The PREFER project was well represented at the latest ISPOR Europe Congress in Barcelona (10-14 November 2018) with four posters and one Issue Panel named ‘Structural Implementation of Patient Preferences in Health Technology Assessment: Will We Ever Get There?’. The panel was based on a paper with the same name submitted 6 months before, to which ECPC Head of Health & Research Programmes Isabelle Manneh added.
Posters included presentations about 1) focus groups the project has conducted to find out how stakeholders want patient preference studies to be designed, conducted and used, 2) different assessment criteria for decisions, 3) educational and psychological tools, and 4) the preference methodologies we have identified for testing.
The Issue Panel organized by the project focused on the use of patient preferences in Health Technology Assessment (HTA). The panelists discussed if, when and how patient preferences can be taken into account in HTA and helped identify a number of different barriers that prevent the integration of patient preferences in HTA. ECPC Board Member Ken Mastris represented the patient perspective during the panel.