The Role of Health Economics

AssociationsBill Swan, Deputy CEO

International Health Economics Association

2nd AfHEA Conference, Saly Sénégal, March 15, 2011

Who Am I?

• bill@healtheconomics.org

• bill.swan@healtheconomics.org

• Really persistent fellow who KEEPS sending you e-mail

• Operations

• Fundraising

• Accounting

• Program Development

• Etc.

2nd AfHEA Conference, Saly Sénégal, March 15, 2011

Who is iHEA?

• Charity registered in the US

• Virtual organization with 3.5 staff (3 in Nova Scotia, Canada & 0.5 in Philadelphia)

• Mission“… formed to increase communication among health economists, foster a higher standard of debate in the application of economics to health and health care systems and assist young researchers at the start of their careers.”

• Humbly attempting to extend academic tradition of peer review from the Royal Society London, Alexandria & Timbuktu

2nd AfHEA Conference, Saly Sénégal, March 15, 2011

Brief Timeline of Health Economics• 1905-1960 – Activity in many centres in the UK & US – ILO & SSA

• 1958 – Kessel  “Price Discrimination in Medicine”

• 1961 – Weisbrod Economics of Public Health

• 1963 – Arrow, Fuchs, Klarman

• 1968 – Baltimore Conference

• 1972 – HESG, HERO

• 1973 – Tokyo Conference

• 1975 – AHES

• 1980 – Rotterdam Conference

• 1989 – Barcelona Conference

• 1990 – Zürich Conference

• 1992 – Paris Conference

• 1993 – iHEA Formed

2nd AfHEA Conference, Saly Sénégal, March 15, 2011

A Little History of iHEA

• Incorporated in 1993 by Tom Getzen

• By the end of 1994 had about 350 members

• Small snail mailed newsletter called HEAL

• NO – I mean NO – conferences

• Early relationships with Elsevier, Wiley & Springer

2nd AfHEA Conference, Saly Sénégal, March 15, 2011

What Does iHEA Do Now?• 2500 members in 70+ countries

• Linkage

• Web Page

• Jobs

• iHEAweek eNewsletter

• Conferences (Vancouver 1996, Rotterdam 1999, York 2001, San Francisco 2003, Barcelona 2005, Copenhagen 2007, Beijing 2009, Toronto 2011, Sydney 2013, Milan 2015, Boston 2017?)• Scholarships• Technical support for other conferences (ECHE – Zürich 2012, Dublin 2014,

ASHEcon – Madison 2006, Duke 2008, Cornell 2010)

• Supports Development of Affiliates• AfHEA, Asia-Pacific Health Econ Association (China), IHEPA, etc.

• Social Science Research Network• eJournals• On-line proceedings

2nd AfHEA Conference, Saly Sénégal, March 15, 2011

Health Economics Network (HEN)

2nd AfHEA Conference, Saly Sénégal, March 15, 2011

SSRN eJournal

2nd AfHEA Conference, Saly Sénégal, March 15, 2011

8th World Congress Website

2nd AfHEA Conference, Saly Sénégal, March 15, 2011

2011 iHEA World Congress Toronto: Transforming Health & Economics

• Pre-Congress Jul 7-10, Congress Jul 10-13

• 2000+ attendees expected

• Current scholarship requests between $300,000-$400,000

• Record 193 submitted organized sessions: each getting 5 unblinded reviews

• 1500 + individual abstracts: each getting 5 blinded reviews

• 864 oral presentations, 510 oral-poster presentations & 300-400 posters

2nd AfHEA Conference, Saly Sénégal, March 15, 2011

Pre-Congress Sessions 1

• National Health Accounts (Jul 7 & 8)

• The Role of the Private Sector in Health Systems (Jul 9)

• Asthma & Economics (Jul 9)

• Government & Economics (Jul 9)

• Methods for Addressing Endogeneity and Selection Bias in Observational Studies (Jul 9)

• US Healthcare Cost & Utilization Project (HCUP) Session (Jul 9)

2nd AfHEA Conference, Saly Sénégal, March 15, 2011

Pre-Congress Sessions 2

• Understanding Options to Improve Efficiency in Healthcare Spending and Healthcare Financing (Jul 10)

• Equity and Financial Protection in Health - Measurement and Explanation (Jul 10)

• Modeling Health Care Costs and Counts (Jul 10)

• Overview of New Data from the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) Including Data Linked to Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security Records (Jul 10)

• Economic Case for Upstream Public Health Interventions with a Global Perspective (Jul 10)

• Investing in Child Health to Improve Global Health (Jul 10)

• Cancer & Economics (Jul 10)

2nd AfHEA Conference, Saly Sénégal, March 15, 2011

What Else Could You Possibly Cram In?

• Up to 4 lunch debates: (1) Do we need a new paradigm for health economics? (2) Medical Tourism (3) Valuing Medicine for High Risk/End-of-Life/Heroic Care

• Two sessions on TEACHING health economics

• A session on a new Young Researcher Network

• Plenary Speakers – Martin Feldstein, Katherine Ho, Tim Besley

• Student Paper Awards

• Best Poster Awards

• Gala Reception at the Royal Ontario Museum

• Possible launch of a new IDRC initiative

• Just enough time for a mild breakdown

2nd AfHEA Conference, Saly Sénégal, March 15, 2011

Observations

Success of AfHEA (other regional interest)

Quality of research from most developing regions improving dramatically

Research coming out of developing regions that the developed world needs to take seriously

Demand for good solid economic research and outlets to present seems to continue to grow

Research is still funding driven (is this good?) … e.g. Obesity is flavour of the month. A lot less HIV-ART research. What next?

2nd AfHEA Conference, Saly Sénégal, March 15, 2011

Trends

• Massive impending growth in India, China, Brazil• Each may choose a different path to health

modernization than OECD countries

• Extensive period of "econometric" intensity seems to be giving way to more institutional, policy-oriented work

• Less reliance on traditional lagged peer-review literature. Switch to more “just-in-time” policy relevant research

• Development of large scale real-time data will revolutionize evidence based research.

2nd AfHEA Conference, Saly Sénégal, March 15, 2011

Thank You – Jërëjëf – Merci

2nd AfHEA Conference, Saly Sénégal, March 15, 2011