Integrating economic theories and methods with health policies, services, and practices

Our team of high-ranking health economists design studies in health economics; conduct economic evaluations of various health interventions; perform systematic reviews and meta-analyses commonly required in cost-effectiveness decision-analytic modelling; measure and value health; and evaluate health policies, such as drug pricing regulations.

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Publications per Year

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Health Economists

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Areas of Focus

About the Program

Our team of health economists design studies; conduct economic evaluations of various health interventions; perform systematic reviews and meta-analysis; measure and value health; and evaluate health policies, such as drug pricing regulations.

The team has also developed instruments to measure and value the impact of health on patients’ and their caregivers’ work productivity, which enables employers and payers to understand the broader economic impact of health interventions.

Additional Information

Our team of health economists has worked in a wide range of disease areas, treatment types, and health systems. They conduct their own research projects at CHÉOS as well as provide their services to external researchers.

Additionally, health care is undergoing a dramatic shift as a result of personalized medicine—emerging technologies that incorporate the use of genomic information into treatment decision-making. The need to evaluate these technologies, for both clinical efficacy and cost-effectiveness, is exponentially increasing, and CHÉOS health economists are adapting quickly to this emerging trend.

Wei Zhang

Program Head – Health Economics
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Wei Zhang

Program Head – Health Economics, MM, MA, PhD

Dr. Wei Zhang’s research aim is to integrate theoretical and empirical findings with health policies, services, and practices.

Examples of Our Projects

The primary research and methodology areas our Health Economics program undertakes are:

Health Care and Pharmaceutical Policies

  • Analysis of different tiered pricing strategies for generic drug reimbursement pricing using simulation methods (Publication Link)
  • The impact of generic drug pricing regulations on generic entry (Link) and exit (Publication Link)
  • Factors associated with drug shortages (Link)
  • The impacts of health insurance policies on health care utilization (Publication Link)
  • The impact of cost-sharing of prescription drug costs on health care utilization (Publication Link)

Cost-Effectiveness

Alongside clinical trials and decision-analytic modelling:

  • Cost-effectiveness of diacetylmorphine versus methadone for chronic opioid dependence refractory to treatment: NAOMI trial (Project Page and Publication Link)
  • Cost-effectiveness of triple therapy versus biologic therapy for active rheumatoid arthritis: RACAT trial (Project Page and Publication Link)
  • Cost-effectiveness of hydromorphone for severe opioid use disorder: SALOME trial (Media Release and Publication Link)

Decision-analytic modelling:

  • Cost-effectiveness of newer antiretroviral drugs in treatment-experienced patients with multidrug-resistant HIV disease (Publication Link)
  • Cost-effectiveness of fecal calprotectin used in primary care in the diagnosis of inflammatory bowel disease (Publication Link)
  • Cost-effectiveness of prenatal screening and diagnostic strategies for Down syndrome (Publication Link)
  • An economic evaluation of a novel prostate cancer glycan-based diagnostic tool (Link)

Personalized Medicine

  • Barriers to integrating personalized medicine into clinical practice: A best-worst scaling choice experiment (Publication Link)
  • Practical pharmacogenetics: The cost-effectiveness of screening for TPMT in patients with rheumatological conditions treated with azathioprine (Publication Link)
  • Cost-effectiveness of using a molecular diagnostic test to improve preoperative diagnosis of thyroid cancer (Publication Link)
  • Early cost-effectiveness modelling for better decisions in public research investment of personalized medicine technologies (Publication Link)

Productivity Loss Measurement and Valuation

  • Improving the methods to measure work productivity losses in patients and caregivers (Project Website)
  • How to analyze and present work productivity loss due to health problems in clinical trials (Project Website)
  • Estimating the monetary value of the annual productivity gained in patients with early rheumatoid arthritis receiving etanercept plus methotrexate: PRIZE trial (Publication Link)
  • Illness-related wage and productivity losses: Valuing presenteeism using employer-employee liked data (Publication Link)
  • Developing the Valuation of Lost Productivity (VOLP) questionnaire (Project Website)
  • Validating the VOLP questionnaire in different populations (Example)

Deriving and Measuring Quality Adjusted Life Years

  • Developing utility weights for the EQ-5D health states in a Canadian general population (Publication Link)
  • Multi-attribute health utility scoring for the computerized adaptive measure CAT-5D-QOL was developed and validated (Publication Link)
  • Exploring the validity of estimating EQ-5D and SF-6D utility values from the health assessment questionnaire in patients with inflammatory arthritis (Publication Link)

Systematic Reviews and (Network) Meta-Analysis

  • Outcomes associated with treatments for opioid-dependent individuals: A network meta-analysis – ongoing
  • Influenza vaccination for HIV-positive people: a systematic review and network meta-analysis (Publication Link)
  • The incidence of co-morbidities related to obesity and overweight: A systematic review and meta-analysis (Publication Link)
  • A systematic review of cost-effectiveness analyses of treatments for psoriasis (Publication Link)

Learn More About the Program

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