Health Economics education (HEe) website – progress and update

1. Health Economics education (HEe) website – progress and update Hema Mistry, Raymond Oppong & Emma Frew HEU internal seminar 22nd November 2011

2. Objectives • Originally developed by Prof. Nancy Devlin • 3 main aims: • To encourage and support teaching and learning in health economics; • To create a community of health economics teachers; and • To promote health economics to potential students. • In January 2010, the HEU at Birmingham took over the responsibility of managing and updating the website

3. Funding • Our project successfully gained funding for two projects: • to support Advisory Board meetings • The funding supports the travelling expenses of board members • to support audiovisual resources • Funding for 6 interviews with health economists

4. Advisory Group (1) • Aims of advisory group: • guide the development of HEe; • ensure adequate representation of all types of teaching (undergrad, postgrad, DL); • act as the ‘eyes and ears’ of the website (all website activities are responsive to relevant events and opportunities) • 9 individuals ensuring representation from the Economics Network, active teachers of HE and HESG. • Two meetings: September 2010 & August 2011.

5. Advisory Group (2) • Two very productive meetings: • terms of reference agreed • agreed target Audience • 1. Student section (courses, careers) • 2. Teacher section (effective delivery of teaching, reading lists etc) • audio-visual project • marketing (launching the website) • funding opportunities to ensure sustainability of website

6. Student section (1) • Information on the type of HE courses that are available across the UK – short courses, post-graduate taught (e.g. MSc, DL) and research (e.g. PhDs) • Course directors invited to submit information advertising their course (email invitation) • Paragraph with details including: • Course description, links, target student population, strengths, information on fees, and why course different.

7. Student section (2) • Different careers a HE can choose: • Academic, Government, NHS, NICE, Consultancy, Pharmaceutical • Pathways – this will help with the selection of ‘best’ course • ‘Blog’ from a HE telling us about roles and responsibilities (questionnaire) • Day in the life of a ‘HE’ • Careers section linked back to courses

8. Student section: progress so far (1) • Identified all known HE courses • Postgraduate research (PhDs) • Postgraduate taught (MSc, DL) • Short courses • 46 emails sent to all HE course directors • Some directors responsible for more than 1 HE course • As of 14th November – 20 responses about course description (these have been added to the website) • Postgraduate taught (includes HE modules) → 17 courses • Postgraduate research → 13 courses • Undergraduate modules → 5 courses • Short courses → 19 courses • No courses currently provided → 2 universities • Still awaiting responses from 26 emails; 6 have said they will send info.

9. Student section: progress so far (2) • Careers (to add to website) • Academic – Emma Frew • Government - ? John Henderson • NHS – Ellen Rule • NICE – Alastair Fischer • Consultancy - ? Matthew Taylor & Zoe Philips • Pharmaceutical - ? Boyka Stoykova • Added section on doctoral seminars • Virtual research seminars showing work-in-progress connected via BT web conferencing • To interact with other PhD students without the additional travel expenses • Run by HERG, Brunel University

10. Teacher section • Aim to enhance teaching (rather than list of slides) • Advice on how to teach ‘tricky’ topics • How the advice might differ depending on target audience • Aim is to have a ‘virtual’ colleague available to provide teaching advice to junior colleagues • Course directors invited to submit any useful teaching material (email invitation along with the course information)

11. Teacher section – progress (1) • Request for teaching material sent to 46 course directors • 5 responses provided teaching material • KCL - an assignment, answers + marking criteria • LSHTM - weblink with useful teaching materials & publications • Sheffield - weblink for programmes • UEA – a quick guide to ‘macros’ • York – DL weblink for course content • Compiled reading lists • Undergraduate and postgraduate introductory material as well as specific postgraduate topics. • We have identified teaching material that needs updating

12. Teacher section – progress (2) • For the teacher section we will categorise by topic area: • Introduction to Health Economics; Economic Evaluation & Decision Modelling; Health Policy; Health Systems; Health Econometrics; Equity; Demand for Health & Health Care; Market Failure; Rationing; Global Health & Trade; Pharmacoeconomics; Behavioural Economics and Capabilities • Each topic area will be split into 5 sections • Lecture slides • Audio-visual material • Group exercises • Assessment materials • Reading lists

13. Audio-visual project (1) • Stimulate students’ interest in HE, and make key contributions to HE research accessible to a wider audience • Aim is to produce a series of high-quality audio-visual resources, presenting contemporary HE issues and topics in an interesting & visually appealing way • The series will be based on a series of recorded interviews with leading HE • The interviews will be available as downloadable podcasts on the HEe website

14. Audio-visual project (2) • Funding for 6 interviews • Semi-structured with starting points agreed beforehand • Interviewees have final editing rights • 8 interviews completed so far • In addition, a policy debate filmed as part of the Policy module on the MSc • Dr Ken Deacon (GP and PCT Medical Director); Robert White (Finance Director); Prof Clive Smee (Former chief economist for DH); Dr Kirsten Major (chief economist for North West NHS)

15. Audio-visual project (3) • The following videos have been added to the website: • Prof Jo Coast (Birmingham) • Possible disutility associated with explicit health care rationing • The economics of anti-microbial resistance • The capability approach in health economics • The role of qualitative research in health economics • The ICECAP measure (3 videos) • Limitations of quality-adjusted life years • Prof Cam Donaldson (Glasgow) • Social Business, health and wellbeing • Dr Tessa Peasgood (Sheffield) • Well-being,/happiness and health economics • Prof Mark Sculpher (York) • Economic evaluation to support decision making

16. Audio-visual project (4) • The following videos still to be added to the website: • Prof John Appleby (Kings Fund) • GP Commissioning • Dr Matt Stevenson (Sheffield) • Modelling • Dr Karen Bloor (York) • Medical labour markets • Prof Alan Maynard (York) • NHS reforms and GP commissioning • Policy debate (HEU, Birmingham) • Dr Ken Deacon; Robert White; Prof Clive Smee, Dr Kirsten Major

17. Next steps (1) • Emailing course directors • Original email sent (June 2011) & follow-up email sent (Oct 2011) • Good response to course information • Not so good response for teaching material (aids & slides) – what can we do here? • Student section • All course information has been uploaded onto website • Careers information needs to be added to website + contact missing careers people • Teaching section • Need to request for updated teaching slides from those who have already contributed • To update the website with additional teaching material i.e. reading lists • To find out what information is missing and to fill in the gaps e.g. a podcast on health econometrics

18. Next steps (2) • To help redesign the website (similar style to BBC website showing visually appealing snippets) • Teaching and student sections • Training at Bristol on 25th November • Marketing / launch of the website • Funding opportunities to ensure sustainability of website