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September

PhD in Economics: Economics Department at IUPUI

Location: Indiana, USA
Start date: Fall 2010

The Economics Department at IUPUI is pleased to announce a new PhD in Economics. We will be accepting our first entering PhD class for Fall of 2010. Fellowship support will be offered on a competitive basis.

The program will specialize in Health Economics. Students will begin with PhD core training in economic theory and econometrics, emphasizing microeconomic theory and microeconometrics. Specializing in health economics will allow us to offer a two-course field sequence in health economics as well as a course focusing on the institutional context of health, health care, and health insurance. Importantly, students will also take elective courses such as biostatistics, epidemiology, bioethics, or health policy, giving them a background that will facilitate working in the interdisciplinary teams with whom health economists often interact. In addition to econometric theory, we will also offer a year-long empirical econometrics sequence, emphasizing statistical packages, working with large datasets, and problems in applied econometrics. We plan strong disciplinary training in micro theory, econometrics, and health economics enhanced with exposure to other related disciplines central to health and health care.

More information on the department and the program is online at http://liberalarts.iupui.edu/~econ. Questions can be emailed to econphd@iupui.edu.

permalink September 1, 2010: PhD

Two PhD positions in Healthcare Management

Location: Ulm, Germany
Start date: September 1 st, 2010
Index number: 40

The newly established Center for Healthcare Management at Ulm University in Germany invites applications for: Two PhD positions in Healthcare Management (50 %)(or one full-time post-doctoral research position).

Ulm University, a leading medical and natural sciences university in Germany, is seeking two PhD candidates (or one post-doctoral researcher) for the newly established Center for Healthcare Management. This concentration brings together the medical and the business school at Ulm University to develop expertise in healthcare management. The candidates will participate in domestic and international collaborations with leading academic and medical institutions.

Responsibilities:

The candidate(s) will take a lead in designing and conducting healthcare management research (data collection, analysis and synthesis). They will also assist in teaching.

Qualifications:

  1. Master’s or PhD degree in psychology or related fields
  2. Experience in statistical methods and test theory; proficiency in statistical software such as SPSS or SAS
  3. Knowledge of health care markets/organizations and theories of organizational behavior is considered a plus

Start date:

Ideal start date is September 1 st , 2010 or later (flexible); two-year contract.

Additional information:

Candidates must be willing to relocate to or near Ulm. Ulm is located in southern Germany, close to the Alps, Munich and Stuttgart. The city is known for its rich culture, as well as a science and commercial center. International applicants are welcome.

The University of Ulm is committed to increase the share of women in research and teaching positions and therefore explicitly encourages female candidates to apply.

Compensation:

Salary will be in accordance with the German state-regulated public service salary scale (TVL-13).

To apply:

Please send CV, cover letter, a brief synopsis of a research project previously conducted (or up to three selected publications) and up to 3 letters of reference to Prof. Dr. Katharina Janus at katharina.janus@uni-ulm.de latest until July 25, 2010. Please indicate in the subject line the index number 40.

Physically disabled applicants receive favourable consideration when equally qualified. The appointment is made by the central university administration.

permalink September 1, 2010: PhD

MSc Health Economics and Health Policy: University of Birmingham

Location: Birmingham, UK
Start date: September 2010

Health care systems worldwide confront the challenge of meeting seemingly unlimited patient needs and demands with constrained and limited resources. Health economics is playing an increasing role, providing analysis to inform health care decision making and policy formation.

This course is suitable for:

  • People currently working in the health care sector (in both the public and private sectors, including the pharmaceutical industry) who wish to improve their understanding of and skills in health economics

  • Graduates who wish to pursue a career in health economics and/or health services research

The course will enable you to:

  • Explore the key principles and theories upon which health economics is based

  • Understand some of the key concepts in market theory and their applicability to health care

  • Apply introductory and advanced methods of economic evaluation, including modelling and Bayesian approaches

  • Recognise approaches to rationing and tackling scarcity from theoretical and practical perspectives

  • Distinguish between alternative approaches to organising and financing health care systems

  • Critically review, and interpret appropriately, applied health economic analyses

  • Have an in-depth understanding of the equity issues faced in resource allocation and how these may be addressed

  • Develop an understanding of the underlying concepts in statistical analysis and information handling

  • Explore the perspective of health policy and the role of economic analysis in shaping policy

For more information on the programme please go to our web pages where you can see module information and access our online application form: http://www.mds.bham.ac.uk/healtheconomics

permalink September 1, 2010: Masters

September

Eliciting Probability Distribution from Experts

Location: Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England, UK
Venue: The Centre for Bayesian Statistics in Health Economics, University of Sheffield
Date: 9th September 2010

Course faculty

Dr Jeremy Oakley, Professor
Anthony O’Hagan
Mr John Stevens

Background

Decision analytic models such as economic models submitted to NICE and similar reimbursement authorities around the world often incorporate evidence in the form of expert opinion. Experts’ beliefs about unknown quantities of interest can be described using probability distributions following a process of elicitation. This practical course aims provide participants with the skills required to elicit experts’ probability distributions about unknown quantities of interest. The course is based around the SHELF package: a set of templates and software routines in R for conducting elicitation.

Who will benefit from the course?

The course is suitable for health economists, statisticians, systematic reviewers and decision-makers interested in the elicitation of experts’ probability distributions about unknown quantities of interest to populate economic models. The course is also suitable for researchers in other disciplines who wish to learn about expert elicitation. No previous knowledge of elicitation or of the software package R is assumed.

What does the course deliver?

