Health Economics, Policy and Evaluation Research
Every day, decision makers at various levels within the healthcare system and society must make difficult decisions on how to use our limited resources. Which treatments and health interventions should have priority? How should healthcare be financed? How should healthcare providers be paid – and by whom?
For our shared resources to be used in the best possible way to create a society and healthcare system that generates good health for everyone, it is of utmost importance to evaluate the costs and benefits of policies, interventions, and healthcare systems.
The Health Economics, Policy, and Evaluation Research (HEPER) group aims to conduct high-quality research to support decision-making in healthcare and society. We conduct studies to identify the need for policy changes and generate evidence on the effectiveness of interventions. Our methodological work refines health economic and epidemiologic methods to enhance the credibility of empirical research.
Our interdisciplinary team, with expertise in economics, public health, statistics, medicine, and epidemiology, covers a broad range of research topics and methodological approaches, such as observational and quasi-experimental studies using epidemiologic and econometric methods for causal inference as well as model-based cost-effectiveness analyses. Our empirical research exploits the extensive Swedish register infrastructure that makes it possible to link information from various registers and other data sources for the entire Swedish population.
Examples of research areas
- What are the causal effects of health policies and interventions, and how can these effects be accurately quantified using the Swedish register infrastructure?
- How cost-effective are specific healthcare interventions, and how can methods for health economic evaluations and health technology assessments (HTAs) be improved to support informed decision-making?
- What are the causes of socioeconomic and geographical differences in access to healthcare and health, and how can we measure, monitor, and track these inequalities over time to inform interventions?
Cooperation
HEPER is a key part of the Centre for Health Governance, a collaboration between the Sahlgrenska Academy and the School of Business, Economics and Law at the University of Gothenburg that brings together expertise in health economics and health management to study the future challenges that the health care sector faces.
HEPER also collaborates with international and national researchers and research groups, both inter- and intradisciplinary. For example, we collaborate with other research groups to design evaluations of interventions and conduct health economic evaluations alongside clinical trials. Within Akademistatistik, we offer consultancy services for health economic evaluations. We also partner with Swedish governmental agencies, regions, and municipalities to conduct research and disseminate the knowledge gained from our studies.
Close connection between research and education
There is close cooperation between the Institute’s research and our education and training, in which many of our researchers too are involved. They supervise doctoral students and teach on our regular programmes, freestanding courses and vocational care programmes within Sahlgrenska Academy.
