Across the health care system, administrators, clinicians and researchers all face the challenge of justifying their decisions with particular emphasis on cost effectiveness. Economic evaluation of health interventions provides a powerful tool to address these questions.
SPHA 531 Economic Evaluation (MHA Year Two) teaches students to apply a specific cost-effectiveness analysis to approach resource allocation problems specific to health interventions, ie. Do they represent good choices from a value for money perspective? The course teaches the concept of maximizing the health benefits accruing from finite health care budgets. Economic evaluation is one specialty area within the larger domain of health economics.
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Instructor Profile
Dr. Wei Zhang is an Assistant Professor in the School of Population and Public Health (SPPH) at the University of British Columbia (UBC), a Scientist and Program Head of Health Economics at the Centre for Health Evaluation and Outcome Sciences (CHÉOS), and a Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research (MSFHR) Scholar. She started her career as a health economist at Elizabeth Bruyère Research Institute in Ottawa. Then she moved to Vancouver in 2006 and worked at CHÉOS. She earned her master’s degree in Economics from the University of Ottawa and PhD in the SPPH of UBC, and received postdoctoral training at CHÉOS and UBC.
Dr. Zhang’s research aim is to integrate theoretical and empirical findings with health policies, services, and practices through the application of economic theories and methods in health research. Her primary research interests include measurement and valuation of work productivity loss among patients and their caregivers, economic evaluation of health care interventions, and pharmaceutical policy.
A list of Dr. Zhang’s publications can be found here.