ISPEP community comes together at the 2025 Patient Centricity & Collaboration World Congress

This two-day conference was something special. After a tumultuous year of Pharma restructures topped off with attacks on diversity, equity, and inclusion in clinical trials, it was an especially important time to come together as a professional community, celebrate the wins, and highlight the crucial next steps.

ISPEP Founder and Chief Patient Officer Emma Sutcliffe was the Chair of Day One, also hosting a panel discussion of case studies and delivering a presentation introducing ISPEP to the conference attendees – many of whom were already members!

Emma's overview of the ISPEP community, including the pioneering sponsors without whom this wouldn't be possible!

“ISPEP is addressing the challenges PEPs face every day: the bare minimum budget, the job insecurity, the lack of career pathways and recognition. ISPEP is for patient engagement professionals. That is our core duty, and we will never forget that.”

— Emma Sutcliffe, ISPEP Founder and Chief Patient Officer

Star ISPEPer Robert Mitchell-Thain co-chaired Day Two, and many sessions had ISPEPers front and centre – with Dr. Victoria Harvey-Jones and Steve Clark discussing the importance of patient-integrated medical education, Professor Lara Bloom sharing strategies for boosting patient engagement in healthcare, and more.

ISPEPers unite! From left to right: Victoria Harvey-Jones, Monica Kleijn Evason, Rachael Remaly Franco, and Steve Clark.

Recent ‘PEP Talks’ guest Monica Kleijn Evason did a fantastic job providing (temporary and voluntary!) ISPEP tattoos to conference attendees, and it was extremely exciting to have new members sign up ‘live’ in the room with us.

Robert Mitchell-Thain of the PBC Foundation receives a uniquely-placed ISPEP tattoo courtesy of communications skills coach Monica Kleijn Evason.

“PFMD and ISPEP are really helping us come together and share best practices and resources. We've found our tribe."

— Glenn Darley, Patient Engagement Lead, EMEA, Recordati

Rasmus Hjorth of James Lind Care introduces himself as a "Proud ISPEPer" – go Rasmus!

Further, we were thrilled and deeply moved to hear multiple shout-outs for ISPEP from presenters including Glenn Darley, Patient Engagement Lead, EMEA at Recordati, Rasmus Hjorth, Patient Engagement Director at James Lind Care, and Ify Osunkwo, Chief Patient Officer, Rare Disease at Novo Nordisk.

As if all that wasn’t enough, our CEO Alex Charge was also presenting on patient engagement in decentralised clinical trials (DCTs) at the sister DCT / hybrid trials congress happening in the same building!

Chairing a congress is a very serious job...

Overall, it’s safe to say our wonderful Society certainly made a splash. Huge thank you to our members for making it a truly special event to remember. But enough about us – watch this space for upcoming session highlights, including case studies, fast facts, and more.

What would you like see from ISPEP at the next patient engagement conference? Let us know in the comments!