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Research Themescontinued• Health Behaviours• Assessment of
Technologies• Experimental
Economics• Organisation &
Performance
In April this year HERU introduced a new research programmestructure. Four research programmes were replaced by twobroader programmes underpinned by Research Themes.
The themes reflect the research areas in which HERU has anestablished reputation for research excellence and where wecan make the most effective contribution to the delivery ofimproved health services.
The new structure results from HERU’s expansion over thelast few years, from our recruitment of leading researchersto develop new areas of research, and from the developingexpertise of existing staff. HERU has been a pioneer in theapplication of Discrete Choice Experiment methods for healthservice research. These methods are now embedded acrossa wide-range of our research and thus the continuation of aprogramme focused on the application of this method is nolonger required.
Our two new programmes are titled: Preference Elicitationand Assessment of Technologies which is directed by Dr PaulMcNamee and Behaviour Health and Health Systems directedby Dr Marjon Van der Pol. In the following pages the leadersof the eight themes that underpin these programmes detailthe focus and contribution of this research
Dr Paul McNamee Dr Marjon van der PolPEAT Programme BHHS ProgrammeDirector Director
For further information on our new Programme structure visitour website (www.abdn.ac.uk/heru)
In April, HERU was pleased to welcomeDr Virginia Wilcox- Gök from the University ofIllinois.Virginia was awarded a CSO Visiting Fellowship forthree-months to support her visit. She is investigating“The impact of caring for older persons in poormental health on family members’ labour supply”.
DCE ConferenceHERU hosted a policy conference on 6th June in Edinburgh. Thefocus was on the use of discrete choice experiments (DCEs) toelicit public preferences. An enthusiastic audience participatedin discussion of this health application. Professor Mandy Ryanopened the day, introducing DCEs and their application to health.Speakers demonstrated the breadth of�DCE applications in health:Professor Christine Bond reported�on extending the role of thepharmacist; Dr Andrew Carnon (NHS Dumfries and Galloway) andDr Verity Watson showed how DCEs could be used to on incorporatepublics’ preferences into NHS priority setting; and Professor CamDonaldson reported estimating weights for recipients of QualityAdjusted Life Years (QALYs). Delegates' backgrounds included theNHS in Scotland and Scottish Government Health Directorates,academic institutions and the pharmaceutical industry.
Details of the conference and access to the presentations willshortly be available on the HERU Website(www.abdn.ac.uk/heru)
Contents
H E A L T H E C O N O M I C S R E S E A R C H U N I T
Welcome
Welcome to thetwentieth edition
ofHERU NEWS
This edition focuses on theRe-structuring of HERU’sresearch programmes.
Other HERU news and eventsare discussed on the backpage.
August 2008 issue 20
other issue 20
CONTACT USHEALTH ECONOMICS RESEARCH UNITInstitute of Applied Health Sciences,Polwarth Building, ForesterhillAberdeen AB25 2ZDTel: +44 (0) 1224-553480/553733Fax: +44 (0) 1224-550926Email: [email protected]
HERU is supported by the Chief Scientist Office (CSO) ofthe Scottish Government Health Directorate (SGHD), Theviews expressed here are those of the authors and notnecessarily those of CSO.
www.abdn.ac.uk/heru
Staff News
HERU’sre-structuring
DCE PolicyConference
DCE Workshop
New Research ThemesResearch expertise andcontribution to policypriorities• Preference
Elicitation• Health Inequalities• Workforce• Microeconometric
Methods
3
Other HERUNews 4
2
1
Selected PresentationsWatson V. Sutton M. Ryan M. Dibben C. Deriving the weights forthe Index of Multiple Deprivation based on societal preferences:The application of a discrete choice experiment. Presented atWeighting in Multidimensional Poverty Measures Workshop, Oxford,May 2008.
Elliott R. Reflections on Building Health Economics Capacity inthe UK and the opportunities for NSW. Invited presentation atthe Department of State and Regional development, VIP event forHealth Economics Capacity Project, Sydney, Australia, March 2008.
Ryan M Using discrete choice experiments to elicit preferencesin public health research: an application to obesity. Invitedpresentation�to The Centre of Excellence for Public Health (NorthernIreland), Launch and Scientific Symposium, Queens University,Belfast, June 2008.
Gerdtham, U. Does Social health inequality change with theageing of the population? : Evidence from Swedish Panel Data.Invited presentation at the Scottish Institute for Research inEconomics (SIRE) Health Inequality Workshop. University of Dundee,Economics Department. March 2008.
