Health Economics
Description
Health Economics deals with how individuals and societies choose to allocate scarce productive resources among alternative uses for health promotion, illness prevention, health maintenance and health improvement, as well as the considerations of equity in the distribution of access to health care services and equity in the distribution of health outcomes. Members of this cluster are engaged in studying the role of incentives, behaviours of health care providers and patients, health system characteristics, health services institutions, and evaluation of health technology and policy that influence health of the individuals and populations, including marginalized populations. Using a variety of mathematical and statistical techniques, members of this cluster publish theoretical models, empirical evaluation of theoretical insights, cost-effectiveness analyses, value of information analyses, and comparative effectiveness analyses to inform policy decisions from a variety of perspectives.
Vision
To improve clinical and population health outcomes in a cost-effective manner.
Goals
- Undertaking innovative and policy-relevant health economics research that will generate publications in the world’s leading Health Economics, Health Policy, Health Care Management, and Epidemiological and Clinical journals.
- Training the new generation of undergraduate, graduate and post-doctoral trainees interested in cutting-edge health economics and economic evaluation research.
- Advancing methodological research in the field of health economics by drawing new insights from Economic Theory, Econometrics, Statistics, Epidemiology, Biostatistics, Management Science, Computer Science, and Life Sciences.
- Contributing to national and international policy decision making through knowledge translation and exchange activities.
Recent Cluster Activities
Graduate students and faculty from the Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry, Ivey Business School and the Faculty of Health Sciences at Western University (approximately 40) attended the first Health Economics Research Day at Western University held on June 17, 2019. The researchers presented recent theoretical and empirical research conducted in the field of Health Economics at Western.
The following papers were presented and discussed:
- Lauren Cipriano, PhD, Ivey School of Business -- "Optimal Infectious Disease Treatment Policy With Drug Resistance"
- Matthew Meyer, PhD, LHSC -- "An evaluation of funding reform for stroke in Ontario, Canada"
- Greg Zaric, PhD, Ivey School of Business -- "The impact of pharmaceutical marketing on market access, treatment coverage, pricing and social welfare"
- Aneeka Hafeez, MSc Candidate, Epidemiology and Biostatistics -- "Cost-effectiveness of pharmacogenomics-based (PGx) warfarin therapy compared to standard care for patients diagnosed with atrial fibrillation in Ontario, Canada"
- Yujie Chen, MSc Candidate, Epidemiology and Biostatistics -- "Is SABR cost-effective in oligometastatic cancer? An economic analysis of SABR-COMET randomized trial"
- Sisira Sarma, PhD, Epidemiology and Biostatistics -- "Primary health care reform in Canada: Economic perspectives"
- Nibene Some, PhD, Epidemiology and Biostatistics -- "Stirring the pot: Switching from blended fee-for-service to blended capitation models of physician remuneration"
- Thy Vu, MSc Candidate, Epidemiology and Biostatistics -- "Mental health service utilization in primary care and Emergency Department settings: A comparison of Ontario’s FHGs and FHOs"
- Mary Bamimore, PhD Candidate, Epidemiology and Biostatistics, -- "Quality of diabetes mellitus care in Ontario’s FHGs and FHOs"
- Hongmei Sun, PhD Candidate, Ivey Business School -- "Mitigating drug shortages: Should hospitals use their own drug manufacturer?"
- Michael Hong, PhD Candidate, Epidemiology and Biostatistics -- "The impact of Ontario’s after-hours premium on emergency department utilization"
- Yue Niu, MSc Candidate, Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Collaborative Specialization in Biostatistics -- "Prediction models for the Health Utility Index Mark 3 in Ontario"
