Health Policy events archive
TUES 21 OCT 1PM - 2PM
Department Seminar Series- Catia Nicodemo
Estimating Cross-Provider Substitution Effects in Primary Care Delivery
Catia investigates task allocation and substitution effects between general practitioners (GPs) and nurses in primary care settings, using comprehensive electronic healthcare records from the UK to assess how the allocation of responsibilities impacts service delivery.
The findings reveal significant substitution effects: increased nurse consultations reduce subsequent GP visits and vice versa, highlighting potential efficiencies in workforce planning. The analysis underscores the importance of continuity of care, with patients more likely to engage consistently with the same type of healthcare provider.
This study provides actionable insights for optimising resource allocation in primary care, particularly in the context of GP shortages and evolving healthcare demands.
Speaker:
Catia Nicodemo is a Professor of Health Economics at Brunel Business School, Associate Professor at the Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences - University of Oxford and Fellow at Kellogg College, University of Oxford.
TUES 7 OCT 1PM - 2PM
Department Seminar Series- John Cairns
“First thing you learn is you always gotta wait”: The use of quantitative decision modifiers in NICE technology appraisals
John explores NICE’s use of quantitative decision modifiers, which have been applied in over 225 technology appraisals since 2009.
NICE has used three different modifiers: life-extending end-of-life treatments, size of QALY gain for highly specialised technologies, and the severity modifier.
In 2025 NICE published the guidance for the final medicine to be awarded life-extending end-of-life status and to date 40 medicines have received a severity weight. It is thus timely to review the use of quantitative decision modifiers by NICE.
- How different is the application of severity weights from the awarding of end-of-life status?
- Has the mix of conditions changed as one decision modifier has supplanted the other?
- Has the replacement of end-of-life with severity had any impact on the effective cost-effective threshold?
Speaker:
John has 40 years’ experience working as an academic health economist. He served as Director of the Health Economics Research Unit at the University of Aberdeen 1993-2000 and has been based at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine since 2004.
He was a member of the NICE technology appraisal committee 2003-2020 and member of the NICE Diagnostics Advisory Committee (since 2020).
TUES 27 MAY 1:00PM - 2:00PM
Department Seminar Series
Targeting Healthcare Nudges
Toshiaki Iizuka is Professor at Graduate School of Economics, the University of Tokyo.
Join Jishnu as he explores the effectiveness of healthcare nudges in Japan.
Jishnu will examine this issue in the context of diabetes care in Japan, where those who pass an arbitrarily set diabetic threshold receive nudges to visit a physician for a consultation.
We find that receiving the nudges increases healthcare utilization and improves health outcomes. However, individuals who respond to nudges are observably healthier, while those who would benefit most are sicker- and less likely to respond to the nudges.
Policy simulations suggest that targeting based on observable characteristics can substantially improve cost-effectiveness, highlighting the need to carefully account for the heterogeneous effects of nudges.
TUES 20 MAY 1:00PM - 2:00PM
Department Seminar Series
Who Pays for Rising Health Care Prices? Evidence from Hospital Mergers
Zack Cooper is an Associate Professor of Public Health and Economics at Yale University, and Director of Health Policy at the Tobin Center.
Join Zack as he explores the impacts of rising healthcare prices.
As employer-sponsored health insurance becomes more expensive, higher health care costs effectively function as a payroll tax on labour.
Zack's research focuses on how healthcare spending affects the U.S. economy, cost variation, and market competition in healthcare.
Cooper holds degrees from the University of Chicago and the London School of Economics.
TUES 13 MAY 12:45PM - 1:45PM
Department Seminar Series
Randomized Regulation: The Impact of Minimum Quality Standards on Health Markets
Jishnu Das is a Distinguished Professor of Public Policy at Georgetown University.
Join Jishnu as he analyses short term results from the first randomised evaluation of a health sector regulatory reform in Kenya.
The reform established minimum quality standards for patient safety, an issue that has become increasingly important following the Ebola and COVID-19 epidemics.
The intervention increased compliance with patient safety measures in both public and private facilities and reallocated patients from private to public facilities without increasing out-of-pocket payments or decreasing facility use.
Their paper establishes the use of experimental techniques to study regulatory reforms and, in doing so, shows that minimum standards can improve quality across the board without adversely affecting utilisation.
THURS 27 MARCH 6:00PM - 8:00PM
A new 10-year plan for the NHS: what should be in it?
The new Labour government is producing a 10-year plan for the NHS in England. The health service is in crisis after a decade of austerity, the COVID-19 pandemic, and political failures by previous governments. The NHS – like health systems across Europe – is facing pressures from labour shortages and a population ageing in poor health. The cracks are evident – for instance, in waiting times for hospital care – and patients are suffering as a result. The government has promised to recover services and ‘transform’ the NHS so it is ‘fit for the future’. The new 10-year plan aims to tell us how, including reforms to achieve three broad ‘shifts’ in NHS services: more community-based care, disease prevention, and use of digital technology. But the NHS has a long history of producing long-term plans – with mixed results. So what should be in the new plan? And how does government learn from the past to make it happen?
The event will focus on:
- The current challenges facing the NHS in England to be addressed in the plan;
- What we can learn from looking back at previous long-term plans for the NHS;
- What should be the priorities for the 10-year plan.
Confirmed speakers:
Hugh Alderwick, Director of Policy, The Health Foundation
Caroline Clarke, Regional Director, NHS London
Dr Jennifer Dixon, Chief Executive, The Health Foundation
Prof. Kamila Hawthorne MBE, Chair of RCGP Council
Prof. Andrew Street, Professor of Health Economics, London School of Economics and Political Science
Nick Timmins, Senior Fellow, Institute for Government
Department Seminar Series:
Antidepressant use among children
Sonia Bhalotra is Professor of Economics. She is a labour economist by training with research expertise in health (including mental health), gender and political economy.
Join Sonia as she investigates impacts of antidepressant treatment among Danish children who have been referred to a child psychiatrist.
Leveraging conditional random assignment of patients to psychiatrists with different prescribing tendencies, the study finds that treatment increases school test scores and the probability of post-compulsory education.
Since an FDA warning in 2004 that antidepressants may increase suicidality among children, the prescribing rate has fallen, teen suicides have increased and the evidence that led to the warning has been questioned.
TUES 18 MARCH 1:00PM - 2:00PM
Department Seminar Series:
The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on cancer screenings & quality of care: Did team-based primary care make a difference?
Mehdi Ammi, PhD, is an Associate Professor in the School of Public Policy and Administration at Carleton University, Ottawa. He is the Vice-President of International Relations for the Canadian Health Economics Association and a Regional Director of the International Health Economics Association.
Did primary care teams improve quality of care and preventative services during the pandemic?
Join Medhi as he explores research on the impact of primary care teams (PCT), focusing on data in Ontario, Canada to assess the quality of healthcare during COVID-19.
This study analyses how being enrolled in a PCT affected cancer screenings and avoidable hospital visits during the pandemic.
TUE 4 MARCH 1:00PM - 2:00PM
Department Seminar Series -
Health, Climate Change and Migration
Ilan Kelman is Professor of Disasters and Health at University College London, England and a Professor II at the University of Agder, Norway. His overall research interest is linking disasters and health, integrating climate change into both.
Join Ilan as he explores some of the connections and lack thereof among health, climate change, and migration.
Health, climate change, and migration affect all of us every day. Determining connections among them is not always straightforward. Certainly, climate and climate change have influenced migration and health throughout human history, yet additional links or influences from human-caused climate change are not necessarily easy to demonstrate.
Prof. Ilan Kelman argues that while fully supporting the urgency of stopping human-caused climate change and adjusting to its impacts, supporting migrants’ health while avoiding health issues which force migration would be best achieved through migration and health policies and actions.
TUE 11 FEB 1:00PM - 2:00PM
Department Seminar Series -
The First Mile: Production Markets and Global Access to Medicines.