CYAN MAGENTA YELLOW BLACK
HERU also welcomed Åsa Ljungvall, a PhDstudent from Sweden. Åsa’s project willinvestigate inequality in obesity in Sweden.Åsa is supervised by Professor UlfGerdtham.
Research Support…Below is a selection of the awards received over the past few monthsto support research in HERU.
Dr M.D. Smith, Professor L.D. Vale and Professor A. Ludbrook, ProfessorP Boyle (University of St. Andrews) and colleagues Dr P Craig and Dr DStockton from SGHD and ISD respectively were awarded an MRC/NPRIResearch Grant to investigate the “Economic appraisal of the choiceand targeting of lifestyle interventions to prevent disease in deprivedareas” The award amounts to £261,319
Dr Michela Tinelli and Dr Terry Porteous two of our recent PhD Studentsjointly supervised by Professor M Ryan (HERU) and Professor ChristineBone, Department of General Practice and Primary Care, University ofAberdeen both successfully secured MRC/ESRC Postdoctoral Fellowships.
Along with colleagues from the Institute of Applied Health Sciences(IAHS), Dr Paul McNamee was awarded a research grant by the Departmentof Health HTA. These researchers will investigate “Improving the valueof screening for diabetic macular oedema using surrogate photographicmarkers” The award is for £387,364 and will run for two-years.
Colleagues from the IAHS including Dr P McNamee have received fundingof £223,043 from the MRC to research into “Development of practice-based pharmacist-led management of chronic pain in primary care forevaluation by a RCT” This two-year project is due to start aroundSeptember 08.
Forthcoming DCE Workshop:Using Discrete Choice Experiments (DCE’s) in Health
Economics: Theoretical and Practical IssuesAberdeen 19th – 21st November 2008,
presented by Professor Mandy Ryan and Dr Verity Watson (HERU)The aims of this workshop:
• To provide background information on the development,application and theoretical basis of DCE’s in Health.
• To give hands on experience in the design of DCE’s as well as the data input analysis and interpretation stages.
• An update on methodological issues raised in the application of DCE’s
Further information is available on our website(www.abdn.ac.uk/heru)
Health Economics Postgraduate Certificate – Distance LearningThe course is designed for health professionals who want to gain a recognised qualification in health economics.The course is accredited by the University of Aberdeen and is modular based.
• Module 1: Introduction to Economics and Health Economics
• Module 2: Economic Evaluation: Principles and Frameworks
• Module 3: Economic Evaluation: Applications and Policy
• Module 4: Health Care Systems and Policy
To find out more about the course visit our web-site www.abdn.ac.uk/heru/teaching/home or contact Professor Mandy Ryan([email protected]) or our Course Secretary ([email protected])
Health Behaviours Theme
Professor Anne LudbrookHealth Behaviours Theme [email protected]
This theme focuses on individual choices relating to lifestyle factors likelyto affect health; in particular smoking, alcohol consumption, diet andphysical activity. Economic analysis is applied to understand the contextualfactors that influence choices and the barriers to and facilitators ofbehaviour change. Our research can be used to inform and to evaluatepolicy interventions and individual interventions.
Barbara Eberth and Ulf Gerdtham are examining socioeconomic inequalitiesin obesity and how these differ between Scotland and England. Understandingthese causal pathways can help to identify areas where policies should betargeted. This research analyses secondary data from lifestyle surveysconducted in Scotland and England and combines our interest in healthbehaviours and health inequalities. We are also engaged with colleaguesin other themes in using a modelling approach to evaluate the preventionof obesity (NPRI) and to prioritise interventions across different lifestylefactors (NPRI2).
Our research is closely tied to the key policy issues confronting Scotlandand other developed countries arising from avoidable ill-health andpremature deaths relating to lifestyle factors. Scotland is currently engagedin a policy consultation on alcohol (Changing Scotland’s relationship withalcohol: a discussion paper on our strategic approach) and some of theproposals, such as minimum pricing, have potential to be informed byeconomic analysis. The role of pricing and regulation versus individualbehaviour change is an important area for development both from ongoingwork and new projects and our new programme structure will provideexciting opportunities for exploring common links with the behaviour andincentives of health care organisations and the individuals who work withinthem.
