February newsletter – International Health Economics Association

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Update on 2025 IHEA Congress in Bali

Plenaries Announced

We will shortly be posting full details of the 2025 Congress plenaries on the website, as soon as all speakers are confirmed. In the meantime, we are excited to share information on the focus of these plenaries.

Opening Plenary Sunday July 20th, 6:00pm

Using Economic Policy Instruments to Improve Health: Challenges and Opportunities

Diet-related Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs) such as diabetes and obesity represent a significant health, economic, and social burden globally, and particularly in the Asia-Pacific region. Economic instruments are a critical component of the recommended policy response. This session focuses on fiscal and trade policies intended to address diet-related NCDs. The first speaker will provide an overview of such taxes, subsidies, and trade policies, detailing their estimated effects on diet and health, as well as the opportunities and challenges for translating evidence into policy, with a focus on the rich experience of the Asia-Pacific region. The second speaker (awaiting confirmation) will explore the practical and political considerations of fiscal policies to improve health, based on extensive policy-making experience at the country and global level. The session will also discuss future directions in policy and research in this area.

Closing plenary Wednesday July 23rd, 3:15pm

Mental Health Economics at a Crossroads: Tackling Key Challenges in the Field

In any given country, one in four to five people suffers from mental illness, such as depression and anxiety. Mental illness is also the most prevalent condition among the working-age population, leading to work-related absenteeism and presenteeism. Not surprisingly, mental illness has a huge impact on both health systems and society as a whole, translating into large health and economic burdens.

The IHEA Congress closing plenary will bring together world-leading experts in the economics of mental health to explore the key challenges that health systems need to grapple with, how best to tackle these challenges, and the main areas of research that health economists should focus on. In particular, this plenary will explore how these issues vary between high- and low- and middle-income countries and between regions, including the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and natural disasters related to climate change on mental health, among other things.

Full Program Overview and Preliminary Pre-Congress Session Program Released

We have posted an overview of the full program on the Congress webpage (see Program section). This indicates what will happen when and start and end times for each day.

The preliminary program for pre-congress sessions has also been posted on this page. Some sessions are awaiting confirmation, due to the uncertainty created by recent Executive and Stop Work Orders. The Pre-Congress program on Saturday 19th and Sunday 20th July are jam-packed with exciting and diverse sessions.

We hope that this information will assist in planning your participation in the pre-congress and main congress and that you will plan on arriving early to benefit from the pre-congress sessions.

Registration is Open

We are pleased to announce that congress registration has opened – you can register here.

Early-bird registration rates, which apply until April 30th, 2025, are summarized below.

Please note: It is less expensive to sign up for or renew IHEA membership and benefit from the member registration fee than opting for the non-member registration fee.

Registration Category	Member	Non-Member
High-income country	800 USD	1,100 USD
Upper middle-income country	600 USD	825 USD
Low- or lower-middle income country	400 USD	550 USD
Student/ECR	400 USD	550 USD

You can confirm which category you would fall within by consulting the World Bank’s list of countries/territories defined as low-income (GNI per capita of $1,145 or less), lower middle-income (between $1,146 and $4,515), upper middle-income (between $4,516 and $14,005) and high-income (GNI per capita of more than $14,005).

Students must be registered on a full-time basis at a tertiary education institution and early career researchers should have graduated within the past 5 years.

These registration fees entitle each delegate to participate, without any further payment, in pre-congress sessions (on Saturday and Sunday), all congress sessions (Sunday evening to Wednesday afternoon), morning and afternoon refreshment breaks (Saturday to Wednesday), buffet lunch (Monday to Wednesday), the opening reception (Sunday evening) and the main social event (Tuesday evening).

Please note that there will be a separate process for pre-congress session registration – no cost is involved for those who have registered for the full congress. Space is limited in these sessions, so you need to reserve a place. Registration will also provide pre-congress session organizers with information on the number and profile of session participants. This registration will open in late April, once all session organizers have been able to confirm their participation (see earlier information on constraints facing some session organizers).

Outcome of Peer Review Process Imminent

The wait is nearly over! The outcome of the abstract review process will be announced within the next week. We apologize for the delay, but the process has taken longer than planned due to the unexpectedly high volume of submissions and some technical challenges beyond the control of IHEA. We did not want to rush the process and disadvantage anyone.

For those with an accepted abstract who applied for financial support, please note that we will be in touch with you within a week of the announcement of the outcome of the abstract reviews – please be patient; we will be in touch.

The rigorous peer review process started with each abstract and session proposal being independently scored by three health economists with experience in the field selected by the submitter. Each field has three Program Chairs, who then independently assessed the Review Panel’s scoring and made recommendations on which abstracts and sessions should be accepted. Each team of Program Chairs then met to decide on a consensus recommendation, which has now been assessed by the Scientific Committee Chair and Co-Chair to ensure that there is consistency across fields.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank the Program Chairs and Scientific Committee Chairs, who have worked tirelessly over the last few weeks making their recommendations, based on reviewer scores and additional reviews in cases of divergence in reviewer scores. Your contributions are greatly appreciated.

