Full Programme - BHBIA Conference

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Plan your conference experience.

Explore the sessions and workstreams.

Explore the full two-day programme for the BHBIA Annual Conference. Each workstream offers a focused lens on a different aspect of business intelligence, from industry excellence to analytics, market research and personal development. Delegates are free to move between workstreams throughout the conference to tailor their experience and explore the sessions most relevant to them.

Day 1 - Monday 27th April 2026 Day 2 - Tuesday 28th April 2026

Workstreams Key

Industry Excellence

Analytics - Performance Analytics and KPIs in a Digital World

Market Research - The Evolving Role of Market Research and Brand Insights

Personal Development - Knowledge, Skills & Behaviours

Diamond Headline Sponsor

Platinum Sponsor

Day 2 - Tuesday 28th April 2026

09:00

Welcome and Introduction including BOBI Awards Overview Sandringham Room Paul O'Nions, BHBIA Chair and Founder - GTMx Consulting Ltd; Katy Bunn, Insights Manager - Chiesi

09:10

Future Proofing Insights: The Human Skills That Will Matter Most in 2030 Sandringham Room VIP STREAM LEAD: Nick Reynolds, Head of Decision Support, Insights and Commercial Enablement- Viatris UK; Danielle Campbell, Director, Insights and Jarlath Mulhern, Senior Research Director – Madano In a landscape shaped by rapid technological advances, shifting priorities, and evolving cultural expectations, the role of the insights professional is in flux. While AI, automation, and new data capabilities are transforming the mechanics of our work, the enduring question is: how do we stay relevant, indispensable, and impactful? This session explores the essential skills that insights professionals, and the function broadly, will need to thrive over the next five years — and beyond. Drawing on industry trends, cross-generational perspectives, and the realities of resource pressures, we'll identify the 'human advantage' that technology can't replicate: empathy, contextual judgement, narrative storytelling, and strategic foresight. The skills will be articulated via human anatomy, tying critical skills to parts of the body, e.g. the brain represents critical thinking, systems thinking, and foresight. We'll also discuss how the function must adapt — from deepening specialisation to connecting insights across more parts of the business, including policy and patient engagement. Attendees will leave with a clear understanding of how to develop and embed these skills within their teams. This is not a session about tools. It's about the skills, mindset, adaptability, and influence needed to remain at the heart of decision-making, no matter how the environment shifts.

09:30

Brains Over Bots: When Human Judgement Matters Sandringham Room Rory Mitchell, AI Lead – HRW How many Ts in Tennessee? This is one of many questions even the latest model of chat GPT has gotten wrong. Worse, it's easy to spot when it gets questions like that wrong, but more difficult when the questions are more complex and there is a less obvious right/wrong answer. The purpose of this session is to start a provocative discussion on when to rely on human expertise over AI. Pulling from several case studies, this session highlights rare disease research, behavioural science, avatar realism, and client proposal assessment where AI might fall short or even mislead.

09:50

Beyond the Tick-Box: Embedding True Impact Measurement Sandringham Room VIP STREAM LEAD: Daniel Sargeant, Head of Business Intelligence - AbbVie; Radhika Bhatia, Global Head of Publication Strategy & Scientific Communication Excellence – UCB; Darren Fleetwood, Head of Data and Analytics and Curtis Widmer, Research & Projects Director – Madano Under constant pressure to streamline, restructure, and prove value? Understanding the true impact of activities has never been more critical. Many teams assume their efforts make a difference. Without robust measurement, that assumption could cost you hard fought for business, your budget — or your role. Too often, success is measured through surface-level execution metrics or activities — number of publications, stand visits, or social media impressions — that say little about whether strategic objectives were achieved or desired outcomes met. This session will challenge attendees to move beyond assumptions and perfunctory KPIs, and instead adopt a robust, outcomes-focused approach to measurement and evaluation. We'll explore how to connect activities — from medical education programmes to publication strategies and marketing campaigns — directly to desired changes in knowledge, behaviour, or attitudes.

10:20

Exhibition (Tea/Coffee) Balmoral Room Visit the Exhibition Area to connect and engage in meaningful discussions with peers from across the industry.

