Research

The Health Economics and Policy Analysis Centre (HEPAC) seek to develop and encourage the use of economics in the area of health and healthcare. The research focus of HEPAC is directed by the following objectives which inform our methodological themes:

Health Economic Evaluation

Our first objective is to conduct research that informs policy and practice through the generation of evidence on cost effectiveness for health technologies, health care, and social care interventions that target individuals, their families and friends across the life course. Such evidence is generated from the application of economic evaluation methods and is relevant for informing resource allocation decision-making by policy makers and practitioners in health care systems. The methodological expertise of HEPAC includes the following:

  • Health Technology Assessment
  • Economic Evaluation based on Randomised Controlled Trials
  • Economic Evaluation based on Decision Analytic Models
  • Evidence Synthesis for Economic Evaluation
  • Budget Impact Analysis
  • Costing and Cost Analysis 

Researchers in HEPAC currently apply these methods in a variety of areas in collaboration with clinicians, health and social scientists at NUI Galway and in other Irish, European and US research institutions. HEPAC provide health economics support to the Health Research Board (HRB)-Trials Methodology Research Network (TMRN), the HRB-Primary Care Clinical Trials Network Ireland (CTNI), the Diabetes Collaborative Clinical Trial Network Ireland (HRB DCCT-N-I), the HRB-Clinical Research Facility Galway (CRFG), Evidence Synthesis Ireland (ESI) and the SFI Research Centre for Medical Devices (CÚRAM). 

Health Preference Valuation

Our second objective is to conduct research to inform policy and practice through the generation of evidence on preferences for health outcomes and healthcare for individuals, their families and friends across the life course. Such evidence is generated from the application of preference-based methods and is relevant in the context of the need to appropriately identify, measure and value of the impact of illness, intervention, or policy on the health and wellbeing of individuals, families and friends, and/or society. The methodological expertise of HEPAC includes the following techniques:

  • Discrete Choice Experiments
  • Time Trade Off 
  • Contingent Valuation

Researchers at HEPAC currently apply these methods on a number of projects in the number of areas. Previously, researcher at HEPAC and Queens University Belfast undertook a HRB funded study, in collaboration with and the support of the EUROQoL group, whiched developed and analysed a preference valuation set for the EQ-5D-5L health states among the Irish general public. The output from this project provided a set of preference weights for health in Ireland that can be applied for the future conduct of health economic evaluation and health technology assessment. Other studies in this methodological area include the estimation of public preferences for resource allocation across different types of healthcare programmes..