Program Chairs

Olufunke Alaba, University of Cape Town

Hareth Al-Janabi, University of Birmingham

Neha Batura, University College London

Heather Brown, Lancaster University

Terence Cheng, Monash University

Omar Galarraga, Brown University

Hassan Haghparast Bidgoli, University College London

Mohammad Hajizadeh, Dalhousie University

Danny Hughes, Arizona State University

Izabela Jelovac, CNRS (GATE Lyon-St Etienne)

Meng-Yun Lin, Wake Forest University School of Medicine

Céu Mateus, Lancaster University

Paul Mitchell, University of Bristol

Justice Nonvignon, University of Ghana

Jacob Novignon, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology

Sachiko Ozawa, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Stavros Petrou, University of Oxford

Jane Ruseski, West Virginia University

Nazmi Sari, University of Saskatchewan

Eve Worrall, Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine

Xiao Xu, Columbia University

Scientific Committee Chairs

Paula Lorgelly, University of Auckland/Waipapa Taumata Rau

Karen Grépin, University of Hong Kong

Innovations in Presentation Formats for Upcoming Congress

There has been massive interest in attending the 2025 IHEA Congress – we received over 25% more abstract submissions, and more than double the number of pre-congress session proposals, than previous records. To accommodate as many delegates as possible, we are making some changes to the types of presentations to be held in Bali. There will now be three categories of oral presentations – and we have eliminated poster presentations, at the 2025 IHEA Congress. All sessions will be 90 minutes long. More details on the 3 categories of presentations are described below.

Long oral presentation

There will be up to 5 of these presentations per session. Each presentation should be 10 minutes long, to allow for 5 minutes of discussion per presentation.

Short oral presentation

These sessions will have up to 10 presentations, each of 6 minutes, leaving time for some discussion.

Flash oral presentation

We are introducing an innovative form of oral presentation for the 2025 Congress. These “flash” oral presentations are 3 minutes long, consisting of 12 auto-advanced slides with 15 seconds per slide. There will be up to 15 of these presentations per session, allowing plenty of time at the end for one-on-one engagement with presenters whose research is of interest to you.

This presentation style draws on the increasingly popular “Pecha Kucha” and “Ignite” format of presentations; we have adapted the format slightly. If you are wondering how it is possible to present your work in such a short space of time, look up the “Three Minute Thesis (3MT)” – thousands of students participate in national, regional and global 3MT competitions every year. And they can only use one slide, while our “flash” orals will allow 12.

We will prepare PPT templates and guidance notes for those allocated a “Flash oral” presentation. We are also planning to have prizes for presenters and session participants.

Given the lower than usual overall acceptance rates, it is a major achievement to have been selected to make an oral presentation, no matter which category.

Consider Donating to Help Send More Students to the 2025 IHEA Congress

We believe that advancing the field of health economics requires supporting the next generation of scholars. However, for many students, attending an international conference is financially out of reach.

While we secure grants to assist delegates from low- and middle-income countries, there is no funding available to help full-time students from high-income countries—students who have worked hard to have their research accepted for presentation at the 2025 IHEA Congress in Bali but lack institutional support to attend.

By making a contribution, you’ll directly support a student’s participation in this critical global gathering. Your donation—no matter the amount—will help cover registration fees, travel, and accommodation, ensuring these students can share their research, gain valuable experience, and build connections that will shape their careers.

Donate today and invest in the future of health economics. You will also receive a tax receipt for your donation. After the Congress, we’ll share how your generosity made a difference.

If you would like to donate, you can do so here.

Thank you for your support!

Mentoring and Fellowship Updates

Professional Development Mentoring Program for Early- and Mid-Career Health Economists

We are very grateful to all who volunteered to be a mentor and to those who applied to be mentees. We apologize for the slight delay in initiating this year’s program, but we are working with the software team to optimize the algorithm for matching mentors and mentees, which could only be refined after applications had closed. We would like to achieve the best possible match for all participants. We will be in touch with all mentors and mentees in the near future.

Research Fellowship Program

We received over 200 applicants from early career researchers (ECRs) in 52 countries to participate as research mentees, and 44 expressions of interest in being research mentors, for the new Fellowship Program. This highlights the demand and need for support to strengthen health economics research skills among ECRs, and also the willingness of experienced researchers to support the next generation of health economists.

In the first round of the Fellowship Program, a maximum of six Fellowships will be awarded. The selection committee is hard at work sorting through all the applications, ensuring that they meet the eligibility criteria, and scoring those who do. This will take some time, but we will be in touch as soon as the process is completed.

ECR Interview Series

The Early Career Researcher SIG is pleased to present a series of in-depth interviews with distinguished professionals in health economics. These conversations provide valuable insights into career pathways, key challenges in the field, and advice for those at the early stages of their research careers.

We invite all ECRs to explore this series and gain first-hand perspectives from experts who have navigated the complexities of health economics research and practice.

Featured interviewees:

Dr. Oliver Rivero-Arias – Lead Health Economist at the National Perinatal Epidemiology Unit, University of Oxford, specializing in cost-effectiveness evaluations and valuing children’s health for resource allocation.

Dr. Jonathan Briody – Health economist at RCSI University of Medicine and Health Sciences, Ireland, leading research on the health and economic impact of chronic disease programs, including diabetes and precision medicine.

William Schpero – Health economist and Assistant Professor at Weill Cornell Medicine, focusing on Medicaid, healthcare safety nets, and reducing health disparities.

Nuzulul Kusuma Putri – Ph.D. candidate in International Health and Sustainable Development, with a focus on primary healthcare management and health financing, particularly in Indonesia’s National Health Insurance scheme.

Watch the full series here.

Upcoming Events

How Do Habits Form? Experimental Evidence