11:00

Conference Workshops

Trust in Healthcare: State of the NationSandringham RoomVIP STREAM LEAD: Simon Edmondson, Global Business Insights - Oncology - AstellasHelen Bennis, Senior Director and Anna Meadows, Head of Behavioural Science - Ipsos

An uncertain geopolitical environment, health systems under increasing pressure, and eroding trust in traditional healthcare communications and institutions.

This session explores how trust in healthcare is being re-defined as the world and society as a whole evolves, and the implications of this for the health system generally and specifically for the pharmaceutical industry.

To what extent does sub-national market access drive uptake and how does it impact forecasting?Surrey RoomVIP STREAM LEAD: Daniel Sargeant, Head of Business Intelligence - AbbVieArby Saboonchian, Customer Experience Director - ValueBase Healthcare Limited

Ever wondered what the correlation is between Trust formularies, guidelines and the uptake of second and subsequent indications approved by NICE? We have! This session will analyse a selection of subsequent indication launches in high-cost drugs, to examine the variance across English Trusts. Results will show the real-world variance in prescribing; the role guidelines play and provide insight on how best to use the findings in forecast funnels and primary market research. Hitherto unseen conclusions will be revealed that show how differences exist and what drives them.

Strengthening partnerships between fieldwork agencies and research consultanciesYork RoomVIP STREAM LEAD: Mehmet Mert, Director of Integrated Insights - NovartisMohammed Saleh Bham, Division Head, Healthcare – Massive Wave Research Michael Schulte, Senior Vice President - Account Management – TriVoca HealthBors Hulesch, Captain - Brains&Cheek

Successful collaboration between research companies, fieldwork agencies, and end clients depends on more than just meeting a project brief. It requires clear communication, role clarity, and mutual understanding of how quality, compliance, and budget considerations intersect. This panel will explore what makes partnerships thrive, how to stand out during RFQ processes, and why the cheapest option is not always the most effective choice.

12:00

Conference Workshops

Improving Fieldwork Inclusivity to Amplify the Patient VoiceSandringham RoomVIP STREAM LEAD: Simon Edmondson, Global Business Insights - Oncology - AstellasMohammed Saleh Bham, Division Head, Healthcare – Massive Wave ResearchLucy Doorbar, CEO and Founder – LDA ResearchCarly Brown, CEO – Liberating ResearchBarbara Brese, Patient Engagement Manager - Boehringer IngelheimPam Cusick, Senior Vice President, Rare Patient Voice

True inclusivity in market research is more than meeting recruitment quotas. It is about ensuring that the patient voices captured reflect the diversity of real-world experiences, particularly for those in underrepresented or marginalised groups. This panel discussion will bring together perspectives from across the industry to challenge current practices, share innovative recruitment methods, and explore how inclusivity can be built into research design from the outset.

12:00 - 12:30: The 8K Future of Physician-Level Prescribing Data That Will Drive Digital MarketingSurrey RoomJenny Dawson, Vice President, Data and Analytics (Head of BIPA Business Unit) - Verpora

Multi-indication products are increasingly the new norm in the world of high-cost drugs, creating challenges across marketing, research, customer experience, and omnichannel. At the root of the issue is how best to accurately measure drug usage by line at prescriber-level. In this session, experts who have pioneered new techniques share how it has been possible to routinely measure account and even physician-level prescribing for multiple indications. The team will show how this insight is can transform digital strategies, best next actions and omnichannel ROI calculations using new insight.

Please note this session will run from 12:00 - 12:30

The Virtual Moderator Revolution: Where AI Chatbots Add Real Value - and What Guardrails They NeedYork RoomVIP STREAM LEAD: Mehmet Mert, Director of Integrated Insights - NovartisDana Al-Juburi, Consultant and Anthony Romain, Research Director – Instar ResearchLaura Baldock, Compliance Director - Ipsos

This session explores the evolving role of AI chatbots as virtual moderators in healthcare market research: what they can unlock today, and what needs to be put in place before going further. Through adaptive probing and real-time engagement, virtual moderators achieve deeper, scalable insights that traditional methods cannot reach at the same cost and speed. But as capabilities expand toward virtual moderators that read voice and facial cues in real time and build persistent models of HCP sentiment over time, the questions become harder: what should a virtual moderator be allowed to do, and where is the line?

13:00

Lunch & Exhibition Balmoral Room Visit the Exhibition Area to connect and engage in meaningful discussions with peers from across the industry.

