On November 30^th and December 1st, 2017, the Polish Pharmacoeconomic Society organized the 15th International Conference dedicated to the valuation of medicines in European countries.

The Conference was preceded by workshops educating participants on extrapolation of data and reimbursement decision-making process.

The Conference was opened by Zoltan Kalo's lecture on drug pricing in the Central and Eastern European countries, followed by a panel discussion with representatives from those countries. The panel discussion was moderated by the President of the Polish Pharmacoeconomic Society - Maciej Niewada and Undersecretary of State in the Ministry of Health - Marcin Czech and the invited to the discussion were Zoltan Kalo from Hungary, John Yfantopoulos from Greece, Jiri Samek from the Czech Republic and Tomas Tesara from Slovakia.

The remaining part of the first day of the Conference was dedicated to the assessment of health technologies in Poland, and among the speakers there were representatives of the Agency for Health Technology Assessment and Tariffs. The issues discussed were concerning the challenges which the Agency is facing.  That included discussion about limited data, challenges during the process of issuing opinions in the context of guidelines for diagnostic and therapeutic procedures and the challenges during the evaluation of benefits and quality in the health policy programs assessment.

On the second day the lectures were focused on medical devices in the context of the Reimbursement Act, risk sharing instruments, hospital network law, HTA and quality criteria. There was also a session focused on real-world evidence. It was discussed what data quality means and how to ensure good quality of a registry, what the RWD usage in Poland is and how the RWD from registers is used by decision-makers in the Czech Republic. In addition there were sessions to discuss the research on EQ-5D-5L in Poland and the use of HTA in oncology in a hospital setting.  

Traditionally, there were presentations of original and student works as well as diplomas for the best work in the field of pharmacoeconomics were given.

Professor Elżbieta Nowakowska received the title of Honorary Member of the Polish Pharmacoeconomic Society.

The Journal of Health Policy and Outcomes Research organizes the 5^th Scientific Conference. It will take place in Warsaw, 13^th April 2018 and the main focus will be on hot topics of healthcare in Poland.