On the 6th-9th October 2019, in the heart of one of the UK’s most vibrant and iconic seaside resorts, Brighton, over 700 people met to discuss the current issues within trials and trials methodology. COMET and core outcome sets had a strong presence at the conference, including a pre-conference workshop, posters and a number of oral presentations featured on the programme. On Sunday 6th October, we held an intimate pre-conference workshop with thirteen engaged participants, coming from as far as China, interested in talking about all things core outcome sets. The workshop had a particular focus on how to find and critically appraise a core outcome set for their trial or area of interest. Many of the issues discussed highlighted the complexity of assessing the applicability of a core outcome set for a specific purpose.

The 18th German National Convention for Outcomes Research took place in Berlin from October 9 to 11, 2019. The overarching theme of the convention was "Taking responsibility together for a learning healthcare system". About 1000 participants attended the conference with broad representation from different stakeholder groups, including researchers, clinicians from different fields, public health practitioners, health policy and decision makers, as well as regulators, industry, and payers. Additionally, approximately 40 patients attended the conference with free admission. On the 10th of October, there was a word café on patient participation in and expectations from outcome research.   
 
In the first international plenary session, Prof. Hywel Williams from the University of Nottingham, who is also Director of the NIHR Health Technology Assessment Programme, gave a keynote lecture on the topic "Tackling Research Waste“.

In his talk, he pointed out that the participation of patients and healthcare practitioners in setting the research agenda, the standardized use of relevant outcome measures, and the complete and accessible reporting of research evidence to all relevant stakeholders are key aspects to avoid research waste. He exemplified the role of core outcome sets (COS) for the prevention of research waste in dermatology by the Cochrane Skin Core Outcome Set Initiative (CS-COUSIN). According to Professor Williams, the final crucial step in making research valuable is the implementation of research findings and conclusions into real life clinical care. This aspect needs more attention and is a necessary requirement for evidence-based learning healthcare systems.   

Core Outcome Sets and the standardization of outcome assessment in routine care were the main topics at the second international plenary session.
In the first keynote lecture, Prof. Stefan Larsson co-founder of the International Consortium of Health Outcomes Measurement (ICHOM) explained the concept of value-based healthcare, in which healthcare professionals are working together focusing on the shared goal to maximize patient benefit and manage resource use over the whole cycle of care.

He highlighted that the assessment of patient reported outcomes in routine care, and the reporting of outcome data within a healthcare network are crucial aspects to improve healthcare. According to Prof. Larsson, the assessment of patient reported outcomes and other relevant aspects of care needs to be standardized on the international level to allow larger scale developments and real world evidence generation to eventually improve our healthcare systems. ICHOM has published such standards for 28 medical conditions and patient groups.

In her keynote lecture, Prof. Paula Williamson, University of Liverpool and co-founder of COMET, covered the topic "Core Outcome Sets in Clinical Research“.

After introducing the concept of COS and the role of COMET as the leading initiative to coordinate and develop COS methodology and dissemination, Prof. Williamson focussed on the current challenges of COS implementation with the OMERACT COS for rheumatoid arthritis as an example of effective COS implementation.
 
Throughout the meeting, outcome assessment, outcome quality and outcome standardization were prominent key aspects in various parallel sessions.