Assessing the US Medical Innovation System Conference

Medical innovation can have a dramatic impact in preventing, treating, curing, or managing health events and illnesses, and the speed of innovation is accelerating with advances in drug discovery and data science. The role of medical innovation in driving better health outcomes is clear from both past and prospective innovations: managing chronic conditions like diabetes, hypertension, and high cholesterol; developing vaccines for new health threats; individualizing therapies for specific cancer presentations; and potentially curing rare diseases through gene editing. The rate and direction of medical innovation, and the value and distribution of its benefits, are shaped by the interaction of a range of policies, institutions, and public- and private-sector actors that together constitute the US medical innovation system. 

With the support of the NIH, the NBER Center for Aging and Health Research will host an in-person conference on Assessing the US Medical Innovation System in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on Friday, March 13, 2026. The conference will be organized by Stacie Dusetzina (Vanderbilt University Medical Center) and Bhaven Sampat (Johns Hopkins University and NBER). 

The conference aims not only to showcase new work on assessing the medical innovation system, but also to create a network of researchers from economics of science and innovation, management, law, health services research, clinical research, public health and other fields working on these topics. The conference is not limited to NBER affiliates. 

We welcome papers or extended abstracts on any subject related to assessing the medical innovation system. Topics of interest include but are not limited to:  

• The roles of the public and private sectors in medical innovation
• Incentives facing public and private sector biomedical researchers
• The effects of public policies on the rate and direction of medical innovation
• The effects of patents and non-patent exclusivities on medical innovation, competition, prices, and access
• Drug pricing, payment policy, and medical innovation
• Measures and methods for estimating the value of medical innovation
• New data sources for measuring medical innovation, and validation of existing measures
• Studies of the causes and effects of innovation in specific disease areas or fields
• Innovation in payment and reimbursement models

We are open to research at different stages of completion, though results should be ready for presentation by March. 

To be considered for presentation at the meeting, upload papers or extended abstracts to, https://conference.nber.org/confsubmit/backend/cfp?id=MIAs26, no later than 11:59pm ET on Monday, December 22, 2025. Authors chosen to present papers will be notified by January 10, 2026.

The NBER will cover hotel and economy-class conference travel for up to two authors per paper.

Please share this call with others who may be interested in submitting a paper. Logistical questions about this meeting should be directed to confer@nber.org; other questions, to Sarah Holmes Berk at sholmes@nber.org.