Melissa Barber is a postdoctoral associate at the Yale Law School and Yale School of Medicine. Her research crosses economics, political science, and law to better understand pharmaceutical markets and their relationship to public health.
This seminar will present research that leverages novel data sources and causal inference methods to untangle the economics of drug production and global supply chains. Addressing the political economy of proposed reforms and alternative models of drug supply, Melissa will explore how market structures and global power asymmetries influence the accessibility, affordability, and distribution of essential medicines.
THURS 10 OCT 6:30PM - 8:00PM
Policy Epidemiology for Emerging Infectious Diseases
Dr. Rebecca Katz is a Professor and Director of the Center for Global Health Science and Security, and holds joint appointments in Georgetown University Medical Center and the School of Foreign Service. Much of her work has focused on global governance of public health emergencies.
From 2004 to 2019, Dr. Katz was a consultant to the U.S. Department of State, working on issues related to the Biological Weapons Convention, pandemic influenza and disease surveillance. She returned to the Department of State in January 2021 as a senior advisor on the global COVID-19 response and global health security. She is the co-convener of the Global Health Security Conference (2019 and 2024).
This seminar will describe the state of global health security, global governance of disease and the policy epidemiology framework used in the Analysis and Mapping of Policies for Emerging Infectious Diseases project. (AMPEID.org) We will describe the importance of evidence-based decision making for responding to epidemic and pandemic threats and how to translate researcher findings for decision makers.
Meet our Speaker and Chair
Speaker: Dr Rebecca Katz is Professor of the Center for Global Health Science & Security at Georgetown University
Chair:
Is NHS 111 the answer, or just more techno-solutionism? A look at digital triage in urgent and emergency care
ABSTRACT: This talk shares findings from a series of projects conducted since 2008 about ‘digital triage’ in Emergency and Urgent Care, looking, in particular, at NHS 111 and the NHS Pathways software that underpins this service. NHS 111, like other digitisation of health serivces, promises to help manage rising demand for health services and save resources. The expansion of 111 services and the development of web-based modalities builds on this promisory. Digital triage appears to be the techno-solutionist‘s answer to policy-makers‘ prayers. But is it? This paper reveals some of the complexities entailed in digital triage and the significant work required to keep technology in use.
BIO: Catherine Pope is an expert in qualitative and mixed methods for applied health research, and a key contributor to developing methods for evidence synthesis. Her research interests encompass organisational change in health care, service delivery and reconfiguration, workforce and work in health services, and the impact of digital and Web technologies on health care and services. She is co-editor of ‘Pope and Mays’ Qualitative research in health care (4th edition Oxford: Wiley 2020) and is an NIHR Senior Investigator and Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences.
TUE 19 MAR 2024 1.00PM
Seminar Title: Early childhood growth, parental perceptions and willingness to pay: Evidence from Zambia
Bio: Günther Fink is the Eckenstein-Geigy Professor of Epidemiology and Household Economics at the University of Basel and the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute. He holds an MSc in International Economic Sciences, a MA in Applied Economics and a PhD in economics. His work focuses on developing and evaluating new and innovative approaches to improving health and development in low resource settings, and on measuring the long-term economic benefits of health improvements, particularly during the early childhood period.
Abstract: Childhood stunting remains common in many low income settings and is associated with increased morbidity and mortality, as well as impaired child development. Recent literature suggests that lacking parental awareness and limited food availability may be the primary drivers of growth delays in low resource settings. We conducted a randomized controlled trial with 2291 caregiver-child dyads across the 282 study clusters in Zambia to see if home based growth charts and food supplements can reduce early growth faltering. We find better growth outcomes with supplements, but only limited willingness to pay for such supplements among parents. Overall awareness of growth faltering as well as perceived negative side effects may at least partially explain the limited demand for supplemental food.
In-Person: COW 1.11 - Lunch at 12:30 Seminar at 1:00PM
Online: Zoom Link Here
THURS 14 MAR 2024 6.30PM
Enugu State, Nigeria: New political leadership; bold economic vision - spotlight on the health and education strategy
Health and education are intricately tied to economic development. Enugu State, situated in the South-East of Nigeria, with an estimated population of 4.7 million, is experiencing a major economic reorganisation under the new leadership of His Excellency, Dr Peter Mbah, whose vision is to catapult the State from the present $4.4Bn economy to a $30Bn economy in the next 4-8 years. Dr Mbah will discuss his health and education sectors reforms in the context of his broader multi-sectoral strategies towards the realisation of the economic aspirations of the state.
Speaker: Dr. Peter Ndubuisi Mbah, an international maritime lawyer, business magnate, politician, public administrator, and philanthropist, is the Executive Governor of Enugu State, Nigeria.
Chair: Dr Rocco Friebel, GSPU and LSE Health
More information can be found here.
Nov 7, 2023 1:00PM
Pharmaceutical Pricing, and R&D as a Global Public Good
William S. Comanor is Distinguished Research Professor in the Department of Health Policy and Management at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health. He is also Professor of Economics, Emeritus at the University of California, Santa Barbara At UCLA.
Abstract: In his Labor Day address, President Biden stated that the U.S. "has the highest drug prices in the world, and there is no reason for it." For new branded drugs, the first part of that statement is supported by a recent RAND Report (2021) which found U.S. average prices are 2.3 times those present in both the 32 OECD countries overall and in the UK separately. In this research, we consider the second part of that statement, and identify the economic factors that suggest a "reason for it."
In-Person: COW 1.11 - Lunch at 12:30 Seminar at 1:00PM
Online: Zoom Link Here
Oct 17, 2023 12:30PM
Seminar Title: Learning by doing in health care: Lessons from COVID-19
Nils Gutacker is Professor of Health Economics. His research focuses on the design and effectiveness of (non-)financial incentives, industrial organisation of health care markets, unwarranted variation in health care provision, and the impact of the health system on health inequalities. Nils co-directs the REAL Supply Research Unit and is a member of the German Expert Council on Health and Care.
A positive relationship between hospital volumes and health outcomes for certain types of medical care is well documented. However, few studies have explored the causal mechanisms behind this volume-outcome relationship. Learning-by-doing (LBD) describes the accumulation of knowledge through experience and is a potential mechanism by which hospitals improve their provision of care over time. The aim of this study is to test the theory of LBD using as a case study hospital treatment for COVID-19 complications during the first wave of the pandemic, when hospitals had no prior experience with this disease and there were no standardised treatment pathways or approved vaccines. We exploit exogenous regional variation in infection rates over time to identify the effect of cumulative volume of COVID patients treated on 90-day mortality. Our results suggests that LBD may account for approximately 7% of the observed reduction in mortality throughout the first wave of the pandemic.
TUES 16 MAY 2023
Doctor Consultations - In person versus Online (joint with Amanda Dahlstrand and Nestor Le Nestour)
We study the effects of meetings between patients and doctors (primary care physicians) taking place online versus in-person. The decision whether to deliver services online or in-person is crucial in many settings, but there is relatively little evidence about its consequences. This decision is particularly important for delivering primary healthcare, due to the potential implications for patient health, the cost of healthcare provision, and the differential access that patients have to in-person care depending on their location and socioeconomic status. To shed light on this question, we assemble new data, which allow us to follow the health treatments and outcomes of (anonymized) individual patients in Sweden. We use variation in the effectively random assignment of patients to nurses with different propensities to refer patients to online versus in-person doctor meetings. We then study the costs and health consequences of this decision, including on doctor-patient meeting duration, patient satisfaction, health diagnosis, prescription, and subsequent hospitalizations.
