SPCR Masterclass | Health economics and policy making

Speakers: Dr Caroline S Clarke, Principal Research Fellow in Health Economics at UCL 

Caroline holds an MSc in Economic Evaluation in Health Care from City, University of London, and a BA (Hons) and MSci in Natural Sciences (Chemistry) and a PhD in Chemistry from the University of Cambridge. 

When: 26th March 11-12.30pm 

How: Online / Zoom  

Register: https://forms.office.com/e/qqNsBp0AgD.

Summary: This session will focus on: 

• What is economic evaluation in health care and what is its purpose? 

• What information do you need to do an economic evaluation and where does the information come from? 

• We’ll also discuss some of the terms that are used in economic evaluation: opportunity cost, quality of life (QOL), quality-adjusted life-years (QALYs). 

• Why and how are the results of economic evaluations used by policy makers (e.g. NICE*)? 

• We will look at a couple of case studies here. 

About the Speaker:  

Caroline works within the UCL Health Economics Analysis and Research methods Team (HEART), which is a group of health economists at UCL led by Prof Rachael Hunter. The team works with a number of trials units in UCL and elsewhere across the country, supporting trials led by clinical chief investigators across a broad range of disease areas. Caroline’s work focuses mainly on cancer, mental health, primary care, and complex interventions, as well as diagnostic pathways. 

Besides economic evaluation alongside randomised controlled trials, Caroline also works on service evaluations and other observational work, using decision analytic modelling approaches, and does methodological research related to these topics. She also supervises PhD/MSc students and junior health economists and teaches introductory health economics to clinicians, operational teams, and lay-persons, as well as in various MSc degree programmes. 

Target audience: SPCR Member and wider with interest in topic area