At the end of this course, participants should:

  • Understand the use of probability distributions to represent uncertainty
  • Be familiar with the techniques available to elicit experts’ probability distributions
  • Be able to facilitate the elicitation of a probability distribution from a single expert and from multiple experts
  • Be able to fit univariate probability distributions to experts’ judgements using the SHELF routines and the software package R
  • Know how to document the elicitation process using the SHELF package

Course content

Five lectures, including practical exercises

  • Using subjective probability distributions to represent uncertainty
  • The psychology of elicitation
  • Eliciting univariate probability distributions from a single expert using SHELF
  • Eliciting probability distributions from groups of experts using SHELF
  • Multivariate elicitation

Cost

Commercial £200
Academic/Government £150

Course fees include lunch and refreshments. Participants will each need a laptop, if you are unable to provide this then we can arrange one for you.

Further information and bookings can be found at http://www.shef.ac.uk/scharr/shortcourseunit/courses_new/elic2010.html

Or contact Jacquie Bennett at jacquie.bennett@sheffield.ac.uk Tel. +44 (0)114 222 2968

permalink September 9, 2010: Short Course

September

Economic Evaluations and Economic Evidence in Healthcare: Finding Information to Inform Technology Assessments and Economic Models: York Health Economics Consortium, University of York

Location: York, UK
Date: 12 October 2010

Further information can be found at: http://php.york.ac.uk/inst/yhec/?q=content/finding-info

If you have any queries about YHEC courses please contact Julie Glanville (e-mail: jmg1@york.ac.uk) or YHEC Support Services, tel: 01904-433620.

permalink September 12, 2010: Training

September

Advanced Modelling Methods for Health Economic Evaluation A Computer Based Course

Location: Glasgow and York, UK
Dates: York: March 29 - 31, 2010; Glasgow: September 2010 (dates to be confirmed)

The Public Health & Health Policy Section at the University of Glasgow and the Centre for Health Economics at the University of York are jointly running three-day courses on advanced modelling methods to be held at venues in Glasgow and York. The next course will be held in 2010, the course will be run at the University of York from 29th - 31st March 2010. Booking forms are online now. The course will be also run in Glasgow in September 2010. Dates to be confirmed. Please contact The Public Health & Health Policy Section at the University of Glasgow directly if you would like to attend the September 2010 course.

This is an advanced course focusing specifically on decision modelling and intended for people currently undertaking modelling for health economic evaluation within the pharmaceutical and medical device industries, consultancy, academia or the health service. Participants would be expected to have attended an advanced course in economic evaluation such as the Expert Workshops in the Socio Economic Evaluation of Medicines run by the University of York.

Further details and booking information is available from the following links York based course or Glasgow based course.

permalink September 15, 2010: Short Course

September

Indirect And Mixed Treatment Comparisons: 3-day course

Location: Leicester, UK
Venue: Vaughan College
Dates: September 20-22 2010

Overview

This course is for health economists, statisticians and decision modellers, and systematic reviewers interested in the extension of pair-wise meta-analysis to indirect and mixed treatment comparisons, in the context of either clinical effectiveness or economic evaluation.

The course focuses on Bayesian methods for statistically combining evidence from networks of trials, integrating statistical estimation within a probabilistic modeling framework. The assumptions underlying both pair-wise meta-analysis and mixed treatment comparisons are critically examined. The course also covers methods for detecting and managing heterogeneity and inconsistency.

This is an informal, hands-on course, based on a mixture of lectures and practical work on published datasets using the Bayesian Markov chain Monte Carlo package WinBUGS. Course tutors are available throughout to answer questions and help with exercises.

It is a collaboration between the Department of Health Sciences, University of Leicester and the Department of Community Based Medicine, University of Bristol.

Intended Audience

  • Anyone undertaking or managing health technology assessments, including in the context of cost-effectiveness analysis,
  • Statisticians, familiar with the principles of meta-analysis, who wish to learn about Bayesian methods for evidence synthesis particularly in the context of cost-effectiveness analysis,
  • Anyone responsible for managing systematic reviews.

Course Faculty

Prof Keith Abrams,
Prof Tony Ades,
Debbi Caldwell,
Nicola Cooper,
Sofia Dias,
Prof Alex Sutton and Nicky Welton

Course Pre-Requisites

Participants should be familiar with the basic principles of meta-analysis, and have a good working knowledge of logistic regression and statistical interaction. Experience with probabilistic decision analysis in cost effectiveness analysis would be an advantage, but is not necessary.

Further Details and Registration Forms from:

http://www.bristol.ac.uk/cobm/research/mpes

permalink September 20, 2010: Short Course

September

Leadership for Productivity and Health Management: Issues, Innovations, and Solutions

Location: Boston, Massachusetts, USA
Date: September 30 - October 1, 2010
Link: https://ccpe.sph.harvard.edu/programs.cfm?CSID=IPHM0000&pg=cluster&CLID=1&utm_source=iHEA&utm_medium=Calendar
Contact: ccpemarketing@hsph.harvard.edu

Leadership for Productivity and Health Management: Issues, Innovations, and Solutions, a new program, is designed to enable participants to identify, characterize, and propagate efficient and effective health programs within employment based health insurance. Focusing on process improvements for C-Suite executives, HR professionals, and company stakeholders, this program will help participants benchmark best practices and implement specific strategies for improving programs, structure company health benefits on empirically sound practices, and learn strategies to maintain and improve individual health, improve productivity, and moderate industry payer costs.

permalink September 30, 2010: Short Course