The Scottish Health Economics (SHE) group was officially launched in October 2019.
The Discovery Point in Dundee, home to the RSS Discovery, was a fitting place to launch the Scottish Health Economics (SHE) group. The idea of SHE came out of a recognition that there is now a sizeable community of health economists in Scotland. The map below (from Professor Rachel Baker at Glasgow Caledonian University) details the different institutions in Scotland providing health economics research and expertise.
Led by HERU, early discussions around a health economics network started in 2017. From these discussions, SHE has been developed by a steering group of economists from across different sectors including academia (HERU, and the health economics units at Glasgow Caledonian University and the universities of Glasgow, Edinburgh and Dundee), the NHS (Healthcare Improvement Scotland and NHS Health Scotland) and Scottish Government (Health and Social Care Analysis).
SHE aims to act as a vehicle for widening engagement with health economics in Scotland, bringing together users and producers of health economics who are interested in the development and application of health economics in Scotland.
There was much excitment for the launch event on the 3rd of October 2019. The event was attended by around 100 people with a good mix of people from academia, NHS and government. Attendees included both economists and people interested in economics. Several HERU staff attended and presented at the event.
HERU staff enjoying time on RSS Discovery after the event.
The event was opened by our very own Mandy Ryan. Then Professor Rachel Baker of Glasgow Caledonian University gave an overview of health economics in Scotland, followed by a presentation on capacity building in health economics from Marjon van der Pol of HERU.
The sessions that followed showcased research of international excellence addressing policy priorities in Scotland and beyond. The full programme for the event is available online. The presentations included reflections from a policy perspective and short 'elevator' presentations focusing on relevant research projects.
In the morning Verity Watson of HERU led the session on what health economics can contribute to personalising realistic medicine. Following that Professor Helen Mason of Glasgow Caledonian University asked what we want from our health service and led a discussion on public values and priority setting.
The afternoon session was chaired by Ed Clifton of the Scottish Health Technology Group at Healthcare Improvement Scotland. The recruitment and retention of the health workforce was the focus of the first afternoon session, led by Diane Skåtun of HERU. Then Professor Emma McIntosh of the University of Glasgow introduced and discussed research around public health economics in Scotland.
The late afternoon breakout groups led to lively discussion on how SHE can help develop health economics in Scotland. The day was brought to a close with the reflections of Professor Cam Donaldson, Yunus Chair and Pro Vice Chancellor Research at Glasgow Caledonian University.
Mandy Ryan of HERU speaking at the launch event.
We are happy to report that, in the post-event survey, over 90% of attendees rated the event as excellent or very good and there were a range of positive comments...
“I think it is a great idea to grow this network, and look forward to future meetings.”
“Great idea, we should collaborate and meet more often to hear what others are doing in Scotland.”
“This is a great initiative and hopefully we can keep the momentum going.”
“I had no idea there were so many of us out there!”
“Excited to see this develop!“
“I see it as a massive opportunity to make the good links between academia and the policy and practice communities even stronger.”
The positive feedback encourages us to continue and grow SHE. We are now working hard on developing the SHE website and are planning the next events. Watch this space!
**The SHE mailing list is now available. If you would like to join the SHE mailing list and be kept up to date on the work of the group, please contact she@abdn.ac.uk**
We also created a Wakelet summary of tweets around the October launch event...and Edinburgh Health Economics have also written a blog post with their reflections on the event.
HERU is supported by the Chief Scientist Office (CSO) of the Scottish Government Health and Social Care Directorates (SGHSC). The views expressed here are those of the Unit and not necessarily those of the CSO.
