Recently, the Medicines Intelligence Centre of Research Excellence (MI-CRE) hosted its 3rd annual MI-CRE Research Symposium and Policy Forum. This year’s theme was “Putting our foot to the floor: Mobilising data to accelerate real-world evidence generation.” The event brought together policy-makers, researchers, and consumers for presentations and panel discussions.
The plenary session, “Turbocharging real-world evidence generation for policy-makers: Lessons from Australia’s first national COVID19 vaccine effectiveness study,” featured presentations from Dr. David Gruen AO, Australian Statistician, Australian Bureau of Statistics, Dr. Phillip Gould, First Assistant Secretary, Department of Health and Aged Care, A/Prof Bette Liu, National Centre for Immunisation Research and Surveillance and UNSW, Ms. Gayle Milnes, National Data Commissioner, and Ms. Anne McKenzie AM, Consumer Engagement Champion.
In addition to these presentations, a special guest presentation was given by world-renowned pharmacoepidemiologist Professor Samy Suissa from McGill University in Canada. His presentation focused on immortal time bias in pharmacoepidemiology and how this can lead to wasted resources funding poorly evidenced RCTs.
Further details about the Symposium can be found on the MI-CRE website along with abstracts and recordings of the sessions.
Overall the MI-CRE event was a success that brought together experts in the field to discuss how data can be mobilized to accelerate real-world evidence generation in healthcare policy making.