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| Wishing everyone a restful end of year break |
| Our sincere thanks to everyone for their contributions to the many IHEA activities during 2025.We wish everyone a restful and revitalizing break over the next few weeks, and a memorable 2026 filled with opportunities and positivity. Please note the IHEA office will be closed from December 25 – January 2. |
| Farewell to Di McIntyre – Outgoing IHEA Executive Director |
| Professor Di McIntyre, Executive Director of IHEA, will retire at the end of 2025. Di joined IHEA in January 2016, succeeding Professor Tom Getzen who was the inaugural ED. In its early years, the main IHEA activity was the two-yearly Congress. Through her leadership, creativity and commitment, Di has dramatically expanded the range of IHEA activities focused on bringing members together and strengthening the discipline of health economics across the globe. It is largely thanks to Di that we now have a range of active Special Interest Groups, a mentoring scheme, an IHEA early career fellowship, and countless other initiatives. Di has also seen through a number of governance reforms, including revisions to our by-laws, which now support greater regional representation. She has been a relentless champion of equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI), supporting Board members to develop an EDI strategy and introducing a variety of measures to the Congress organisation aimed at ensuring that everyone feels a sense of belonging at this large global gathering. She has encouraged us to revisit committee membership for the key IHEA awards with the aim of broadening our understanding of what excellence in health economics looks like. And she has used her vast global network to bring a variety of voices to our organisation and its activities. To recognise the impact that Di has had on IHEA, and particularly on our engagement with early career researchers, the Board has decided to rename the Student Paper Prize in her honour. Going forward, the prize will be known as the Di McIntyre Student Paper Prize. We are truly grateful to Di for her efforts in support of our community. We wish her a happy and healthy retirement in her South African idyll, look forward to her continued engagement with IHEA as an active member, and hope that we can continue her legacy of a thriving, truly international network of health economists. Kara Hanson (President) Virginia Wiseman (President-elect) |
| A few last words from Di |
| It has been the greatest privilege of my professional life to be able to contribute to the health economics community over the past 10 years through this amazing association. IHEA has always been my professional home; I have been a member since 1996 and have attended all but two of the IHEA Congresses. It is through IHEA that I have met colleagues from around the world who became mentors, research collaborators and friends. IHEA broadened my horizons and enriched my understanding of health economics research and health systems in different countries. It has been a privilege to serve as IHEA’s Executive Director for the past ten years because this provided an opportunity to work closely with a remarkable community of health economists who are willing to volunteer their time to: serve on the Board and committees; review papers for the various awards; initiate and convene Special Interest Groups; mentor the next generation; organise the always impressive congress program; and contribute to other activities. IHEA is truly an association for members, built through the contributions of its members. It provides a supportive professional home and opportunities to benefit from and give back to the global health economics community. I would like to thank every person who I have had the honour of working with (and who have tolerated my OCD tendencies) – your contributions are recognised and greatly appreciated. I believe that organisations benefit from change; it brings new ideas and renewed energy. Working closely with Susan Ettner, the new Executive Director, over the last two months, I know that she has great ideas on better ways of doing things and the experience to work with the Board and other member volunteers to take IHEA to new heights. Di McIntyre Outgoing IHEA Executive Director |
| Introducing the IHEA Board for 2026 |
| We announced the results of the Board elections on December 10th, which was closely contested by 24 outstanding candidates for seven positions on the Board. We are very grateful for the willingness of so many IHEA members to stand in the election. The full Board for 2026 is: – President: Virginia Wiseman – Past-President: Kara Hanson – President-Elect: Paula Lorgelly – Treasurer: Claire de Oliveira – Director for Africa: Justice Nonvignon – Directors for Asia: Priya Bhagowalia and Shiko Maruyama – Directors for Europe: James Buchanan and Aleksandra Torbica – Director for Latin America & the Caribbean: Dagna Constenla – Directors for Northern America: Mehdi Ammi and Marcella Alsan – Director for Oceania: Sonja de New – Early Career Researcher Director – Global North: Ha Le – Early Career Researcher Director – Global South: Darshini Govindasamy |
| Will you be at the ASSA meetings in January 2026? |