Organisation andPerformance ThemeDr Shelley FarrarOrganisation and Performance Theme [email protected]
This theme examines how financial and non-financial incentives and constraintsinfluence the behaviour of the NHS organisations. Improving the performanceof the NHS is a continual objective of healthcare system reforms. The mainchallenges are in the measurement and monitoring of performance and howbest to influence performance improvement. Target setting, financial incentivesand organisational change are all methods used in the NHS to improveorganisational performance.
Research in this theme encompasses evaluation of the effectiveness of thesetypes of mechanisms. Current research topics include an evaluation of the tariff-based payment system for hospitals in England (Payment by Results), an evaluationof Managed Clinical Networks, assessing the, and a cross-country investigationof the prioritisation of patients on waiting lists. The main drivers of the theme’swork are major government policies that are being implemented in an attemptto change the behaviour of health care providers within the NHS.
The aim is to improve the evidence-base for policy-making by increasing ourunderstanding of the behaviour and performance of organisations in health caresystems. The specific objectives of this programme are to examine the role offinancial and non-financial incentives and constraints on the behaviour of NHSorganisations and inform policy-makers of evidence-based policies that improvethe delivery of care.
Preference ElicitationThemeProfessor Mandy RyanTheme Leader for ‘Preference Elicitation’[email protected]
This theme aims to resolve methodological issues in the development ofpreference elicitation techniques, and to translate developmental work tothe policy arena. The focus is currently on Discrete Choice Experiments (DCEs)and Contingent valuation (CV).
Methodological ResearchMethodological projects are chosen to address key methodological questionsin the literature. These currently include: investigating the decision-makingstrategies individual employ when responding to stated preference experiments,and how these are related to context; application of cutting edge econometricmethods for analysing data; better understanding of findings regardinganomalies in responses to DCE and CV experiments and the use of field andlaboratory experiments to establish if individuals behave in reality as theystate in surveys. This theme works closely with the Experimental Economicstheme.
Translation to Policy ArenaThe work to translate DCEs and CVs to the policy arena focuses on a rangeof policy questions of national relevance. A current priority area is lookingat the role of CV and DCEs within economic evaluations and modellingframeworks (for bodies such as NICE and SMC). Work is also being conductedlooking at the use of DCEs, rather than standard gamble and time trade off,to estimate utility weights within the framework of QALYs. This work iscarried out in collaboration with the Assessment of Technologies theme. Inaddition, policy questions are also addressed in collaboration with the BHHSProgramme. Current examples include using DCES to look at: nurses preferencesregarding characteristics of jobs; lifestyle interventions to reduce obesityand the provision of well man services.
Workforce Theme
Dr Diane SkatunWorkforce Theme [email protected]
The NHS is the single largest employer in the UK and indeed Europe withapproximately 1.7 million employees. For the vast majority of these employees,substantial changes have been made in the last few years to their employmentcontracts. Agenda for Change, the new Consultants’ contract and mostrecently, the new Specialty Doctor and Associate Specialist contract have allbeen introduced while in General Practice the new General Medical Servicescontract has been implemented. These contracts have all had real impactson the wages and working conditions of health care professionals and havehad major impacts on workforce planning and development and subsequentlyon service provision and patient care.
The workforce theme is continuing to build on our experience of understandingboth financial and non-financial incentives and constraints and their influenceon the behaviour of the health care workforce. Where some of these newcontracts have been in place for a number of years now, there are questionsto be answered on the effectiveness of the changes they were intended tofacilitate. In addition, current and on-going contractual modifications providefurther opportunity to investigate just how and to what extent incentivescan change the behaviour of health care providers within the health caresector. But it is not just employment contracts that have been subject tochange. Modernising medical careers has introduced a fundamental changeto post-graduate medical education and it will be important to study andunderstand its impact on fellow health care professionals and patients.
Our research topics in the workforce theme currently include the influenceof local labour market conditions on the NHS workforce; job satisfaction,working conditions, retirement plans and preferences for different aspectsof jobs; and the impact of workforce organisation on patient care.
Assessment ofTechnologies ThemeProfessor Luke ValeTheme Leader for ‘Assessment of Technologies’[email protected]
If scarce NHS resources are to be allocated to secure the greatest benefitto the population, the information provided by assessing the relativeefficiency of alternative health technologies is an essential input into thedecision making process. Cost-effectiveness is an essential aspect of thedecision-making processes of the National Institute for Health and ClinicalExcellence (NICE) and the Scottish Medicines Consortium (SMC). It isexpected that the demand for this work will continue to grow, if notaccelerate.
