There Is Light at the End of the Tunnel

Jens Grueger, PhD, ISPOR President 2020-2021, Director and Partner, Boston Consulting Group, Zurich, Switzerland

My presidency of ISPOR was very different from what I had expected. I think back to ISPOR Europe 2019 in Copenhagen, our last face-to-face meeting before the pandemic.As the President-Elect, I was shadowing then-President Nancy Devlin and learned what it meant to follow as her successor. Almost 6000 participants; full houses for our plenaries, issues panels, spotlight sessions, and oral sessions; busy exhibitor halls; and fantastic poster sessions. I met old and new friends and colleagues from all over the world, from a variety of backgrounds, all excited to connect, share their experiences, and learn from others.

And then the first reports about COVID-19 emerged from Asia, cases were diagnosed in North America and Europe, and we closed down our office in Zurich in early March 2020 after 2 colleagues contracted the virus. ISPOR 2020, which was planned for Orlando, had to be transformed to a virtual meeting at the last minute without any prior experience with how to run such a meeting online.  We learned, improvised, and while there were a few bumps along the way, it worked.  

I started my presidency sitting in my office at home, glued to the Zoom/Teams/WebEx screen, making sure I was not on mute when I wanted to say something, struggling with frozen screens, and bad audio, and trying to figure out how to share my screen. I had to remind myself that while I was in sessions at odd hours of the day or night, it was still less stressful then traveling halfway around the world, dealing with jet lag and dry skin to attend a conference. And I did not have to run from one end of the conference hall to the next and then risk having to stand at the back of the room. Just a few clicks and I was in the next session. When I could not decide which of the parallel sessions to attend, I could replay them easily the day after. I did not meet people in the queue for coffee, but I could chat with them while my Nespresso machine was making me a fresh pot.

Don’t get me wrong, I am very much looking forward to having face-to-face meetings again, but it was an interesting experience being your first virtual ISPOR President.

"I started my presidency sitting in my office at home, glued to the Zoom/Teams/WebEx screen, making sure I was not on mute when I wanted to say something, struggling with frozen screens, and bad audio, and trying to figure out how to share my screen." —Jens Grueger, PhD

 My focus as ISPOR President changed due to the pandemic. For ISPOR, it was all about acting fast, accelerating our digital transformation, and ensuring that we manage the unpredictable financial situation. I was lucky and privileged to be able to work with such an experienced CEO and Executive Director, Nancy Berg, and a very talented and diverse Board of Directors. The ISPOR staff all went the extra mile to support members, directors, chapters, work groups, and conferences, as well the ongoing operations, and I want to thank them all for this. Despite the significant financial loss on our operations, we ended 2020 in a better financial situation than we could have hoped for, thanks to insurance coverage, workforce protection programs, and of course, painful cost cutting.

My vision as ISPOR President included 3 priorities: (1) advancing the science of health economics and outcomes research (HEOR) to address innovative treatment options; (2) broadening the reach of ISPOR to expand capacity for health technology assessment (HTA) and HEOR in low- and middle-income countries (LMIC); and (3) building the leadership pipeline within ISPOR. We have made significant progress on all of these:

• Innovation: Digital technologies have changed the scope of healthcare and the scope of ISPOR. We have seen an increase in digital healthcare, both in the way care is delivered as well as the acceleration in digital technologies, including biomarkers and therapeutics that require new approaches to assessing and monitoring healthcare technologies.

• Emerging markets: In 2020, ISPOR programs were utilized by people from more than 120 countries. The Society has retained robust LMIC member engagement even in the face of the pandemic. We have formed a work group to further advance our strong LMIC engagement and future strategies, including a new LMIC HEOR Excellence Award.

• Leadership development: Focus on this priority has ensured a pipeline of future leaders and continuation of our diversity commitments that are vital to our ability to be our best and a respected society. New mid-career members have joined the Health Science Policy Council and other groups. Engagement of students, new professionals, and mid-career members remains a priority.

"We are a resilient Society that is able to adapt to changes rapidly, even when they are as extreme as what we have experienced with the COVID-19 pandemic." —Jens Grueger, PhD

Looking back at my term as ISPOR President, a number of things stand out:

• We are a resilient Society that is able to adapt to changes rapidly, even when they are as extreme as what we have experienced with the COVID-19 pandemic.

• The mission of ISPOR around improving healthcare decision making is more relevant than ever, as we saw a few weeks ago during our Annual ISPOR 2021 meeting, where our plenaries and many other sessions highlighted the importance of resilient healthcare systems, being supported by data and models, taking a broad perspective on value to improve outcomes for patients.

• While I have not yet met anyone who says that virtual is better than in person, I believe that the push for digitalization in our private and work lives, as well as in our conferences, will stay with us and give us more efficiency and flexibility regarding how we participate and share in the dialogue at our conferences, in particular for those of us who cannot travel to ISPOR meetings.

I had my second vaccination in May. I know that this is a privilege and not all of you are already at that stage, in particular those of you outside of North America and Western Europe. But there is light at the end of the tunnel. More vaccines are available in ever-increasing quantities, we are opening up schools, restaurants, sports clubs, and businesses, and I look forward to seeing you all again in person soon at one of our conferences.