Bio: Guy Micheals is an Associate Professor in the Department of Economics at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) and a research associate at Centre for Economic Performance (CEP) at the LSE. He also serves as an associate editor at the Economic Journal. His research interests include labor economics, urban economics, and economic development. His research focuses on urbanization, labor market inequality, and technological change. He has a B.Sc. in Mathematics, magna cum laude, from Tel-Aviv University and a Ph.D. in Economics from Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
In Sandwiches and Soft drinks from 12:30
THUR 25 MAY 2023
Doctor William Feldman - The high costs of treating asthma and COPD in the United States
Abstract: Patients with asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) rely on inhalers to control their symptoms. Yet, these products remain expensive, in part because brand-name manufacturers have obtained numerous patents on inhalers, including on their delivery devices. Between 2000 and 2021, manufacturers earned $178 billion on these products in the US—nearly two-thirds of which accrued after patents on active ingredients had expired. This seminar will explore how brand-name manufacturers have limited generic competition on these drug-device combinations and kept prices high.
Bio: Dr Feldman is a pulmonologist, intensivist, and health services researcher at Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women's Hospital, where he has joint appointments in the Division of Pharmacoepidemiology and Pharmacoeconomics and the Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine. His research focuses on drug pricing, FDA regulation, pharmaceutical policy, and COPD outcomes. He currently serves as Co-Chair of the Ethics Committee and Associate Director of the Ethics Service at Brigham and Women's Hospital.
TUES 9 MAY 2023 1:00PM
Positive Psychological Wellbeing and Health at Older Ages
Optimising psychological wellbeing is a desirable societal aim in itself, but there are several more specific reasons why positive wellbeing is an important emerging research theme in the health domain. First, positive wellbeing is not merely the mirror of depression, anxiety or distress, but has distinct relationships with a range of outcomes. Second, positive wellbeing appears to be a protective factor for physical morbidity and mortality; although studies are complex and take a long time to complete, there is accumulating evidence that greater hedonic and eudemonic wellbeing predict the survival among older people independently of covariates including health status and depression. Third, positive wellbeing has broad ramifications at older ages, being related to personal and social relationships, economic prosperity, biological risk factors, health behaviors, and time use as well as health
Bio: Andrew Steptoe is professor of psychology and epidemiology at University College London, where he is Head of the Department of Behavioural Science and Health, and director of the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA). He graduated in Natural Sciences from Cambridge University and completed his doctorate at the University of Oxford. He moved to UCL in 2000 as British Heart Foundation Professor of Psychology, and was Director of the Institute of Epidemiology and Health Care from 2011 until 2017. He is a Fellow of the British Academy, the Academy of Medical Sciences, and the Academy for Social Sciences. Dr Steptoe’s research is primarily focused on links between psychological and social processes and physical health, and on population aging.
TUES 7 MARCH 2023 1:00PM
Effect of Cognitive Training on Claims-Based Diagnosed Dementia in the Long-Term: Evidence from ACTIVE
The very long-term effect of cognitive training on the risk of ADRD is unknown. This study links data from the ACTIVE study (a 4-arm randomized control trial of cognitive training in a large, diverse sample) to Medicare claims (1999-2019). Inclusion in the analyses required being enrolled in Traditional Medicare at baseline (n=1,791). ADRD was measured with the Chronic Conditions Warehouse algorithm. Participants in the speed training arm who received booster sessions had a significantly lower risk of ADRD (HR: 0.73; CI: 0.57 to 0.94), while participants with no booster training did not have a lower risk of ADRD. Individuals 65-69 years old who participated in the speed and memory training had a significantly lower risk of ADRD (speed HR: 0.70) (memory HR: 0.69). Cognitive training with specific characteristics, particularly among those under 70 years of age, has the potential to delay the diagnosis of ADRD.
Bio: Norma B. Coe, PhD is an Associate Professor of Medical Ethics and Health Policy at the Perelman School of Medicine , Co-Director of the Population Aging Research Center (PARC), and Co-Director of the Get Experience in Aging Research Undergraduate Program (GEAR UP). Her research interests are in health economics and public finance. Dr. Coe’s work strives to identify causal effects of policies that directly and indirectly impact health, human behavior, health care access, and health care utilization. A major focus of her research has been long-term care access, costs, insurance, and delivery, with a particular emphasis on people living with Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias (ADRD).
TUES 31 JANUARY 2023, 1:00PM,
The effects of off-label drug use on disability and medical expenditure
Does using prescription drugs off-label increase disability and medical expenditure? This paper uses a unique dataset to evaluate off-label vs. on-label drug use in the US non-institutionalized population. Patients using drugs off-label have on average $515 higher medical expenditure and work-loss cost. Pharmaceutical innovation has direct and indirect effects on off-label drug use. Market size is indicative of the fraction of treatments used off-label. Our findings have implications for regulation and welfare. We address endogeneity issues by demonstrating that patients with higher disease severity do not experience higher off-label uses and by controlling for unobserved individual and condition effects.
Katharina Blankart is an Assistant Professor at Duisburg-Essen University, an affiliate of Hamburg Center for Health Economics at the University of Hamburg and an affiliate in the Leibniz Science Campus Ruhr, a research collaboration with RWI Essen. She is an applied microeconomist interested in health, technology and innovation, the market for pharmaceuticals, and consequences of regulatory intervention in health care markets.
This public event is hosted by LSE Health Policy. Click here to learn more about the event.
TUES 6 December 2022, 1:00pm, ONLINE EVENT
Exploring the Experiences of Health Care Workers During COVID-19 Using Photovoice
Using an intersectional approach, our goal in this paper is to analyze the results of a research study undertaken from spring 2020 to winter 2021 that used Participatory Action Research (PAR) methodology and photovoice methods to understand how Filipina care workers in Canada are faring during COVID-19. The Filipina care workers in our sample embody a range of immigration statuses (ranging from those without status to those with Canadian citizenship), working situations (ranging from those employed in unionized work places to those who are employed in non-unionized temporary agencies to those who were recently unemployed), and socioeconomic and living situations (ranging from those who own property to those living in shelters). These differences notwithstanding, we find that societal devaluation of care work has led all of the care workers in our study to face increased precariousness during the pandemic. In addition, the political backdrop of increased nativism and anti-Asian racism have also further impeded care workers' security of status. We argue that an intersectional, feminist analysis of Filipina care workers' situations during COVID-19 reveals not only the various, multiple and intersecting forms of oppression that they face but also how overlapping power structures lead to a further devaluation of their work and their worth.
Ethel Tungohan’s research looks at migrant activism, care work and social movements. She is a strong proponent of socially-engaged research and works closely with organizations such as the Migrant Resource Centre Canada (MRCC), Migrante-Alberta and Gabriela-Ontario. Recently, she collaborated with MRCC and Gabriela-Ontario on a participatory photovoice project examining the experiences of Filipina careworkers during and after COVID-19. In 2023, her solo-authored book, "Care Activism: Migrant Domestic Workers, Communities of Care, and Movement-Building" will be released by the University of Illinois Press.
This public event is hosted by LSE Health Policy. Click here to learn more about the event.
TUES 22 November 2022, 12:30pm, ONLINE EVENT
We investigate how changes in the remuneration for unsocial work affect the retention of trainee doctors, by exploiting the 2016 introduction of a new national contract for junior doctors in England. We implement a quasi difference-in-difference approach that identifies the effect of the contract on the retention of trainee doctors, based on the heterogeneous exposure to unsocial work and the related penalization due to the new contractual terms. On average, we find that the 2016 contract change led to a 7.4\%
Dr Giuseppe Moscelli is an applied economist, with my main research interests in health and labour economics. His research uses robust microeconometrics and causal inference methods and aims to provide policy makers with the tools to evaluate which interventions are beneficial to patients, workers and/or the general public. His research articles have been published in the RAND Journal of Economics, Journal of Health Economics, Journal of Economic Behaviour and Organization, Health Economics, Regional Science & Urban Economics, and Social Science and Medicine. He is the Principal Investigator of a research project funded by the Health Foundation to investigate the retention of NHS hospital workers.
This public event is hosted by LSE Health Policy. Click here to learn more about the event.