The aims of the Assessment of Technologies Theme are to:
• Inform and support health care decision making at a national level;
• Produce high quality economic evaluations that address national priorities;
• Develop and refine methods of economic evaluation, and make available to the NHS a body of expertise through nurturing and developing research skills in economic evaluation methods.
The Assessment of Technologies theme is a blend of applied work ofimmediate policy relevance, and longer-term methodological work aimedat improving the quality of the applied work. Current elements of appliedwork include work in the health priority areas of: cancer, mental health,vascular health (including heart disease), reproductive health, andrespiratory health.
Methodological work focuses on critical and underdeveloped issues identifiedin our applied work. Current projects fall into two categories representedby the cost and outcome sides of the assessment of technologies.
Experimental EconomicsThemeDr Verity WatsonExperimental Economics Theme [email protected]
This theme aims to test theory and decision-making in health and healthcare within the context of stated preference methods. More specifically,our objectives are to:
• Test theoretical predictions (e.g. rational choice,• Examine the effect of context on decision-making,• Determine the extent of hypothetical bias in stated
preference methods.
These objectives are achieved by conducting field experiments to investigatehypothetical bias, and by undertaking laboratory experiments to testtheory and decision-making in health and health care. Work is conductedin collaboration with the Assessment of Technologies and PreferenceElicitation themes, and with members of the BHHS Programme.
Field experiments to investigate hypothetical biasThis work is guided by a key issue relating to the validity of CV and DCEmethods. There is good evidence to suggest that valuations from thesemethods are higher than those derived from real behaviour: this findingis known as hypothetical bias. Research is being conducted to gain a betterunderstanding of the magnitude of such biases and to devise ways toovercome them.
Laboratory experiments to test theory and decision-makingExperimental economics has helped economists to test and developeconomic theory in order to make predictions and understand behaviour.As little work has been conducted in health and health care, research isbeing undertaken to allow better understanding of how subjects makedecisions. Funding is currently being sought for this work.
New Research Themes Research Expertise and Contribution to Policy Priorities
CYAN MAGENTA YELLOW BLACK
Health Inequalities Theme
Professor Ulf GerdthamTheme Leader for ‘Health Inequalities’[email protected]
This theme focuses on the economic analysis of inequality in health. Theresearch deals with a range of methodological issues in regard of measurementof health, socioeconomic ranking and health inequality as well as causalanalysis of mechanisms underlying health inequality across population groupsand its changes over time. The analysis also revolves around effects ofchanging demographic structure of the population, contextual area leveleffects and macroeconomic conditions. The empirical analysis typically appliesmicro-econometric modeling based on large sets of observational data andthe analysis deals with problems such as confounding factors, reversedcausality and measurement error.
A recent paper aims to examine channels through which population agingmight impact on socioeconomic health inequality. Long panel data of Swedishindividuals was used to estimate the observed trend in health inequality,measured by the concentration index (CI). A decomposition procedure witha fixed-effects model was used to clarify the channels by which aging affectedhealth inequality. We found that un-standardized and age-gender-standardizedCIs increased over time. This trend was however found to remain stable whenpeople were instead ranked according to lifetime income. Decompositionanalyses showed that two channels behind the upward trend were that retiredpeople dropped in relative income ranking as the cohorts aged, and thecoefficient of variation of health for different cohorts were increased overtime and the increasing trend was higher for aged cohorts.
Future plans of the theme is to focus on improving modeling health-relatedbehavior in order to control for problems of reversed causality, unobservedheterogeneity and selection. This research is important in order to understandbetter the driving factors of health equality and to evaluate analyze economicand health policies.
Microeconometric MethodsThemeDr Murray D. SmithMicroeconometric Methods Theme [email protected]
This methodological theme aims to develop both new and existing econometrictechniques suitable for the statistical modelling of individual- and/or household-level data on health and health-related outcomes in socioeconomic contexts. This typically involves regression methods applied to cross-section and paneldatasets. Research topics of particular interest include: the use of non-linearmodels; developing techniques associated with parametric, semi-parametricand non-parametric modelling; methods of correcting for departures fromsimple random sampling; and modelling in the presence of complicationscaused by factors such as measurement error, endogeneity and heterogeneity. Datasets of interest include longitudinal and cross-section sample surveys,census data, and administratively linked datasets.
