IVAC Health Economists Present at Global Conference

Members of IVAC’s Economics & Finance Team presented at the 15th International Health Economics Association (IHEA) World Congress, held in Cape Town, South Africa. This year’s event was centered around diversity in health economics. “It was great to see diversity at the forefront of an economics conference, in terms of who is conducting the research, the location of the research, the topics examined, and the economic methods adopted, especially with respect to equity, a subject which is generally at the periphery of economic evaluation,” said Bryan Patenaude, ScD, a health economist at IVAC and an assistant professor at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Research Associate Deborah Odihi added, “It was particularly refreshing to be able to network with health economists from different parts of the world who were applying research methods to topics ranging from health systems and financing to environmental issues and the rising global temperature, based on the needs and priorities of their contexts.” This theme aligns with IVAC’s Vaccine Economics Research for Sustainability & Equity (VERSE) project, which was highlighted throughout the conference in a number of oral presentations and posters.

• During a session focused on improving equity, targeting, and sustainability of immunization financing, Dr. Patenaude gave a presentation on “Comparing Multivariate with Wealth-Based Ranking for Computing Inequity in Access to Child Immunization Services in India over Time”. He gave a second oral presentation titled, “Comparing Multivariate with Wealth-Based Ranking for Computing Inequity in Access to Healthcare Services, Health Outcomes, and Financial Risk Protection: Toward a Better Measure of Equity in Health Policy”.
• IVAC Research Associate Salin Sriudomporn, MHS, gave an oral presentation during a session about vaccination programs titled, “Estimation of the Cost and Implementation Requirements of HPV Vaccine Introduction in Pakistan”. She also presented a poster on “Return-on-Investment for National Immunization Program Vaccines in Ecuador for Children Under One: A Sub-National Extension of the DOVE Model”, as well as a poster at the IHEA Pre-Congress on “Methods of Estimating the Return-on-investment of Typhoid and Cholera Vaccination Programs”.
• During a session examining the social determinants of health, IVAC Research Associate Deborah Odihi, MHS, gave an oral presentation on “Examining Inequities in Child Vaccination Coverage in Urban (Slum and Non-slum) and Rural Areas of Bangladesh”.
• IVAC Health Economist Gatien de Broucker, MA, MHS, presented a poster on “Maternal Education and Empowerment, and Its Impact on Vaccination Outcomes”.
• IVAC Research Associate Joshua Mak, MSPH, presented a poster titled, “Return-on-investment for RTS,S Vaccination in 20 sub-Saharan African Gavi Countries, 2021-2030″. This research was also recently highlighted in Health Affairs.