THURS 27 October 2022, 6:00pm, IN-PERSON PUBLIC EVENT, MAR.1.08, LSE MARSHALL BUILDING
Meta-research: latest developments for evaluating and improving research practices
Meta-research, research on research, is a fascinating growing discipline that can have a major impact on improving the efficiency, utility, and validity of scientific investigation at large. The lecture will focus on recent developments, challenges, and opportunities surrounding the evaluation and improvement of research practices across diverse scientific fields.
John P.A. Ioannidis, MD, DSc is Professor of Medicine and of Epidemiology and Population Health, and Professor (by courtesy) of Biomedical Data Science and of Statistics, and co-Director of the Meta-Research Innovation Center at Stanford (METRICS). He is the recipient of many awards and he has been elected as Einstein fellow at the Berlin Institute of Health. He has been inducted in the Association of American Physicians, the European Academy of Cancer Sciences, the American Epidemiological Society, the European Academy of Sciences and Arts, the US National Academy of Medicine, and as a corresponding member in the Academy of Sciences in Bologna. He is President Elect of the Association of American Physicians. He has received honorary titles from FORTH and U Ioannina, honorary doctorates from the universities of Rotterdam, Athens, Tilburg and Edinburgh and multiple honorary lectureships. He is among the 6 living scientists with the highest current citation rate in the world (>6,000 new citations per month per Google Scholar).
Huseyin Naci (M.H.S., Ph.D.) is Associate Professor of Health Policy and Director of Teaching in the Department of Health Policy at the LSE. He conducts research and teaches on health care policy and practice in Europe and the US. Huseyin serves as Co-Director of LSE’s Executive M.Sc. program in Health Economics, Outcomes and Management in Clinical Sciences. He is also one of the Deputy Directors of LSE Health.
This public event is hosted by . Click here to learn more about the event.
THURS 14 JULY 2022, 3-4.30 pm, Hybrid (In-person and Online)
Story to strategy: the Art and Science of Shaping Global Health -A Talk by Professor Gavin Yamey
Dr Gavin Yamey recently delivered the 2022 Health Clark Lecture at LSHTM and will now speak to LSE on the same topic, Shaping Global Health.
How can university-based researchers actively shape global health policymaking in various sectors and organisations?
Albert Sabin, who developed the oral polio vaccine, said, "a scientist who is also a human being cannot rest while knowledge which might reduce suffering rests on the shelf." Research universities generate such knowledge, which can be a crucial foundation for improving global public health if it is taken off the shelf and used by policy actors. How, then, can university-based researchers more actively shape global health policymaking in ministries of health and finance, bilateral and multilateral health agencies, foundations, and non-government organisations?
Join the conversation with Dr Gavin Yamey—a medical doctor, journalist, editor, and global health researcher—in examining the growing evidence base on effective strategies to reach health policymakers. Also, gain insight into how he has used such strategies in shaping a multidisciplinary evidence-to-policy laboratory at Duke University that is networked with universities and think tanks in six partner countries (Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, India, Sri Lanka, and Myanmar). Finally, he reflects on some of the key opportunities and barriers to influencing decision-makers in global health and shares some of his lab's examples of success and failure—both of which have helped to refine the policy lab model.The event is hosted by the Global Health Initiative and the Department of Health Policy.
Recording coming soon.
TUESDAY 21 JUNE 2022, 1-2pm: DEPARTMENTAL WEBINAR SERIES
Damien de Walque, Lead Economist, Development Research Group, World Bank
Damien's research interests include health and education and the interactions between them. His current work is focused on evaluating the impact of financial incentives on health and education outcomes. He is a lead author of the World Bank Policy Research Report titled Improving Effective Coverage in Health: Do Financial Incentives Work
Eeshani Kandpal, Senior Economist, Development Research Group, World Bank
Eeshani's research examines two types of financial incentives: (1) cash transfers to poor households and (2) pay-for-performance contracts with health workers and facilities to improve the provision of primary health care. She is particularly interested in design elements like the targeting mechanisms of cash transfers and optimal pricing regimes for health service delivery as well as spillovers from incomplete contracts or targeting methods. She is an associate editor for the American Journal of Agricultural Economics and a lead author of the World Bank Policy Research Report titled Improving Effective Coverage in Health: Do Financial Incentives Work
Improving Effective Coverage in Health: Do Financial Incentives Work?
Improving Effective Coverage in Health: Do Financial Incentives Work?, is a new World Bank Policy Research Report that builds on the rigorous body of evidence accumulated on performance-based financing (PBF) to examine the impacts of PBF and draw lessons for the future of health financing. Financial incentives and performance pay to frontline health facilities and workers have gained popularity as an innovative approach to confront the challenge of poor health outcomes in low-income countries. This approach was a significant departure from previous financing that had little link to results and accountability. PBF projects included such financial incentives as well as transparency and accountability reforms.
Recording coming soon.
TUESDAY 3 MAY 2022, 1-2pm: DEPARTMENTAL WEBINAR SERIES
Dr Eleonora Fichera, Reader in Economics and Deputy Head of Economics Department, University of Bath
"And Breathe Normally": The Low Emission Zone impacts on health and well-being in England
Air pollution is a global concern for its negative externalities on climate, but also on the healthcare sector and human capital accumulation. Yet, there is scant evidence of the effectiveness of clean air transport policies. This seminar will discuss a study on the effects of London’s Low Emission Zone (LEZ) and Ultra-Low Emission Zone (ULEZ) on health and well-being, conducted by Dr Habtamu Beshir and Dr Eleonora Fichera. The research found that LEZ and ULEZ have significantly reduced PM10 by 12% and 31% of the baseline mean respectively, and ULEZ has reduced NO2 by 14.4%. These effects were stronger for relatively more deprived areas and have been brought by a change in the fleet composition.
Recording coming soon
TUESDAY 29 MARCH 2022, 1-2pm: DEPARTMENTAL WEBINAR SERIES
Dr Rotem Perach, Senior Research Fellow, University of Westminster
Face masks and COVID-19 public health guidance delivery: An applied social psychology perspective
Promoting adherence to public health guidance is an ongoing challenge in the COVID-19 pandemic. Insights from social psychology suggest that the perception of a shared social identity (e.g., UK national) with the person relaying the guidance could enhance compliance with public health messages. People’s faces are key to human communication, such that face masks are a potential vehicle for generating social identification with others. In this talk, Dr Rotem Perach will present evidence that exposure to face masks with valued cultural symbols, such as the NHS, increases positive personality impressions, and will discuss the potential implications for the tailored delivery of public health messages among different social groups.
THURSDAY 3 MARCH 2022, 10-11:15am: PUBLIC LECTURE
Winnie Byanyima, Executive Director of UNAIDS
How To Beat Pandemics: a route map to ending COVID-19, ending AIDS, and keeping safe from the threats of the future
This event with Winnie Byanyima, the feminist activist who leads the UN’s response to HIV and AIDS and who chairs the People’s Vaccine Alliance for COVID-19, will highlight lessons rooted in ongoing experience from the AIDS response and the commonalities between the two pandemics, as well as learnings from other health crises, to set out an approach that can actually succeed in keeping us all safe.
This public lecture is hosted by the Global Health Initiative and the Department of Health Policy.
TUESDAY 1 MARCH 2022, 1-2pm: DEPARTMENTAL WEBINAR SERIES
Professor Sonia Bhalotra, Professor of Economics at the University of Warwick
Antidepressant use and academic achievement: evidence from Danish administrative data
This webinar will discuss an investigation by Sonia Bhalotra et al. on the impacts of antidepressant use in childhood on academic achievement at age 16, using linked register data on individuals in Denmark. The results of the study indicate large detrimental impacts of mental health disorders on cognitive performance, and high returns to antidepressant treatment. They are consistent with evidence that depression and anxiety have a larger impact on math performance, and that girls are more sensitive to these conditions.