Future research projects attributable to Microeconometric Methods willsignificantly depend on those staff involved in servicing the research needssurrounding two large grants won by HERU, both under the auspice of theNational Preventive Research Initiative. A large component of both grantsinvolves econometric analyses of large secondary datasets.
Examples of research areDancer, D., Rammohan, A., and Smith, M.D. (2008). “Infant mortality andchild nutrition in Bangladesh”. Forthcoming in Health Economics.
Genç, M., and Smith, M.D. (2008). “Wage gaps in the New Zealand labourmarket”. Presented at 2008 Royal Economic Society Annual Conference.
Organisation andPerformance ThemeDr Shelley FarrarOrganisation and Performance Theme [email protected]
This theme examines how financial and non-financial incentives and constraintsinfluence the behaviour of the NHS organisations. Improving the performanceof the NHS is a continual objective of healthcare system reforms. The mainchallenges are in the measurement and monitoring of performance and howbest to influence performance improvement. Target setting, financial incentivesand organisational change are all methods used in the NHS to improveorganisational performance.
Research in this theme encompasses evaluation of the effectiveness of thesetypes of mechanisms. Current research topics include an evaluation of the tariff-based payment system for hospitals in England (Payment by Results), an evaluationof Managed Clinical Networks, assessing the, and a cross-country investigationof the prioritisation of patients on waiting lists. The main drivers of the theme’swork are major government policies that are being implemented in an attemptto change the behaviour of health care providers within the NHS.
The aim is to improve the evidence-base for policy-making by increasing ourunderstanding of the behaviour and performance of organisations in health caresystems. The specific objectives of this programme are to examine the role offinancial and non-financial incentives and constraints on the behaviour of NHSorganisations and inform policy-makers of evidence-based policies that improvethe delivery of care.
Assessment ofTechnologies ThemeProfessor Luke ValeTheme Leader for ‘Assessment of Technologies’[email protected]
If scarce NHS resources are to be allocated to secure the greatest benefitto the population, the information provided by assessing the relativeefficiency of alternative health technologies is an essential input into thedecision making process. Cost-effectiveness is an essential aspect of thedecision-making processes of the National Institute for Health and ClinicalExcellence (NICE) and the Scottish Medicines Consortium (SMC). It isexpected that the demand for this work will continue to grow, if notaccelerate.
The aims of the Assessment of Technologies Theme are to:
• Inform and support health care decision making at a national level;
• Produce high quality economic evaluations that address national priorities;
• Develop and refine methods of economic evaluation, and make available to the NHS a body of expertise through nurturing and developing research skills in economic evaluation methods.
The Assessment of Technologies theme is a blend of applied work ofimmediate policy relevance, and longer-term methodological work aimedat improving the quality of the applied work. Current elements of appliedwork include work in the health priority areas of: cancer, mental health,vascular health (including heart disease), reproductive health, andrespiratory health.
Methodological work focuses on critical and underdeveloped issues identifiedin our applied work. Current projects fall into two categories representedby the cost and outcome sides of the assessment of technologies.
Health Inequalities Theme
Professor Ulf GerdthamTheme Leader for ‘Health Inequalities’[email protected]
This theme focuses on the economic analysis of inequality in health. Theresearch deals with a range of methodological issues in regard of measurementof health, socioeconomic ranking and health inequality as well as causalanalysis of mechanisms underlying health inequality across population groupsand its changes over time. The analysis also revolves around effects ofchanging demographic structure of the population, contextual area leveleffects and macroeconomic conditions. The empirical analysis typically appliesmicro-econometric modeling based on large sets of observational data andthe analysis deals with problems such as confounding factors, reversedcausality and measurement error.
A recent paper aims to examine channels through which population agingmight impact on socioeconomic health inequality. Long panel data of Swedishindividuals was used to estimate the observed trend in health inequality,measured by the concentration index (CI). A decomposition procedure witha fixed-effects model was used to clarify the channels by which aging affectedhealth inequality. We found that un-standardized and age-gender-standardizedCIs increased over time. This trend was however found to remain stable whenpeople were instead ranked according to lifetime income. Decompositionanalyses showed that two channels behind the upward trend were that retiredpeople dropped in relative income ranking as the cohorts aged, and thecoefficient of variation of health for different cohorts were increased overtime and the increasing trend was higher for aged cohorts.
