IHEA News – June 2022

The 2023 IHEA Congress will be held in Cape Town, South Africa. Cape Town is recognized as one of the most biodiverse cities with the highest known concentration of plant species, the majority of which grow nowhere else in the world. This inspired the congress name, which also reflects IHEA’s desire for the congress to attract a diversity of health economists and health economics research and perspectives.

The call for abstracts for the 2023 IHEA Congress will be released in the July newsletter. The abstract submission system is due to open on August 8th, 2022. Please note: Abstract submissions will close on November 29th, 2022. This is slightly earlier than for recent congresses, due to the different academic calendars in different parts of the world and hence the availability of some reviewers in December and others in January.

We encourage you to start planning your abstract.

IHEA will once again be offering support to early career researchers (ECRs) in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) who do not have access to senior colleagues at their institution. LMIC ECRs will be able to submit a draft abstract by late September, for review and detailed feedback on how to improve the abstract. Full details of this program of support will also be issued in the July newsletter.

2022 IHEA Annual Student Paper Prize Winners Announced!

This year, 26 papers from 11 countries were assessed by the Prize Committee. The 2022 Student Paper First Prize was awarded to:

Henry Cust (London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine):“Trading HIV for Sheep: An estimation of the sexual behaviours response of female sex workers to Tabaski in Senegal”. The paper finds a 49.5 percentage points (76%) decrease in condom use by female sex workers following the Islamic festival Tabaski celebrated in Senegal.

Honorable mentions go to the two runners up, who share the second prize, Hanifa Pilvar and Dominicas Mockus:

Hanifa Pilvar (Queen Mary University of London): “Changing physicians’ incentives to control the C-section rate: Evidence from a major health care reform in Iran”. The paper finds a 2014 reform in Iran that made vaginal delivery free for patients and incentivized doctors to perform vaginal deliveries reduced the national rate of C-section by 6 percentage points without any adverse effects on Apgar scores, hospitalization, or mortality. However, gestation length and birth weight increased.
Domininkas Mockus (University of Illinois): “The Effect of Immigration on the Living Arrangements of Elderly Natives”. The paper finds low-skill immigration to decrease the likelihood of the elderly to live in a nursing home, which may in turn improve quality of life and lower total healthcare costs.

The prize winners are expected to present their papers at a special session of the 2023 IHEA Congress in Cape Town. Many thanks to all those who submitted papers for consideration, and to the Prize Committee for all their hard work.

IHEA Mentoring Program

We have opened applications to participate in the next round of IHEA’s professional Mentoring Program! The program is open to all current IHEA members and the application process takes only 5 minutes.

Mentoring can make a big difference to enhance the careers of both mentors and mentees. IHEA has developed a highly rated guide to mentoring relationships that participants find useful for setting expectations and then meeting digitally, over the course of a year. In 2021-2022 IHEA matched 64 Mentor/Mentee pairs from around the world and has been working to improve the experience for the coming year.

IHEA’s handbook on mentoring and other resource material can be found online here.

Here are some quotes from past participants:

  • “Hope everyone has a Mentor pairing as fantastic as I do.”
  • “A supportive and private space to talk about challenges in academia and strategies to cope.”
  • “Stellar – I’m lucky to be paired with a great Mentor, who has been incredibly helpful, provided opportunities to present, network, etc. He has really gone above and beyond.”
  • “I like that I can share my experiences and tips with an early career researcher and offer help/advice.”

Due to constraints in mentor numbers and mentee/mentor preferences we cannot match everybody who applies, but we will do our best. The registration deadline is July 15, 2022.

To apply for the program as a Mentor click here.
To apply for the program as a Mentee click here.

Update on iHEA Special Interest Groups

Teaching Health Economics Special Interest Group

In memory of Maia Platt (1972-2022)

Maia Platt, a founding convener of the Teaching Health Economics Special Interest Group (THE SIG), lost her long battle with cancer on June 3, 2022. Maia held a MA and PhD in health economics from Wayne State University. She had taught at the University of Detroit Mercy since 2006 and was promoted to Professor in May 2022.
Maia was passionate about health economics teaching, and her main area of research explored the value of health economics education for students in health professions. She regularly contributed to the IHEA health economics teaching pre-congress sessions and was a driving force behind the establishment of the THE SIG.
Despite battling cancer, she worked tirelessly with Allen Goodman to produce the “International Handbook on Teaching Health Economics: Best Practices” which includes chapters from many THE SIG members and presenters at previous IHEA pre-congress sessions.

Economics of Child Health and Wellbeing Special Interest Group

The SIG would like to thank to everyone who attended their recent webinar entitled ‘Child Health and Human Capital’ by Professor Janet Currie from Princeton University. If you joined, we hope you enjoyed it and gained valuable insights.

If you were unable to attend the live webinar, the webinar recording is available here.

The SIG would love to get member feedback and ideas on what other topics you would like covered in future Economics of Child Health and Wellbeing SIG webinars.Please complete the following anonymous 3-item questionnaire here to provide this feedback.

Past Webinar Recordings

If you are worried you will be unable to attend our webinars live or would like to revisit a recording of a webinar, you can visit our website to view our past webinar recordings page. We request members and non-members to register for webinars only if they are planning on attending the webinar live.

iHEA Career Center

The iHEA Career Center allows you to post your job openings and fellowships, find potential candidates and search new positions. It is open to members and non-members alike. We do hope that you utilize this tool and should you have any questions, please reach out to jobs@healtheconomics.org.

IHEA is working on some exciting updates behind the scenes, including a new website with an improved member experience! Make sure you join or renew your membership today, by clicking on the image below, to take advantage of the new site, which will be launching in the next month.

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