WEDNESDAY 16 FEBRUARY 2022, 5-6pm: DEPARTMENT ANNUAL LECTURE
Professor Christopher Murray, Director of the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation and Professor and Chair of Health Metrics Sciences at the University of Washington
The Impact of COVID-19 on Global Health
The COVID-19 pandemic has had massive global impacts infecting more than 3.5 billion and causing more than 15 million excess deaths. The virus has directly killed millions and the lockdowns needed to dampen transmission may have contributed in various ways to millions of pandemic related deaths not due to SARS Cov2 infection. The COVID-19 pandemic has not only been a major shock to human health but has had unprecedented economic impacts. The distribution of health and economic effects has not been even around the world. Countries judged prior to the pandemic to be better prepared to manage threats such as the United Kingdom and Unites States have not faired particularly well during 2020 and 2021. Lessons from the pandemic highlight that we need to rethink preparing and managing global health risks and we need to invest in making health systems more capable to handle these threats when they do emerge.
SUNDAY 30 - MONDAY 31 JANUARY 2022: PHSSR WORLD EXPO SUMMIT
The Healthcare System Resilience Summit
This event, produced by the Partnership for Health System Sustainability and Resilience (PHSSR) and the Swedish Expo Pavilion, will share the latest on the expansion of the PHSSR project and dig deeper into some of the underlying drivers of health system strengthening.
Join to hear from world leading experts, global leaders such as José Manuel Barroso and Malcolm Turnbull, and ministers of health from around the world, on action being taken to strengthen health systems in the face of the pandemic.
TUESDAY 25 JANUARY 2022, 1-2pm: DEPARTMENTAL WEBINAR SERIES
Professor Ben Ansell, Professor of Comparative Democratic Institutions at Nuffield College, University of Oxford
Vaccine Hesitancy and Political Trust in Britain
As the COVID vaccine was launched in early 2021, who was most and less willing to take it? Together with Martin Bauer (LSE), Jane Gingrich (Oxford), and Jack Stilgoe (UCL), Ben Ansell conducted a two-wave survey of vaccine attitudes in October 2020 and February 2021. The study found a large overall increase in vaccine acceptance across the two waves but systematically lower acceptance among people with less trust in politics, Brexit voters, ethnic minorities, and younger people. This webinar will examine the importance of political distrust in underpinning vaccine hesitancy.
MONDAY 24 JANUARY 2022, 5-6pm: LSE HEALTH ANNUAL LECTURE
Professor Harlan Krumholz, cardiologist and scientist at Yale University and Yale New Haven Hospital; founder and Director of the Yale Center for Outcomes Research and Evaluation (CORE)
Population Health in the 21st Century: path to progress
We find ourselves in the early 21st century with a plethora of data and a paucity of personalised information to transform care and outcomes. With ever more investments in health care, ever more digital data, ever more computational power, we find that our health indices are declining, our disparities increasing, and ability to translate the life science revolution into tangible population health gains diminishing. In what should be the golden age of health, we are caught in neutral at best, and, in some cases, reverse. Our health care infrastructure was built for a different age, and the economic models, poorly suited to current opportunities, resist change that is necessary for progress. This lecture will review the challenges of today’s health care infrastructure and economic models, and propose solutions for tomorrow.
TUESDAY 30 NOVEMBER 2021, 1-2pm: DEPARTMENTAL WEBINAR SERIES
Dr Richard Frank, Senior Fellow in Economic Studies at the Brookings Institution and Director of the USC-Brookings Schaeffer Initiative for Health Policy
Lasting Scars: The Impact of Depression in Early Adulthood on Subsequent Labour Market Outcomes
In this study, we examine how depression in early adulthood affects subsequent labour market outcomes. We find that conditional on employment, people meeting diagnostic criteria for depression before age 36 have lower chances of being employed in occupations requiring non-routine cognitive skills, earn 10% lower hourly wages (conditional on occupation), work 120-180 fewer hours annually and earn 24% lower annual incomes. We find that 23% to 52% of the income penalty of early adult depression is attributed to its disruption of human capital accumulation and 22%-40% of the impact is attributed to its association with future depression.
WEDNESDAY 10 NOVEMBER 2021, 2.30-3.30pm
Graduate study in Health Policy - LSE Virtual Graduate Open Event
LSE's Department of Health Policy will be holding a live online event for prospective master's students. The event will enable prospective students to find out more about the graduate study opportunities offered by the department, followed by the opportunity for attendees to submit their own questions. The event will take place online via Zoom.
This event will not address the admissions process - please register for the or an for information about applying to LSE.
Attendance is free of charge and does not form part of the School’s selection process. You may also be interested in attending other . All event times are UK local time.
WEDNESDAY 13 OCTOBER 2021, 1-2pm: DEPARTMENTAL WEBINAR SERIES
Dr Ajay Aggarwal, Clinical Oncology Consultant, Guy’s & St Thomas‘ NHS Trust; Associate Professor, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine
Command and control or let the market decide: The future of cancer care
The delivery of cancer care services is occurring in the context of quality improvement policies which seek on the one hand to create a responsive equitable service by encouraging patient choice of provider, whilst on the other hand attempting a "top-down" centralisation of services. These patient choice and centralisation policies will have different and contradictory impacts on access to care, health resource utilisation and health outcomes. In addition, they require different service configurations and provider incentives to operate effectively. However, there is little evidence to guide policy making with regards the optimum delivery of cancer services. Using case studies from prostate and colorectal cancer the seminar will explore how the current policy dynamic has influenced the design of cancer services and practices of care, and what options there are for rebalancing the policy environment.
WEDNESDAY 23 JUNE 2021, 1-2:30pm: PUBLIC LECTURE
Feminist Global Health Security
As many news reports have made clear during COVID-19, there has been a recent sea change in thinking about the secondary effects of infectious disease control policy on women. However, we have yet to see this reflected in global health policy. When Zika made headlines in 2016, images of women cradling babies affected with microcephaly spread across the media and pulled on heartstrings. But, as Clare Wenham's new book argues, whilst this outbreak was about women and babies, it also highlighted the lack of broader gendered considerations in global health security. Taking Zika as its primary case but also touching on more recent experiences of the COVID-19 pandemic, Feminist Global Health Security asks what the policy response to disease outbreaks tell us about the role of women in global health security.
This book launch is hosted by the Global Health Initiative, Department of Health Policy and the Latin America and Caribbean Centre.
MONDAY 21 JUNE 2021, 1-2.30pm: PUBLIC LECTURE
COVID-19: Africa’s Vaccine Challenge
In collaboration with the Firoz Lalji Centre for Africa and Global Health Initiative, this event asks the question of what vaccine (and heath technology) equity means for global management of the pandemic, and what challenges remain for health systems as vaccine rollout is operationalised.
The panel explores the upstream and downstream access and distribution policies that are starting to be employed to combat COVID-19 in the region. As well as asking the question as to how other essential health services (such as routine immunization) do not suffer. The discussion is followed by audience Q&A.
Confirmed Speakers:
Dr Fifa Rahman, Permanent Representative for NGOs for the WHO-backed ACT-Accelerator
Dr Monique Wasunna, Director, Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative – Africa Regional Office
TUESDAY 8 JUNE 2021, 12.50-5.15pm: RESEARCH PROJECT WORKSHOP
IMPACT HTA: Improved methods and actionable tools for enhancing HTA
IMPACT HTA is a 3-year project funded by the European Commission under the Horizon2020 Framework Programme and led by LSE Health. It places strong emphasis on methodological improvements in the conduct of HTA and has produced tangible deliverables and toolkits that are immediately actionable by health care decision-makers and HTA agencies. Click here for more information.
The Consortium hosted a final workshop to celebrate the completion of IMPACT HTA in June 2021. The aim of the workshop was to provide an overview of the contribution of IMPACT HTA, its impacts and its legacy in terms of future research. The workshop includes a presentation of the outputs of each research stream followed by comments from selected stakeholders. For more details on the agenda, please click here.
