10th SPINE Summer School 2024
The 10h SPINE Summer School addressed the topic "The Value of Interventions in Healthcare Research".
In an era of limited resources, the need for cost-responsible decision-making in healthcare is more crucial than ever. Health-economic assessments play a pivotal role in evaluating a wide range of interventions, including drugs, medical technologies, nursing and allied health interventions, preventive or screening programs, and system and workforce changes.
To ensure reliable valuations of these interventions, thorough comparative analyses are essential. Such analyses consider the costs involved, immediate and downstream, as well as their consequential impact, such as changes in health states, improved nurse-patient ratios, social implications, or potential gains in life-years.
Valuation in health-economic assessment employs diverse methodologies, including statistical approaches like survival analysis, network meta-analysis or regression methods. These methodologies are often integrated into trials or mathematical decision-analytic models such as decision trees, Markov state transition models, or discrete choice models. While health-economic evaluation may seem complex, understanding its fundamental concepts is key.
Economic evaluations provide a quantitative framework to assess the benefits and trade-offs associated with the funding of interventions. By conducting these evaluations, decision-makers gain valuable insight into the potential impacts on health outcomes, the healthcare system, cost-effectiveness, affordability, and overall value. This information is crucial at the national and institutional level, guiding the allocation of funds and ensuring that resources are directed towards interventions that deliver the greatest value and impact.
Faculty
Prof. Dr. Ivo Abraham
USA
Ivo Abraham is a nurse by profession and an outcomes, effectiveness, and value researcher by trade. In 2009, he was appointed Professor of Pharmacy, Medicine, and Clinical Translational Sciences at the University of Arizona (Tucson, AZ, USA). He currently is Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Medical Economics and a quantitative methods editor in the JAMA network of journals, with a primary assignment to JAMA Dermatology as well as at-large assignments in the network. A native of Belgium, he received his undergraduate nursing degree from (now) University College Leuven (Belgium), and MS and PhD degrees from the University of Michigan (US). He has held full- and part-time faculty appointments at universities in the US, Europe, and Asia.
Dr. Jana Bartakova
Switzerland
Jana Bartakova is a health economist and postdoctoral researcher at the University of Basel's Institute of Nursing Science. Her research centers on labor market conditions for nurses and physicians, healthcare systems, and utilizing health economics methods to enhance patient safety and healthcare delivery. Jana holds a BSc in Medical Devices from Charles University, an MEng in Systematic Healthcare Process Integration from the Czech Technical University, and a PhD in Health Economics from Charles University. She has prior experience as an assistant professor at Charles University, a consultant in mathematical decision-analytic modelling for the Czech Ministry of Health, as well as experience as a certified physiotherapist.
Prof. Dr. Matthias Schwenkglenks
Switzerland
Matthias Schwenkglenks is Head of the Health Economics Facility and Head of Research of the Institute of Pharmaceutical Medicine (ECPM) at the Department of Public Health of the University of Basel. He also leads the Medical Economics Unit at the Epidemiology, Biostatistics and Prevention Institute of the University of Zürich. He was appointed Titular Professor of Health Economics and Public Health in 2016. Matthias obtained a Master of Arts in Sociology and Political Sciences from the University of Tübingen, Germany, a Master of Public Health from the Universities of Basel, Bern and Zürich, and a PhD in Epidemiology from the University of Basel. He also has extensive professional experience in internal intensive care nursing.
ORGANIZERS:
Prof. Dr. Anne-Sylvie Ramelet
Switzerland
Prof. Dr. Michael Simon
Switzerland
In cooperation with
Institut Universitaire de Formation et de Recherche en Soins IUFRS, Faculté de biologie et de médecine