This year’s Operational Research Society Conference is being held in Edinburgh from 4th - 6th September. The modelling in healthcare stream provides the opportunity to present case studies or methodological pieces of work which assist healthcare decision-makers.

Examples may include, but are not limited to:

• Service planning techniques:
  The use of mathematical models to support resource and capacity planning on a local and national level, e.g. estimating future demand for A&E departments.

• Disease models:
  The application of OR techniques to inform clinical and policy decision-making, e.g. comparing the cost-effectiveness of chemotherapy options for the treatment of women with breast cancer.

• Research planning and prioritisation:
  The use of value of information methods to quantify existing levels of uncertainty and to subsequently identify and prioritise those areas in which further research would be most valuable, e.g. identifying research priorities for MS.

• Methodology development:
  The development of new and innovative OR methods to support healthcare decision-making, e.g. the use of metamodels to analyse computationally expensive models.

If you would like to present in this stream at the conference, abstracts must be submitted by 30th March via the OR Society website.

If you have any queries please contact h.pilgrim@sheffield.ac.uk.

Conference: Forum 11, the 2007 annual meeting of the Global Forum for Health Research
Location: Beijing, People’s Republic of China
Conference dates: 29 October - 2 November 2007

The Global Forum for Health Research and The Lancet are sponsoring their second joint essay competition on the occasion of Forum 11, the 2007 annual meeting of the Global Forum for Health Research in Beijing, People’s Republic of China, 29 October to 2 November 2007.

Entries are invited from young professionals working in or interested in the broad spectrum of health research for development relating to some aspect of the overall theme of Forum 11:

“Equitable access: research challenges for health in developing countries”

Rules, guidelines, principles, timeframe and prizes

• Essays should be no more than 1500 words and should be written in English.
• Essays must be based on the author’s own ideas and not be derived from another source.
• They should not have been previously published.
• They should include original, even provocative ideas and not be technical or academic texts: tables, charts, figures and references are probably not necessary.
• Authors are free to be idealistic, passionate, to take established practices to task, albeit in a constructive fashion.
• Entries are individual.
• Each author may submit one essay only.
• Authors should have been born on or after 1 January 1977.
• The deadline for receipt of entries is 20 April 2007.
• A shortlist will be announced by the end of June. Shortlisted authors will be asked to provide a high quality photograph and to confirm original authorship and date of birth.
• The winners will be notified by the beginning of August 2007. The judges’ decision will be final.
• A selection of shortlisted essays will be published in an anthology.
• Winning essays will also be published on the Lancet website and their authors invited to take part in Forum 11 with all expenses paid.

Staff members of the Global Forum or of the Lancet or their immediate families are ineligible to enter the competition, as are authors of commended and winning entries from 2006.

For full details and submission of entries, see http://www.globalforumhealth.org/.

We are pleased to invite you to the 28th Nordic Health Economists Study Group (NHESG) Meeting in Tartu, Estonia August 15-17, 2007. The meeting will be arranged by Institute of Public Health, University of Tartu.

Papers on all topics within health economics are welcome. The submitted papers can be reports on completed studies, work in progress or short descriptions of planned studies. The conference language is English.

If you are interested in presenting a paper at the meeting, please note that deadline for abstract submission is April 23rd, 2007. Accept of abstract will be confirmed by May 28th.

A workshop for doctoral students will be organised August 15th . Doctoral students are asked to submit papers. There will be organized two senior commentators for each paper - one responsible for theoretical comments and the other for empirical (statistical) questions. Only those who have submitted a paper can attend.

Other special sessions can be arranged if there is demand for them. If you want to arrange one, please contact the organizers.

The topic of the key-note lectures will be “What has happened in health care in former socialist countries after 1990s”.

Our meeting website with abstract submission, registration, and conference details will be available by the end of March 2007. You will be informed about this separately. Also you can participate without presenting a paper. Details for registration and accommodation will be published on the meeting website.

A preliminary conference programme will be found on the website from June 11th 2007.

The College of Medicine and the Institute of Government and Public Affairs of the University of Illinois at Chicago are organizing a conference, “Beyond Health Insurance: Public Policy to Improve Health,” to be held November 15-16, 2007 on the campus of the University of Illinois at Chicago.
Submission Deadline: May 1, 2007

Organizers of the conference are interested in research in the following areas:

• Disease Prevention and Health Promotion
• Addressing Racial, Ethnic and Socioeconomic Disparities in Health
• Developing and Regulating Pharmaceuticals
• Consumer Information

Authors of papers selected for presentation will receive an honorarium of $2,500 and organizers will cover the cost of conference-related travel and lodging.

Conference papers will be published in an edited volume with a university press or as a special issue of a professional journal. Therefore, authors have to agree to have their original research published as part of the conference proceedings (i.e., book chapter or special issue of journal).

Selection Process: Approximately 10 to 12 papers will be selected. The organizing committee will give priority to original research with direct public policy application. Participants will be selected on the basis of papers or extended abstracts of approximately 500 words.

Submission Deadline: May 1st, 2007

Authors chosen to present papers will be notified by June 1st, 2007.

Please email your submissions to: kaestner@uic.edu

Organizing Committee

• Robert Kaestner (Chair), Institute of Government and Public Affairs
• Lorens Helmchen, Institute of Government and Public Affairs
• David Hyman, Institute of Government and Public Affairs
• Judith Cook, College of Medicine
• Marian Fitzgibbon, College of Medicine
• Jack Zwanziger, School of Public Health
• Anthony Losasso, School of Public Health
• Claudia Fagan, Fantus Health Center

This year’s meeting will focus on:

• Exploring the science of decisions
• Consumer-driven, individualized health care

Keynote Address: Malcolm Gladwell, staff writer with The New Yorker and author of the bestselling books “Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking” and “The Tipping Point: How Little Things Make a Big Difference”, will speak about topics related to making decisions in his talk: “Lessons from the Outside”.

Call for Short Courses: SMDM is now accepting proposals for Short Courses for the 2007 Annual Meeting. Submission form is available at http://www.smdm.org/. The deadline for submission of these proposals is March 5, 2007

Call for Nominations for the 2007 SMDM Awards: Program is designed to recognize distinguished service to SMDM and/or the medical decision making field. Visit http://www.smdm.org/ for detailed descriptions of awards, past recipients, and eligibility requirements. Deadline for award nominations: April 1, 2007

Call for Abstracts: Submit your original work for presentation at the 2007 Annual Meeting in Oral and Poster format. Electronic submission site and detailed instructions will be available starting March 2 at http://www.smdm.org/. Deadline for abstract submission: June 8, 2007

Mark Your Calendar

• February 1, 2007 - Hotel Reservation Opens
• March 2, 2007 - Abstract Submission Site Opens
• March 5, 2007 - Call for Short Courses Due
• April 1, 2007 - Call for Awards Nominations Due
• June 8, 2007 - Abstract Submission Deadline
• June 13, 2007 - Meeting Registration Opens
• October 20-24, 2007 - 2007 SMDM Annual Meeting