TUESDAY 1 JUNE 2021, 1-2pm: DEPARTMENTAL WEBINAR SERIES
Prof. Dr. Daniel Wiesen, Associate Professor in Health Management, University of Cologne
Physician performance pay: experimental evidence
This paper presents causal evidence on the effect of performance pay on health care provision from a behavioral experiment with a representative sample of German primary care physicians. We analyze how performance pay compared to capitation affects physicians' health care service provision and the quality of care. We find that performance pay reduces under-provision of care prevalent under capitation. The effect increases with patients' severities of illness. Already small incentives are effective in enhancing the quality of care. Linking behavioral data to physician register data indicates that physicians in high-profit practices and practicing in cities are most responsive to incentives.
FRIDAY 21 MAY 2021:EUROPEAN HEALTH POLICY GROUP MEETING
Impacts of COVID-19 in Europe: perspectives from the social sciences
This meetig of the European Health Policy Group discussed research on the impact of COVID-19 on population health, health systems and decision-making across Europe, with a focus on the voices of health economists, health services researchers, sociologists and political scientists on COVID-19.
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THURSDAY 20 MAY 2021: SPECIAL GUEST TALK
Once a Century: A Case Study of Covid-19 Vaccine Development
Speaker: Ryan Richardson, Chief Strategy Officer and Executive Board Member of BioNTech
The SARS-Cov-2 sequence was published in January, 2020. In the days that followed our teams raced to produce different vaccine candidates using multiple mRNA vaccine technology platforms. Because we did not know what immunological properties would ultimately be optimal to address Covid-19, we utilized 3 distinct mRNA platforms, generated >20 vaccines, and embarked on an unprecedented process of parallel drug development. The seminar will explore the key factors that contributed to our success, as well as the challenges – technical, financial regulatory, and political that we encountered on a journey to bring a Covid-19 vaccine to the world.
Slides and recording coming soon for Departmental staff and students.
FRIDAY 7 MAY 2021, 2 - 3.30pm: PUBLIC EVENT
The issues raised by the LSE-Lancet Commission are wide-ranging, from establishing sustainable funding to securing a sufficient and skilled workforce. Crucially, the Commission also considers recommendations to strengthen preparedness to protect against further acute shocks and major threats to health like the COVID-19 pandemic, including measures to address health inequalities in the population and the difficulties in accessing consistent and high-quality health and social care, while also considering changing health care needs set against the background of shifting public expectations and involvement in health care.
Click here to view event recording
Click here to access the Commission report and accompanying Health Policy papers
TUESDAY 23 MARCH, 1 - 2pm: DEPARTMENTAL SEMINAR SERIES
Dr Chiara Orsini, Lecturer, Department of Economics, University of Sheffield; Visiting Fellow, Department of Health Policy, LSE
Parental Human Capital Traits, Assortative Mating, and the Incidence of Autism Spectrum Disorder
Positing that occupational choices reflect underlying traits theoretically linked to autism spectrum disorder (ASD), we examine the relationship between these traits among parents and ASD diagnoses in their children. We combine data from multiple Danish registers, linking parental labor market data to their children’s psychiatric records to extend the theoretical medical literature arguing that ASD is a heritable condition transmitted via "systemizing" and "empathizing" traits among parents. We construct two measures that we argue capture important aspects of systemizing and empathizing, as revealed through occupational choices.
WEDNESDAY 17 MARCH, 12 - 1.30pm: PUBLIC LECTURE
How Much is Your Health Worth? The Human and Economic Value of Health in the Era of COVID-19
As part of the LSE online public events programme, we are pleased to invite you to a unique session with:
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General, World Health Organization
Mariana Mazzucato, Chair of the WHO Council on the Economics of Health for All and Professor of the Economics of Innovation and Public Value at University College London (UCL) and author of Mission Economy: A Moonshot Guide to Changing Capitalism
Clare Wenham, Assistant Professor of Global Health Policy at LSE
TUESDAY 16 MARCH, 6-7pm: DEPARTMENT ANNUAL LECTURE
Lord Jim O'Neill, Chair of Chatham House, and of the Review on Antimicrobial Resistance [AMR] from 2014-16
Embedding Health Policy into Broader Economic Thinking
Diseases present us with obvious health costs, but there are significant economic costs to illness too. Investing more in health systems and disease prevention, including the use of modern technologies and diagnostics, would not only allow us to cope with future health challenges, but possibly reduce the cost of maintaining and responding to ongoing health care. In this talk, Jim O’Neill will discuss the need to embed health policy in broader economic thinking, reflecting on his experience working in Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) and his observations about COVID-19.
MONDAY 15 - FRIDAY 19 MARCH: PHSSR Summit
Partnership for Health System Sustainability and Resilience: Virtual Summit
Join us to hear about the partnership’s work at the first virtual PHSSR Summit, which will bring together over 50 leading experts from these eight countries and from bodies such as the OECD, the World Health Organization, the World Heart Federation, the International Society of Nephrology, to discuss the future of health in a post COVID-19 world.
TUESDAY 9 MARCH 2021, 1-2pm: DEPARTMENTAL WEBINAR SERIES
Professor John Cawley, Professor and co-Director of Cornell's Institute on Health Economics, Health Behaviors and Disparities, Cornell University
The Effects of Taxes on Sugar-Sweetened Beverages
A common policy response to the recent rise in obesity is to tax sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs), but the effects of these taxes are not well understood. In this presentation, we share findings from our studies of SSB taxes in various cities in the U.S., including the impact on prices (i.e. the pass-through of the taxes), sales of SSBs, and the consumption of SSBs.
FRIDAY 5 MARCH 2021, 5-6pm: LSE FESTIVAL
Dr Lucy Kanya, Assistant Professorial Research Fellow
Dr Josep Figueras, Director and co-founder of the European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies
Dr Justin Parkhurst, Associate Professor of Global Health Policy (CHAIR)
Dr Matthias Wismar, Professor of Health PolicyHealth Policy in a Post-COVID World
Women’s vulnerability must be considered in pandemic preparedness and response. We look at the role of UK policymakers in re-establishing the path to a more equal society for men and women in this context and draw comparisons with other countries who are doing well, and who have also fallen shy of the mark.
WEDNESDAY 3 MARCH 2021, 6.30-7.30pm: LSE FESTIVAL
Professor Nicola Lacey CBE, Professor of Law, Gender and Social Policy (CHAIR)
Mandu Reid, Leader of the Women’s Equality Party
Mary-Ann Stephenson, Director of the Women’s Budget Group
Dr Clare Wenham, Assistant Professor of Global Health PolicyCOVID-19 in the UK: where are all the women?
Women’s vulnerability must be considered in pandemic preparedness and response. We look at the role of UK policymakers in re-establishing the path to a more equal society for men and women in this context and draw comparisons with other countries who are doing well, and who have also fallen shy of the mark.
TUESDAY 23 FEBRUARY 2021, 1-2pm: DEPARMENTAL WEBINAR SERIES
Dr Judith Vall, Associate Professor, Department of Economics, Universitat de Barcelona & Researcher
Living at the peak: health and public finance during the COVID-19 pandemic
This paper provides novel evidence for the determinants of preferences for public health and the willingness to pay for health services using a survey experiment implemented during the third week of the lock-down in Spain. At the time of our experiment the confirmed COVID-19 cases reached the 100k mark in Spain and 1 million worldwide. We collect information on several health outcomes, which we are able to benchmark with results from previous surveys.
Results show a substantial deterioration of mental health, which is more pronounced in groups of the population with less stable income sources. Furthermore, we implement two information treatments about the fatality rate across age groups and the incidence rate across regions. We ask participants about their preferred budget allocation, which we can again benchmark against the enacted budget and previous surveys. Results suggest that preferences for health care expenditures have almost doubled.
Furthermore, we ask respondents about their willingness to pay for one out of three randomly assigned health care improvements. Contributions for more ICU beds are significantly higher compered to medical treatments and a vaccine.