Future plans of the theme is to focus on improving modeling health-relatedbehavior in order to control for problems of reversed causality, unobservedheterogeneity and selection. This research is important in order to understandbetter the driving factors of health equality and to evaluate analyze economicand health policies.
Workforce Theme
Dr Diane SkatunWorkforce Theme [email protected]
The NHS is the single largest employer in the UK and indeed Europe withapproximately 1.7 million employees. For the vast majority of these employees,substantial changes have been made in the last few years to their employmentcontracts. Agenda for Change, the new Consultants’ contract and mostrecently, the new Specialty Doctor and Associate Specialist contract have allbeen introduced while in General Practice the new General Medical Servicescontract has been implemented. These contracts have all had real impactson the wages and working conditions of health care professionals and havehad major impacts on workforce planning and development and subsequentlyon service provision and patient care.
The workforce theme is continuing to build on our experience of understandingboth financial and non-financial incentives and constraints and their influenceon the behaviour of the health care workforce. Where some of these newcontracts have been in place for a number of years now, there are questionsto be answered on the effectiveness of the changes they were intended tofacilitate. In addition, current and on-going contractual modifications providefurther opportunity to investigate just how and to what extent incentivescan change the behaviour of health care providers within the health caresector. But it is not just employment contracts that have been subject tochange. Modernising medical careers has introduced a fundamental changeto post-graduate medical education and it will be important to study andunderstand its impact on fellow health care professionals and patients.
Our research topics in the workforce theme currently include the influenceof local labour market conditions on the NHS workforce; job satisfaction,working conditions, retirement plans and preferences for different aspectsof jobs; and the impact of workforce organisation on patient care.
Methodological Themes
Research Themescontinued• Health Behaviours• Assessment of
Technologies• Experimental
Economics• Organisation &
Performance
In April this year HERU introduced a new research programmestructure. Four research programmes were replaced by twobroader programmes underpinned by Research Themes.
The themes reflect the research areas in which HERU has anestablished reputation for research excellence and where wecan make the most effective contribution to the delivery ofimproved health services.
The new structure results from HERU’s expansion over thelast few years, from our recruitment of leading researchersto develop new areas of research, and from the developingexpertise of existing staff. HERU has been a pioneer in theapplication of Discrete Choice Experiment methods for healthservice research. These methods are now embedded acrossa wide-range of our research and thus the continuation of aprogramme focused on the application of this method is nolonger required.
Our two new programmes are titled: Preference Elicitationand Assessment of Technologies which is directed by Dr PaulMcNamee and Behaviour Health and Health Systems directedby Dr Marjon Van der Pol. In the following pages the leadersof the eight themes that underpin these programmes detailthe focus and contribution of this research
Dr Paul McNamee Dr Marjon van der PolPEAT Programme BHHS ProgrammeDirector Director
For further information on our new Programme structure visitour website (www.abdn.ac.uk/heru)
In April, HERU was pleased to welcomeDr Virginia Wilcox- Gök from the University ofIllinois.Virginia was awarded a CSO Visiting Fellowship forthree-months to support her visit. She is investigating“The impact of caring for older persons in poormental health on family members’ labour supply”.
DCE ConferenceHERU hosted a policy conference on 6th June in Edinburgh. Thefocus was on the use of discrete choice experiments (DCEs) toelicit public preferences. An enthusiastic audience participatedin discussion of this health application. Professor Mandy Ryanopened the day, introducing DCEs and their application to health.Speakers demonstrated the breadth of�DCE applications in health:Professor Christine Bond reported�on extending the role of thepharmacist; Dr Andrew Carnon (NHS Dumfries and Galloway) andDr Verity Watson showed how DCEs could be used to on incorporatepublics’ preferences into NHS priority setting; and Professor CamDonaldson reported estimating weights for recipients of QualityAdjusted Life Years (QALYs). Delegates' backgrounds included theNHS in Scotland and Scottish Government Health Directorates,academic institutions and the pharmaceutical industry.
Details of the conference and access to the presentations willshortly be available on the HERU Website(www.abdn.ac.uk/heru)
Contents
H E A L T H E C O N O M I C S R E S E A R C H U N I T
Welcome
Welcome to thetwentieth edition
ofHERU NEWS
This edition focuses on theRe-structuring of HERU’sresearch programmes.
Other HERU news and eventsare discussed on the backpage.