| If so, we encourage you to participate in the two IHEA sessions (see below) and the IHEA and ASHEcon reception on Sunday, January 4th, from 6:30-7:30 PM. The Economics of International Health Saturday, January 2, 2026; 8:00-10:00 AM (EST) Chair: Shiko Maruyama, University of Osaka Improving the Distribution of Quality in Health Provision: Two Incentive Reforms in Peru’s Healthcare System Matteo Magnaricotte, University of Chicago; José Flor-Toro, Northwestern University Discussant: Joseph Price, Brigham Young University Citizenship Policy and the Spread of Communicable Diseases: Evidence from the Dominican Republic Fabiola Alba Vivar, Wake Forest University; Jose Flor-Toro, University of Chicago; Eduardo Campillo Betancourt, Northwestern University Discussant: Dafne Murillo, Columbia University Drug trafficking and the homicide epidemic in the Caribbean Basin Brian Marein, Wake Forest University Discussant: David Blake Johnson, University of Central Missouri Sunset Time and its Effect on Adult Health Padmaja Ayyagari, University of South Florida; Shobhit Kulshreshtha, Tilburg University; Leena Bhattacharya, Tilburg University Discussant: Karen Eggleston, Stanford University The Economics of Pharmaceutical and Medical Innovation Saturday, January 2, 2026; 10:15 AM-12:15 PM (EST) Chair: John Cawley, Cornell University Data Privacy and Medical Innovation: The Case of GDPR Jennifer Kao, UCLA Anderson; Sukhun Kang, UCSB Discussant: Jie Fang, McGill University Diffusing Innovations Under Market Competition: Evidence from Drug-Eluting Stents Ginger Jin, University of Maryland College Park; Hsienming Lien, National Chengchi University; Xuezhen Tao, Shanghai University of Finance and Economics Discussant: Lucy X. Wang, UMass Amherst Optimal Push, Pull, and Failure Funding for Global Health David Ridley, Duke University; Peng Sun, Duke University; Chenxi Xu, Duke University Discussant: Andrew Mulcahy, RAND Corporation Improving the availability of stem-cell donors: A natural field experiment Daniel Wiesen, University of Cologne; Michael Haylock, BCMED; Patrick Kampkötter, University of Tuebingen; Mario Macis, Johns Hopkins University; Susanne Seitz, DKMS; Robert Slonim, University of Technology Sydney Discussant: Hannah Bae, Michigan State University |
| Call for Submissions for Student Paper Prize |
| Are you a health economics Masters or Doctoral student? Why not submit a paper from your degree research for consideration for the 2026 Student Paper Prize. You could be on the stage in the opening plenary of the 2027 IHEA Congress in Ecuador. 2025 Student Paper Prize Winners |
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| Deadline: Monday, January 19, 2026 The International Health Economics Association (IHEA) is pleased to invite submissions for the Annual Student Paper Prize in Health Economics.A student is defined as someone currently studying (full or part-time) at a higher education institution, at either a Master’s or Doctoral level. In addition, students who graduated in the past year (since January 2025) qualify as long as the paper was written while registered as a student. Papers can be published or unpublished, but must be in a comparable format to a published paper in Journal of Health Economics or Health Economics, of maximum length 8,000 words (excluding abstract, tables, figures, references and any appendices). Papers should be in English. Previous winners of this Prize are not eligible to submit a paper. Papers will be reviewed by an International Committee chaired by Shiko Maruyama (University of Osaka). The Prize will be: complimentary registration for the 2027 IHEA Congress to present the paper in a Student Prize Special Organized Session chaired by the IHEA President, or Chair of the Prize Committee; a cash prize; and the offer (if the author wishes, and the paper is unpublished) of potential fast-track publication in Health Economics, subject to Editorial approval. The runners-up will receive a small cash prize and complimentary registration for the 2027 IHEA Congress. They will be invited to give brief presentations at the IHEA Congress Student Prize Special Organized Session. All prize winners will also receive a certificate that will be presented during the Opening Plenary of the Congress. Students are invited to submit their papers via the online system here (select the “Student Paper Prize” button and then the “Submit a Paper” button). You will be asked to complete a form and to upload two files:Your full paper (including abstract, tables, figures, references and any appendices)A cover letter, signed by your supervisor, which outlines your contribution to the paper and research on which it is based (percentage and nature of contribution – conceptualization, data collection, analysis, writing, etc.) and a description of the relative contribution of any co-authors. The student contribution should be at least 75%. |
| Call for Submissions for Arrow Award |
| IHEA’s annual Arrow Award was created to recognize excellence in the field of health economics with the award presented to the author or authors of the paper judged to be the best paper published in health economics in English in the award year. The Award was set up in honour of the late Kenneth Arrow and in recognition of the influence of his seminal paper from 1963 “Uncertainty and the welfare economics of medical care”. |
| Deadline: Monday, January 19, 2026 In pursuit of greater diversity in the papers considered for this award, including the research topics and health system contexts where research is undertaken, IHEA would like to encourage its members to nominate papers published in peer-reviewed journals during 2025 that push the frontiers of health economics forward. Nominations for the Arrow Award can be submitted via a portal on the IHEA website (select the “Arrow Award” button and then the “Submit a Paper” button). You will be asked to provide a brief motivation and must upload a copy of the published paper. |
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