TUESDAY 16 FEBRUARY 2021, 10.30am-12pm: DEPARTMENTAL WEBINAR SERIES
Mr Nsengimana, Managing Director for Africa, Commons Project
Key policy challenges for eHealth in Africa
This lecture will discuss key policy challenges of eHealth in Africa. eHealth (also referred to as Digital Health) refers to services utilizing digital technologies to deliver healthcare, support learning and self-care, facilitate healthcare management and research. Proponents of eHealth suggests it can lead to better quality and cheaper healthcare. In Africa and in developing countries elsewhere, eHealth is being implemented to improve accessibility to quality and equitable healthcare for poor, vulnerable and remote communities, to improve public health and efficiency of services. Applications include mHealth, eLearning, telemedicine, electronic health records, as well as disease monitoring systems. However, both developed and developing countries have struggled with implementing and evaluating eHealth, suffered from low adoption rates and experienced lower than expected benefits. Challenges include complexity of organizational and technological structures, diverse interests of heterogenous stakeholders, lack of resources and relevant capabilities, governance and privacy issues.
TUESDAY 26 JANUARY 2021, 1-2pm : DEPARMENTAL WEBINAR SERIES
Dr Anna Nicinska, Assistant Professor, Faculty of Economic Sciences, University of Warsaw
Soviet communism and health: the role of education
Later-life health is shaped by relevant factors that occurred over a life course, and their impact varies depending on individual education. We aim to examine how the events experienced in the past affected health of older adults living in post-communist countries, with particular focus on the role of the exposure to communist education. Although the health-education gradient has been examined for Western countries extensively, our understanding of the relationship between education and health in previously communist political-economic regimes remains limited. Social institutions concerned with health care and behavioral risks varied substantially between communist and non-communist countries. Specifically, Soviet education system with particular attention paid to physical education, differed significantly from education system in Western countries.
WEDNESDAY 16 DECEMBER 2020: DEPARMENTAL WEBINAR SERIES
Dr Luke Allen, Research Associate at Green Templeton College, University of Oxford / WHO Consultant, HQ Integrated Health Services team and WHO European Office for Non-Communicable Diseases
Death by chocolate: the political economy of global tobacco, alcohol, and junk food consumption
Over the past century, globalization and evolutionary biology have done a number on us. Growing wages, improved living conditions and increasingly ubiquitous creature comforts have all-but banished the scourges of starvation, death in childhood, and infectious diseases. However obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, COPD and dementia have risen to take their place – driven by the spread of new commercial vectors of disease: tobacco, alcohol, and junk food.
MONDAY 23 NOVEMBER 2020: LSE PUBLIC LECTURE PROGRAMME
COVID-19 & Global Gender Strategy: If not now, when?
While there have been significant advances in gender equality in the past 30 years, the Covid-19 threatens to undo this good work. Studies show more men are dying of COVID-19 but the negative secondary social and economic effects as a result of the pandemic will negatively affect more women. School closures, lockdowns and reduced access to healthcare are just some of the ways the pandemic is already exaggerating existing gender disparities. This event brings together global experts on gender issues to discuss the urgent need to support women. How can women’s vulnerability be considered in pandemic preparedness and response? And what is the role of the policymaker in reestablishing the path to a more equal society for men and women?
Speakers:
Dr Clare Wenham (Chair)
Ginette Azcona
Dr Roopa Dhatt
Professor Sarah Hawkes
Megan O'Donnell
TUESDAY 24 NOVEMBER 2020: DEPARTMENTAL WEBINAR SERIES
Dr Sumit Mazumdar, Research Fellow (Global Health), Centre for Health Economics, University of York
Private means for public ends? Insights and considerations from healthcare market behaviour and responses in India during the COVID-19 pandemic
With a highly-privatised market for health care services, and chronically-low levels of public investments in health among countries of similar economic levels, the recent experience of the health system’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic in India presents a unique case of how the private and the public sector have realigned relative roles in providing emergency services and meeting the demand for medical care.
In the days ahead, the health system is likely to be confronted further with several challenges following risks of economic slowdown, unemployment and increasing poverty. Immediate questions also involve managing patient loads in overstretched health facilities while keeping contagion risks at the minimum and enforcing social distancing and other norms and implementing major public health programmes, many of which have bene significantly affected due to the pandemic.
TUESDAY 10 NOVEMBER 2020: DEPARMENTAL WEBINAR SERIES
Dr Philipp Hessel,Associate Professor, Alberto Lleras Camargo School of Government, University of the Andes
Dr Usama Bilal,Assistant Professor in the Urban Health Collaborative and the Department of Epidemiology & Biostatistics, Drexel's Dornsife School of Public Health
The SALURBAL project: life expectancy and mortality profiles in 363 cities of Latin America
The usual conceptualization of the "urban advantage" in health ignores the possibility of heterogeneities in health outcomes across cities. Using a harmonized data set from the SALURBAL project, we described variability and predictors of life expectancy and proportionate mortality across 363 cities of 9 Latin American countries. Life expectancy differed substantially across cities within the same country. Causes of death also varied across cities with some causes of death (unintentional and violent injuries deaths) showing large variation within countries, whereas other causes of death (communicable, maternal, neonatal and nutritional (CMNN), cancer, and cardiovascular disease and other non-communicable diseases (CVD/NCDs)) varied substantially between countries. In multivariable mixed models, higher levels of education, water access, and sanitation, and less overcrowding, were associated with longer life expectancy, a relatively lower proportion of CMNN and higher proportion of cancer and CVD/NCDs deaths. These results highlight heterogeneities in life expectancy and causes of death across cities of the region, and suggest factors amenable to urban policies that could improve urban health.
THURSDAY 22 OCTOBER 2020: LSE PUBLIC LECTURE PROGRAMME
A Commitment to Welfare: the impact of Richard Titmuss on health and social policy
Having joined the LSE in 1950, Richard Titmuss, almost single-handedly, created the academic field of social administration (what we would now call social policy) in Britain. He wrote extensively on health, inequalities and other welfare issues, which have again come to the fore in the COVID-19 pandemic. What can we learn from Richard Titmuss as we look forward to the post-COVID world?
Speakers:
Professor Sir Julian le Grand (Chair)
Jon Ashworth MP
Dr Sara Machado
Professor Lucinda Platt
Professor John Stewart
TUESDAY 20 OCTOBER 2020: DEPARMENTAL WEBINAR SERIES
Professor David Grabowski, Professor of Health Care Policy, Department of Health Care Policy, Harvard Medical School
COVID-19 and Nursing Homes
COVID-19 has been disproportionately borne by individuals living in nursing homes. After a review of trends in US nursing home cases and fatalities, this presentation will review several ongoing analyses including: 1) characteristics of nursing homes with COVID cases, 2) asymptomatic spread of COVID among nursing home residents and staff; and 3) excess nursing home mortality associated with COVID. The presentation will conclude with some directions for policy both in the US and elsewhere.
FRIDAY 18 SEPT 2020
Meeting of the European Health Policy Group on COVID-19: impacts on health and health care systems in Europe
The European Health Policy Group (EHPG) is a multidisciplinary network that aims to stimulate international collaboration and learning through comparative analysis of changes to health care systems in Europe. The group meets twice a year to discuss research papers.
WEDS 1 JULY 2020, 14.00 - 15.30 - WEBINAR
COVID-19: the impact on the UK's ethnic minority populations
There is increasing concern that people from ethnic minority backgrounds are being disproportionately impacted by COVID-19 in England. Over the first few weeks of the pandemic there were several anecdotal reports to suggest that there are many more cases of, hospitalisations for, and deaths due to COVID-19 than we would expect from minorities’ population shares. Drawing on new IFS research, the panel will discuss the reasons why mortality is disproportionately high for minority groups, present evidence on how some minority groups are disproportionately affected by the economic impacts of the lockdown, and recommend ways forward to limit further differential social and economic consequences.
