Health Economics Research Group (HERG)

The Health Economics Research Group (HERG) has developed an international reputation in health economics, building on strong foundations and a consistent strategy pursued over more than twenty years.

HERG's strategic focus is on the economic evaluation of a broad range of clinical and health service technologies and its dual aim is to provide applied, policy-relevant research whilst developing and refining methods to increase the rigour and relevance of such studies.

This strategy is highly relevant as economic evaluation begins to play more and more influential roles in international and national policies on the adoption and use of specific technologies.

Gaskell building HERG logo

News

If we had an extra $75 billion to put to good use, which problems would we solve first?

This is the question put to an Expert Panel of economists - including four Nobel laureates – as part of the Copenhagen Consensus Conference 2012 this week. They are considering evidence on the costs and benefits of solutions to ten different global challenges (from infectious and chronic diseases, climate change, education, population growth, armed conflict, natural disasters, water and sanitation, and biodiversity, hunger & malnutrition).

Evidence for each global is presented in a 'Challenge Papers' with two 'Perspective Papers' designed to question the methods and conclusions of each challenge paper. After deliberations, the Expert Panel's task is to create a prioritized list of solutions to the ten challenges, showing the most cost-effective investments. As in the past, this list will be utilized as an input by donors, governments and philanthropists.

Professor Julia Fox-Rushby has contributed one of the ‘perspective papers’ on chronic disease to this debate:

Perspective paper - Julia fox Rushby

Challenge paper - Jha et al.

Perspective paper - Marc Suhckre

All papers can be downloaded http://www.copenhagenconsensus.com/Projects/CC12/Research.aspx

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HERG edited health journal now on track for an Impact Factor

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"Research questions the cost-effectiveness of exercise referral schemes" click here to read more

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A special edition of Research Evaluation 20(3) ‘State of the Art in Assessing Research Impact’ is available online soon. Guest Editor Claire Donovan has also written opinion pieces related to the special edition for the London School of Economics Impact of the Social Sciences Blog ( ‘ Impact is a strong weapon for making an evidence-based case for enhanced research support but a state-of-the-art approach to measurement is needed ’) and for Times Higher Education ( ‘ Get off your high horse ’). The special edition features articles and opinion on cutting-edge approaches to evaluating the impact of research, and draws on papers first presented at an international workshop hosted by HERG earlier this year:

· “State of the art in assessing research impact”, Claire Donovan

· “The ‘Payback Framework’ explained”, Claire Donovan and Stephen Hanney

· “An evaluation of the Mind-Body Interactions and Health Program: assessing the impact of an NIH program using the Payback Framework”, Jack E Scott, Margaret Blasinsky, Mary Dufour, Rachel J Mandal, and G Stephane Philogene

· “Evaluating health research funding in Ireland: assessing the impacts of the Health Research Board of Ireland’s funding activities”, Edward Nason, Brendan Curran, Stephen Hanney, Barbara Janta, Gillian Hastings, Mair é ad O’Driscoll and Steven Wooding

· “Assessing policy and practice impacts of social science research: the application of the Payback Framework to assess the Future of Work programme ”, Lisa Klautzer, Stephen Hanney, Edward Nason, Jennifer Rubin, Jonathan Grant and Steven Wooding

· “Introducing ‘productive interactions’ in social impact assessment”, Jack Spaapen and Leonie van Drooge

· “Tracing ‘Productive Interactions’ to identify social impacts: an example from the Social Sciences”, Jordi Molas-Gallart and Puay Tang

· “Real world approaches to assessing the impact of environmental research on policy”, Sarah Bell, Ben Shaw and Annette Boaz

· “Peer review and the ex ante assessment of societal impacts”, J. Britt Holbrook and Robert Frodeman

· “The Research Excellence Framework and the ‘impact agenda’: are we creating a Frankenstein monster?” Ben R Martin

· “The impact of impact”, John D Brewer

· “The impact of Payback research: developing and using evidence in policy”, Chris Henshall

· “The payback of ‘Payback’: challenges in assessing research impact”, Martin Buxton