14:00

Conference Workshops

How Authentic are Research Insights? And What Does Authenticity Even Mean?Sandringham RoomVIP STREAM LEAD: Simon Edmondson, Global Business Insights - Oncology - AstellasVicky Davies, Senior Insight Director and Laurence Olding, Director - Bryter

This session will explore how the industry defines and pursues authenticity in pharmaceutical market research and whether current approaches are fit for purpose. We will challenge the audience to consider whether respondents should remain passive subjects or become active storytellers who shape the insight journey.

We will examine the delicate balance between structured research design and respondent-led exploration, encompassing questions such as:

What does authentic insight look like in pharmaceutical research today?
Is authenticity defined by who we research, what we research or how we research?
How can we get closer to authenticity whilst maintaining research rigour and ethical standards?
Where is the hard stop, and how do we navigate it responsibly?

Ultimately, are we brave enough to truly share the reins with respondents? How could this enhance or endanger insight authenticity?

Empowering Field Excellence Teams to Better Capture HCP InsightsSurrey RoomVIP STREAM LEAD: Daniel Sargeant, Head of Business Intelligence - AbbVieMohammed Saleh Bham, Division Head, Healthcare - Massive Wave ResearchVin Gokhale, MR & Technology Lead - Lifescience Dynamics

Field Excellence teams are uniquely positioned to gather valuable insights from HCP interactions, yet these insights often go under-captured, inconsistently recorded, or under-utilised across the organisation. This webinar will explore how to unlock the full strategic value of Field Excellence by improving the way HCP insights are collected, structured, and leveraged for business impact.

AI Agents in Action: Transforming Healthcare InsightsYork RoomVIP STREAM LEAD: Nick Reynolds, Head of Decision Support, Insights and Commercial Enablement- Viatris UKBen Lorkin, Senior Director – Day One StrategyLili Ferguson, Rare Disease Brand Manager - Pfizer

AI agents are digital tools that act with a degree of autonomy to achieve defined goals, combining data, context, and logic to support human decision-making.

In this session, we will showcase a live deep dive into one client partnership (final case study to be confirmed), showing how we co-designed AI agents to address strategic business challenges and the measurable impact achieved.

Illustrative past examples include:

Defining portfolio-level strategic initiatives to secure long-term market leadership in a competitive therapy area
Mapping brand opportunity spaces using future state simulations to guide pivotal Phase III trial and launch decisions
Optimising narrative and campaign strategy for a global vaccine brand to differentiate in a crowded market and drive prescriber uptake

This builds on our recent work in synthetic data, another strand of innovation in integrating advanced technologies into healthcare insights. Independent reports from Prosus, Capgemini and McKinsey predict AI agents will play a transformative role in the workplace. They are increasingly seen not as experimental tools but as autonomous collaborators reshaping how organisations work today and plan for tomorrow.

We will explore opportunities, barriers and practical steps to evolve these approaches. Attendees will leave with a realistic blueprint for harnessing AI agents, understanding both their potential and the realities of making them work.

15:00

Hard to Reach Audiences and Global Research Challenges: Expert Best Practices Sandringham Room VIP STREAM LEAD: Mehmet Mert, Director of Integrated Insights - Novartis; Alexandra Benoist, Managing Director and Olga Ostrovska, Director of Operations - QQFS Healthcare research isn’t getting simpler—it’s becoming increasingly specialized, targeted, and complex. Today, most studies require access to rare or niche audiences. In this session, we’ll explore why these groups are so difficult to reach across different markets, and how the right methodology combined with strong local partnerships can make all the difference.

15:30

Conference Awards Sandringham Room Nick Coolican Smith, BHBIA Deputy Chair and Director of CRM & CRM Business Intelligence - Theramex HQ UK Ltd

15:40

Closing Remarks Sandringham Room Nick Coolican Smith, BHBIA Deputy Chair and Director of CRM & CRM Business Intelligence - Theramex HQ UK Ltd

15:50

Exhibition (Tea/Coffee) Balmoral Room Your last chance to visit the Exhibition Area to connect and engage in meaningful discussions with peers from across the industry and grab a coffee to go.

16:15

Depart

Day 1 - Monday 27th April 2026

Sponsors & Exhibitors

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