TUES 16 JUNE 2020, 14.00-15.30 - WEBINAR
COVID-19: the health policy and care response
The UK has long been a global leader in preparing for pandemics. However, the COVID-19 crisis has exposed weaknesses in Britain’s public health strategies. Academic experts from LSE’s Department of Health Policy in the fields of pandemic response, social care and health inequalities will consider pandemic response from a number of different angles, comparing responses across international health systems and decision-making and suggesting what the next steps should be for the UK and internationally.
THURS 18 JUNE 2020, 14.00-15.30 - WEBINAR
Dr Mark Flear, Reader in Law, Queens University Belfast
Brexit, epistemic injustice and Northern Ireland in a time of COVID-19
At the most general level this paper contributes to the proposition that politicians and people in mainland UK – Great Britain, but especially England – generally minimise or even ignore or sideline and marginalise the knowledges of people in Northern Ireland. This, in short, amounts to epistemic injustice, what Fricker describes as a 'wrong done to someone specifically in their capacity as a knower'. The paper contributes to the broader proposition by reference to the context of health law and policy, specifically in relation to Brexit. The paper first diagnoses epistemic injustice in the latter setting via interview data. From there, the paper proposes the latter can form the basis for developing governance fora to ameliorate epistemic injustice.
TUE 25 FEB 2020, 13.00-14.00 - SEMINAR - COW 1.11
Policy Failure in Health Systems Transformation: Closing the ‘Know-Do’ Gap
Globally, countries are transforming their health systems to meet the challenges posed by the shifting burden of disease, demographic changes, workforce pressures, the arrival of digital health, Artificial Intelligence. To overcome these challenges, health systems are looking to similar solutions – improving population health, patient centredness, strengthening integrated care and overcoming fragmentation.
While the 'why's' and 'what's' are not clear for transforming future global health systems, less attention is being paid to 'how' to do it.
TUE 04 FEB 2020, 12.30-14.00 - SEMINAR - COW 1.11
Speaker: Professor Toni Mora , UIC
Risky Behaviours Amongst Catalan Children With ADHD: Does Pharmacological Treatment Improve Outcomes?
Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is the most common mental health disorder amongst young children. Prevalence rates around the world range from 3-7% of school-aged children. Notwithstanding, there is an ongoing debate about the existence of over-diagnosis across developed countries because ADHD is controversial due to the fact that stimulant medication is typically administered as part of the treatment regime.
TUE 10 DEC 2019, 12.30-14.00 - SEMINAR - COW 1.11
Speaker: Professor Anne Beeson Royalty, IUPUI
Could more first-hand knowledge of healthcare systems in other OECD countries reform the US system?
Anne will present the outline of a sabbatical project that has prompted this visit to LSE and also several visits to Erasmus School of Health Policy and Management.
The project addresses a problem many countries face which is particularly severe in the U.S. Healthcare costs are rising rapidly and the U.S. is struggling to slow increasing costs and maintain quality of care. This project aims to uncover new approaches to these problems that may be right under our noses: successful policies in other countries.
TUE 03 DEC 2019, 12.30-14.00 - SEMINAR - COW 1.11
Speaker: Professor Melanie Luhrmann
Long-run health and mortality effects of exposure to universal health care in infancy
Melanie examines a fundamental re-organisation of the healthcare environment to universal healthcare in the United Kingdom, which occurred through the introduction of the National Health Service (NHS) in July 1948. Immediate large decreases in infant mortality ensued, which were focused on the neo-natal period and larger for individuals who prior to the NHS had a lower access to medical services.
WED 27 NOV 2019, 13.00-14.00 - SEMINAR - KSW. 01
Speaker: Dr Bo Hu, Nankai University, China
This study investigates how the intensity of informal care received by Chinese older people aged 80 and over changes over time. The data come from four waves of Chinese Longitudinal Healthy Longevity Survey (CLHLS) which span nearly a decade (2005-2014).
TUE 19 NOV 2019, 12.30-14.00 - SEMINAR - COW 1.11
Speaker: Professor Sergi Jimenez, Universitat Pompeu Fabra
The effect of abortion legalization on fertility, marriage and long-term outcomes for women
An evaluation of the short- and long-term effects for women of access to subsidized, legal abortion by exploiting the Spanish legalization of abortion in 1985. Using birth records and survey data, we find robust evidence that the legalization led to an immediate decrease in the number of births to women aged 21 and younger.
WED 13 NOV 2019, 13.00-14.00 - SEMINAR - KSW G.01
Speaker: Doctor Ranjeeta Thomas, Assistant Professor of Health Economics, LSE
Do public health interventions improve agricultural labour supply?
Agricultural productivity is a key driver of economic development in many developing countries. A healthier workforce results in increased labour market participation and worker productivity. But prevalent diseases such as malaria present a barrier to economic growth in many endemic countries, having an adverse impact on labour supply and productivity. This study identifies the causal impact of a recent large scale malaria elimination initiative combining universal indoor residual spraying and free door-to-door mass drug administration (MDA) for malaria in Southern Mozambique on agricultural worker absenteeism.
WED 16 OCT 2019, 13.00-14.00 - SEMINAR - KSW G.01
Emerging technology in social care and health: building a research agenda - Professor Paul P Freddolino
A scoping review of published and unpublished literature has identified strengths and challenges in the current use of emerging information and communication technology (ICT) in health, mental health and social care. Issues requiring further research were also noted. Service areas covered include child welfare, older adults and carers, health and medicine, mental health, substance use disorders and other addictions, and veterans. This presentation will highlight what is known, what is debatable, and what must be investigated further to determine the potential impact of ICT in these arenas.
TUE 25 JUN 2019, 12.30-14.00 - SEMINAR
Mums go online: is the internet changing the demand for healthcare?
As patients increasingly seek information online, the doctor-patient – and perhaps even the provision of healthcare – is changing. Yet while patients are able to research products that would enable them to monitor their health status, and are able to access resources to inform their diagnoses, doctors still determine the supply of treatments.
TUE 30 APRIL 2019, 11.00-19.45 - CONFERENCE
Department of Health Policy launch event
This one-day conference explored some of the most pressing contemporary issues in health policy globally. Two Nobel Prize winners, Sir Christopher Pissarides and Dr Denis Mugweke, gave keynote addresses.
TUE 5 FEB 2019, 12.30-14.00 - SEMINAR
Microsimulation for lifecourse economic evaluation: A framework and application to early years policy
Professor Richard Cookson presented a new birth cohort microsimulation framework for lifecourse economic evaluation, which provides detailed information about long-term health and non-health benefits, public costs, and inequality impacts.
THU 28 NOV 2018, 18.30-20.00 - LECTURE
Will you feel better after hospital treatment?
We have little idea about whether hospital treatment makes patients better. In his inaugural lecture Professor Andrew Street explained why this matters and what can be done about it.
MON 19 NOV 2018, 12.30-13.30 - SEMINAR
Can we cure child mental health problems? If not, what are services there for?
Professor MIranda Wolpert from UCL sharedthe latest learning about how child mental health services are currently configured and how they might be configured in the future. She draws on research from across the UK with a focus on empowering the voice of young people.
MON 15 OCT 2018, 12.45-14.00 - SEMINAR
The Health Care Provider Performance Review (HCPPR)
Ministries of health and their partners spend considerable resources on strategies to improve health worker performance and health care quality. Until now there has not been one place where decision-makers could go to find a comprehensive summary of this research. Dr Alex Rowe showedhow HCPPR is designed to help fill this gap.
TUE 9 OCT 2018, 18.00-20.00 - LECTURE
Economic Crisis and Health Policy in Greece: Critical Challenges and Structural Reforms
Andreas Xanthos, Minister of Health in Greece, talkedabout the challenges faced by the Greek public health system in a period of economic crisis and austerity, and the strategic and structural reforms required to shape the future of the health system for both the population and healthcare workers.