

Evidence Europe 2017. London, UK - February 22-23, 2017.

As the political backdrop changes in both the U.S. and Europe, volatility in the pharma industry is beginning to be felt as the sector becomes sensitive to the uncertainty. U.S. President Trump has stated he will pursue an agenda against high U.S. drug prices and is expected to seek to repeal the Affordable Care Act, while in Europe, Brexit casts further unknowns in regulatory authorization procedures, trade and external reference pricing. With these factors in mind, Terrapin's Evidence Europe meeting provided for a very topical discussion on the use of evidence to define and communicate value in healthcare. With a particular focus on real-world evidence, the conference used presentations, panel briefings and roundtable discussions to foster debate on the challenges faced by industry as it negotiates the current fragile environment.

Highlights from the 52nd Annual Meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) (June 3-7, 2016 - Chicago, Illinois, USA).

The theme of the 52nd Annual American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) meeting, 'Collective Wisdom', was intended to represent the importance of consolidating clinical advances with expertise in areas such as health informatics, pathology and economics in order to improve the role of practice providers in delivering cancer patients every component of quality care. As expected, immunotherapy and precision medicine featured heavily in the 2016 program. Gathering 30,000 oncology professionals in Chicago, educational and science sessions gave the attendees the opportunity to discuss and view ground-breaking research.

Evidence 2016--A Health Network Communications Conference (February 24-25, 2016--London, UK).

Defining, standardizing and interpreting are the keys to evidence use throughout healthcare and at each point in the care decision process. The generation of evidence at each step is also critical to define and constitute value from the information gathered, and not gathered, for each stakeholder in the care pathway. Health Network Communications' Evidence 2016 conference provided the opportunity for attendees to consider diverse evidence methodologies globally and their wide-ranging use, from economic modeling initiatives, to framing value assessments in health technology assessments, to leveraging real-world data to support market access.

European Pharmaceutical Pricing and Reimbursement--SMi's 21st Annual Meeting (October 5-6, 2015--London, UK).

Translating perceived market value for pharmaceutical products into a willingness to pay remains the key factor in ensuring market access and return on investment. How price is managed in the context of new market entrants or new approval settings can create complex challenges, and further complexity is added through diverse global reimbursement structures and the myriad of stakeholders involved at every step of value identification. SMi's 21st Annual Meeting on European Pricing and Reimbursement presented a program focused on the measures being taken by European healthcare systems as they seek to facilitate access to the latest treatments while delivering value for payers and patients. Supporting patient access to life-changing medicines is a challenge, and funders are responding in many different ways; however, while the pharma industry continues to focus its efforts on high cost drugs that treat diseases of the few, the disconnect will be not be resolved. The speakers and delegates at the annual meeting believe success is possible by focusing on value for patients, driven by provider experience, scale and learning. Instead of simply lowering costs, companies, providers and payers can more adequately contribute to the goals of funders as well as the treatment needs of patients.

American Psychiatric Association - 168th Annual Meeting (May 16-20, 2015 - Toronto, Canada).

The theme of this year's American Psychiatric Association (APA) meeting was 'Psychiatry: integrating body and mind, heart and soul', with special focus given to advances in basic and cognitive neuroscience and how these may contribute to integrated care of mental health and illness. The program featured numerous tracks and subtracks in areas of interest such as addiction psychiatry, child, adolescent and geriatric psychiatry, and psychosomatic medicine.

Syndromic surveillance to assess the potential public health impact of the Icelandic volcanic ash plume across the United Kingdom, April 2010.

The Health Protection Agency and Health Protection Scotland used existing syndromic surveillance systems to monitor community health in the UK following the volcanic eruption in Iceland in April 2010.

Chemical incidents: are we ready in the West Midlands? Testing the communication arrangements of on-call public health doctors.

Primary care trusts are responsible for handling major chemical hazards. This includes the testing and exercising of plans in a regular and routine manner. The Chemical Hazards and Poisons Division (Birmingham), which provides a 24-h, 365-day resource for the West Midlands region in the UK, undertook an audit to test the out-of-hours communication arrangements of public health doctors. The audit revealed that there is an urgent need to: (1) review contact details within on-call packs; (2) ensure that doctors performing on-call duties know, at the very least, the names of the primary care trusts/local authorities, county councils/other trusts in the area; and (3) ensure a failsafe method for contacting the person on call for public health.

What is responsible for the carcinogenicity of PM2.5?

AIMS: To test whether exposure to known chemical carcinogens in the atmosphere is capable of explaining the association between concentrations of PM2.5 and lung cancer mortality observed in the extended ACS Cohort Study. METHODS: Taking account of possible cancer latency periods, lung cancer rates due to exposure to As, Cr(VI), Ni, and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) were calculated based on a review of historic measurements from the United States and the use of unit risk factors. The predicted rates were compared with rates of cancer attributable to PM2.5 derived from data in the ACS study. RESULTS: Despite many uncertainties, the lung cancer rates predicted due to exposure to US urban concentrations of the carcinogenic substances arsenic, nickel, chromium, and PAHs measured in 1960 and earlier (and hence allowing for a latency period) were within the range predicted on the basis of the ACS Cohort Study due to exposure of PM2.5. There are, however, many caveats, most particularly that for the chemical carcinogens to be responsible for the effects attributed to PM2.5 by Pope and colleagues, the concentrations of chemical carcinogens at the time of relevant exposures would need to be correlated with the concentrations of PM2.5 in US urban areas measured between 1979 and 2000 and used in the ACS study. CONCLUSIONS: While many uncertainties remain, it appears plausible that known chemical carcinogens are responsible for the lung cancers attributed to PM2.5 exposure in the extended ACS Cohort Study. However, the possibility should not be ruled out that particulate matter is capable of causing lung cancer independent of the presence of known carcinogens.

Temporal and seasonal variation in the occurrence of chemical incidents.

AIMS: To determine whether there were temporal or seasonal patterns in the occurrence of chemical incidents reported to the West Midlands Chemical Incident Surveillance System, UK. METHODS: A retrospective analysis of reports maintained on a computerised database was carried out for information received from January 1997 to December 2001. RESULTS: Annual numbers of events increased significantly from 77 (7.5%) in 1997 to 282 (27.4%) in 2001. Compared to the average of other seasons, proportionately more incidents occurred in the summer (29.3%). Compared with the average of other days, incidents were more likely to occur on Thursdays (17.1%) and least likely on Saturdays (8.9%). When grouped together on a six hourly basis incidents were most frequent between 12 00 and 17 59 (31.1%) and least frequent between 00 00 and 05 59 (21.2%). CONCLUSIONS: The surveillance system shows that chemical incidents do not occur randomly but have marked temporal and seasonal variation. These results have implications for service provision, training, and the development of preventive strategies.