By Sara Gray, Associate, Programs 

On October 23, the National Health Council (NHC) along with our partners at the Duke-Margolis Center for Health Policy hosted the first webinar in a new series, “An Introduction to Real-World Data and Real-World Evidence: A Virtual Training for the Patient Community,” which is scheduled to run through April 2021. The introductory webinar, Real-World Data and Real-World Evidence 101, kicked off the series and featured Eleanor Perfetto, PhD, MS, Interim CEO and Executive Vice President, Strategic Initiatives at the NHC. 

Dr. Perfetto introduced the new webinar series, presenting the topics to be covered in future webinars and additional resources that will form part of the NHC’s new RWE classroom. To lay the foundation for the series, she defined the essential terms: 

• Real-World Data (RWD): Data about patients’ health and the delivery of their health care, which are routinely collected as part of getting care or daily living. RWD can come from a variety of sources, such as electronic health records, health insurance claims and billing, mobile health apps, and surveys. RWD are information that is not collected in a traditional, randomized clinical trial.  
• Real-World Evidence (RWE): Clinical evidence from research studies about the use and possible benefits or risks of an intervention. It comes from analyzing real-world data (RWD). 

As compared to traditional research, RWE typically examines more diverse patient populations, longer-term outcomes, real-life costs of care, and the everyday environment and use of medicines. Findings from RWE studies can complement and augment findings from traditional research. Furthermore, these findings can be incorporated into regulatory decision-making, used in quality measurement, and to monitor adverse events.   

After the formal presentation, a Q&A session was held where many of the attendees presented questions related to future webinar topics, including issues surrounding data privacy concerns, patient-reported outcomes, and regulatory decision-making.