August 2008 issue 20
other issue 20
CONTACT USHEALTH ECONOMICS RESEARCH UNITInstitute of Applied Health Sciences,Polwarth Building, ForesterhillAberdeen AB25 2ZDTel: +44 (0) 1224-553480/553733Fax: +44 (0) 1224-550926Email: [email protected]
HERU is supported by the Chief Scientist Office (CSO) ofthe Scottish Government Health Directorate (SGHD), Theviews expressed here are those of the authors and notnecessarily those of CSO.
www.abdn.ac.uk/heru
Staff News
HERU’sre-structuring
DCE PolicyConference
DCE Workshop
New Research ThemesResearch expertise andcontribution to policypriorities• Preference
Elicitation• Health Inequalities• Workforce• Microeconometric
Methods
3
Other HERUNews 4
2
1
Selected PresentationsWatson V. Sutton M. Ryan M. Dibben C. Deriving the weights forthe Index of Multiple Deprivation based on societal preferences:The application of a discrete choice experiment. Presented atWeighting in Multidimensional Poverty Measures Workshop, Oxford,May 2008.
Elliott R. Reflections on Building Health Economics Capacity inthe UK and the opportunities for NSW. Invited presentation atthe Department of State and Regional development, VIP event forHealth Economics Capacity Project, Sydney, Australia, March 2008.
Ryan M Using discrete choice experiments to elicit preferencesin public health research: an application to obesity. Invitedpresentation�to The Centre of Excellence for Public Health (NorthernIreland), Launch and Scientific Symposium, Queens University,Belfast, June 2008.
Gerdtham, U. Does Social health inequality change with theageing of the population? : Evidence from Swedish Panel Data.Invited presentation at the Scottish Institute for Research inEconomics (SIRE) Health Inequality Workshop. University of Dundee,Economics Department. March 2008.
CYAN MAGENTA YELLOW BLACK
HERU also welcomed Åsa Ljungvall, a PhDstudent from Sweden. Åsa’s project willinvestigate inequality in obesity in Sweden.Åsa is supervised by Professor UlfGerdtham.
Research Support…Below is a selection of the awards received over the past few monthsto support research in HERU.
Dr M.D. Smith, Professor L.D. Vale and Professor A. Ludbrook, ProfessorP Boyle (University of St. Andrews) and colleagues Dr P Craig and Dr DStockton from SGHD and ISD respectively were awarded an MRC/NPRIResearch Grant to investigate the “Economic appraisal of the choiceand targeting of lifestyle interventions to prevent disease in deprivedareas” The award amounts to £261,319
Dr Michela Tinelli and Dr Terry Porteous two of our recent PhD Studentsjointly supervised by Professor M Ryan (HERU) and Professor ChristineBone, Department of General Practice and Primary Care, University ofAberdeen both successfully secured MRC/ESRC Postdoctoral Fellowships.
Along with colleagues from the Institute of Applied Health Sciences(IAHS), Dr Paul McNamee was awarded a research grant by the Departmentof Health HTA. These researchers will investigate “Improving the valueof screening for diabetic macular oedema using surrogate photographicmarkers” The award is for £387,364 and will run for two-years.
Colleagues from the IAHS including Dr P McNamee have received fundingof £223,043 from the MRC to research into “Development of practice-based pharmacist-led management of chronic pain in primary care forevaluation by a RCT” This two-year project is due to start aroundSeptember 08.
Forthcoming DCE Workshop:Using Discrete Choice Experiments (DCE’s) in Health
Economics: Theoretical and Practical IssuesAberdeen 19th – 21st November 2008,
presented by Professor Mandy Ryan and Dr Verity Watson (HERU)The aims of this workshop:
• To provide background information on the development,application and theoretical basis of DCE’s in Health.
• To give hands on experience in the design of DCE’s as well as the data input analysis and interpretation stages.
• An update on methodological issues raised in the application of DCE’s
Further information is available on our website(www.abdn.ac.uk/heru)
Health Economics Postgraduate Certificate – Distance LearningThe course is designed for health professionals who want to gain a recognised qualification in health economics.The course is accredited by the University of Aberdeen and is modular based.
• Module 1: Introduction to Economics and Health Economics
• Module 2: Economic Evaluation: Principles and Frameworks
• Module 3: Economic Evaluation: Applications and Policy
• Module 4: Health Care Systems and Policy
To find out more about the course visit our web-site www.abdn.ac.uk/heru/teaching/home or contact Professor Mandy Ryan([email protected]) or our Course Secretary ([email protected])
