The International Society for Quality of Life Research (ISOQOL) 30th Annual Conference took place last month in Calgary, providing the opportunity for researchers, healthcare professionals, industry representatives, and patient research partners to explore the use of patient-reported outcomes in commercial and academic research. Sam Llewellyn, Associate Director, Patient-Centered Research, and Sally Vincent, Senior Consultant, attended from Vitaccess – we recently caught up with Sam and Sally for their take-aways from the conference.
“This year’s ISOQOL conference provided a great opportunity to catch up with new and existing clients, as well as ex-colleagues, and was brimming with relevant scientific content that left us both inspired.
The conference felt very inclusive, reflected in the fact that the opening plenary focused on engaging under-represented populations in health-related quality of life assessment. Notably, Dr. Mitchell R. Lunn (Stanford University School of Medicine) did a fantastic and thought-provoking presentation on how researchers can, and should, be more inclusive when it comes to sexual and gender minorities.
Additionally, various stakeholders expressed interest in capturing patients’ experiences and perspectives in clinical trial settings by implementing entry, in-trial, or exit interviews. Our attention was captured by this, considering Vitaccess’ extensive experience in the collection of qualitative data via patient interviews – often in rare diseases, where this approach to data collection can be especially valuable in addressing research gaps.
The conference saw the inaugural meeting of the new Digital Health and eCOA Special Interest Group (SIG), which was co-founded by Anna Richards (Head of Commercial at Vitaccess).
We also attended the Health Preference and Patient Engagement SIG meetings, and are both looking forward to further involvement in these groups.”
It was great to hear our team members’ feedback from the conference, and to learn about emerging developments and best practices that fall in line with the work that we do at Vitaccess. If you are interested in learning more about our capabilities, including in the implementation of entry, in-trial, and exit interviews, please get in touch at info@vitaccess.com.
