The MIDAS Theme is launching a new series of vlogs, podcasts and blogs on economics and health economics. This series promises to simplify health economics, whether you are a complete novice or are relatively new to this field. It will delve into how economics works, why health economics is important, and how to think with a health economic lens.

A new series on economics and health economics

The MIDAS Theme is launching a new series of vlogs, podcasts and blogs on economics and health economics. A wide range of topics will be covered, from the key fundamentals of economics to the guiding principles and methods underpinning health economics.

You will get to know more about important economic topics like opportunity costs, economic evaluations and utilities, and many more. The series will also feature statistical concepts commonly used in health economics, and it will showcase some of the MIDAS Theme’s own health economic work.

The aim of this series is to present information on economics and health economics in a digestible way that is accessible to everyone.

Where and when

The series will be available on the ARC NWC YouTube channel and the MIDAS Health Economics sub-group webpage. (Please subscribe to the YouTube channel and save the webpage to your favourites to get the latest content)

Our first vlog will be out soon – keep your eyes peeled for updates on the ARC NWC channels. In this vlog we will look at ‘Thinking at the margin’, a mindset which permeates all economic thinking. You probably apply this thinking in your everyday life. For example, you might consider sleeping an extra hour and the marginal effect is the difference that that extra hour in bed will have on the rest of your day. Thinking at the margin looks precisely at these ‘marginal’ effects and why they matter.

The next sessions will be posted regularly and will include:

• Descriptive and inferential statistics (expected June 2022);
• Causality (exp. July 2022);
• Regressions and predictions (exp. September 2022);
• Health technology assessments (exp. November 2022);
• Opportunity costs (exp. March 2023);
• Health economic evaluations (exp. April 2023);
• Healthcare costs (exp. May 2023);
• Utilities (exp. July 2023);
• Equity in health economics (exp. September 2023);
• Economic evaluations alongside clinical trials (exp. November 2023);
• Decision analytic modelling (exp. January 2024).

For now, please enjoy a taster vlog on the most common outcome measure used in economic evaluations of healthcare interventions: the quality-adjusted life-year or QALY. Whether you know a bit about the QALY already or have never heard of it before, this vlog will provide you with some of the key things to remember about it. Enjoy!

Authors of this blogpost:
Dr Valerio Benedetto, Dr Luís Filipe and Professor Andy Clegg
Methodological Innovation, Development, Adaptation and Support (MIDAS) Theme
NIHR Applied Research Collaboration North West Coast (ARC NWC)
For any information please contact ARCNWC-MIDAS@uclan.ac.uk