We had an amazing discussion session on the webinar titled ‘Application of constrained optimization to Health Benefits Package (HBP) design’ jointly arranged by The Health Economics Research Network (HERN), ARK Foundation, Centre for Health Economics (CHE), University of York, UK and DiaDeM on April 13, 2023.

The session was conducted by Sakshi Mohan, a Research Fellow at the Centre for Health Economics (CHE), University of York. Her research has been focused on developing and applying economic evaluation methods to inform public health resource allocation, including health benefits package design, geographical resource allocation, and public health value assessment of technologies in development, with a particular focus on low-income countries. Some of her recent work involves evaluating the effect of health system bottlenecks such as medical consumable stockouts and the use of health systems models for the evaluation of system-level interventions. She is a member of the Thanzi research programme, working with collaborators across the UK and Sub-Saharan Africa.

In the webinar, she discussed how the linear constrained optimization approach can be used to design a health benefits package (HBP) which maximizes population health given the health system constraints faced by a country. Using case studies of the application of this approach to Uganda and Malawi, she demonstrated the implications of not accounting for physical input constraints (in particular, health worker capacity) in HBP design and how the constrained optimization approach can help assess the marginal value of relaxing health system constraints.

SM Abdullah, Associate Professor of Economics at the University of Dhaka and a Research Fellow at ARK Foundation chaired the webinar. We had participants covering researchers, students and academics from Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and Ghana.

The Health Economics Research Network (HERN) intends to create a platform that will stimulate high-quality research in the area of health economics. HERN aims to host more webinars and interactive sessions on various topics regarding problems related to health economics as capacity expansion is the priority.

To know about upcoming webinars, please visit Health Economics Research Network (HERN) Facebook page and website – https://www.facebook.com/bdhern

Newsletter written by –

Fariha Islam Munia,

Secretariat, Health Economics Research Network (HERN)

Health Economics Research Network (HERN), ARK Foundation, Centre for Health Economics (CHE) of University of York and DiaDem have jointly arranged a webinar on ‘Health Insurance in LMICs: The Solution or A Bad Idea’ on January 10, 2023 at Bangladesh time 7 pm and UK Time.1:00 pm.

In this session, we had Abdo Yazbeck as the chief speaker and special guest. He is a Lead Health and Labor Economist with 30 years of work experience in development economics. Through a 22-year career at the World Bank, he managed the Health Team for Europe, Eastern and Southern Africa, served as a Program Leader and Lead Trainer for the World Bank Institute. He is an Associate Editor of the Journal of Health Systems and Reform and faculty at the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health. Currently he is working as an independent consultant supporting USAID, World Bank, WHO, Global Fund projects, as well as the private sector. 

The agenda of the webinar was to distill the main policy messages from the last few years of published literature on the applicability and relevance of health insurance systems for low and low middle-income countries. The presentation focused on two papers on health insurance in LMICs. The first paper is regarding the challenges with labor tax health insurance, while the second paper sheds light on the challenges with contributory health insurance. Besides, the presentation also incorporated summary of recent other researches on the relevance of health insurance for LMICs.

SM Abdullah, Associate Professor of Economics at the University of Dhaka and a Research Fellow at ARK Foundation chaired the webinar. Besides the honorable members of HERN; academics, experts, researchers, development professionals, and students from different institutions (research organizations, NGOs and INGOs, public and private universities) joined the webinar. Participant from Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Ghana, Nigeria and UK attended the webinar, which made the question answer session more vibrant.

In order to promote population health, the Health Economics Research Network (HERN) aims to establish a platform that will encourage high-quality research in the field of health economics. Since increasing capacity is a top concern, HERN aims to host more webinars and interactive sessions on different topics on health economics related issues.

The news of upcoming events and activities on HERN will be available in the social media platforms. To stay updated, kindly follow our Facebook page- https://www.facebook.com/bdhern and our twitter account.

Newsletter written by –

Fariha Islam Munia,

Secretariat, Health Economics Research Network (HERN)

Health Economics Research Network (HERN), ARK Foundation, Centre for Health Economics (CHE) of University of York and DiaDem jointly arranged a webinar titled “Health Economics Tool’’ on December 7, 2022 at Bangladesh time 7 pm and UK time 1 pm.

The webinar session was taken by Professor Tim Ensor and Bryony Dawkins from Leeds Institute of Health Sciences, University of Leeds, UK. The agenda of the session was to discuss the role of health economics in helping to understand and evaluate health systems and health system interventions. The presentation was designed to briefly outline nine techniques and tools, from understanding sources of funding and funding flows, through analysis of equity, economic evaluation and provider payments.

Simon Walker, Senior Research Fellow, Centre for Health Economics, University of York, started the webinar with the welcome speech. SM Abdullah, Associate Professor of Economics at the University of Dhaka and a Research Fellow at ARK Foundation chaired the webinar.

The session started with Professor Tim Ensor, who demonstrated on “Health Economics and Health System Intervention” part of the presentation. This part focused mainly on how can the health economics tool be used to assist with designing and evaluating health system interventions.  Therefore, he discussed about resource mobilization and utilization, equity of funding, monetary value of proposed intervention, role of incentive in intervention implementation etc. After Professor Ensor, Bryony Dawkins demonstrated the rest of the presentation on economic evaluation of intervention. She discussed about the evaluation techniques, its importance in health economics, cost analysis, what type evaluation is appropriate in different scenario, things to consider when planning an economic evaluation, analytical approach. Equity issues etc.

Academics, experts, researchers, development professionals, and students from different institutions (research organizations, NGOs and INGOs, public and private universities) joined the webinar. A total of 64 participants had joined the webinar.

The Health Economics Research Network (HERN) aims to create a platform which will facilitate high quality research in the field of health economics to inform policy and practice in order to improve population health. As the capacity building is a priority objective, HERN has plans to organize more webinars and interactive sessions on need basis. The future activities of HERN will also be available on social networks.

Newsletter written by –

Fariha Islam Munia,

Secretariat, Health Economics Research Network (HERN)

The Health Economics Research Network (HERN) is looking for research proposals from early-career academics and students and essays from undergraduates on topics in the broad field of health economics and public health to celebrate its debut year of operation.

• Research and essay topic suggestions
  • Tobacco control
  • Mental health
  • Non-communicable diseases
  • Maternal and child health
  • Universal Health Coverage
  • Health care financing
  • Reproductive health
  • The environment and health
  • Health inequality
  • Primary health care
  • Any other health economics-related issues

Research Proposals

• Objective

To introduce and train young research enthusiasts in formal research procedures and teach them conventional research norms and protocols so they can pursue health economics for their next steps effortlessly.

• Grant for articles
  • Selected proposals will get BDT 150,000 for early-career researchers, such as research assistants at research firms or lecturers from different universities.
  • Selected proposals will get BDT 100,000 for students who are currently studying for their master’s, MPhil, and Ph.D. (Primary stage).

• Time frame
  • Call for proposal: September 21, 2022
  • Last date of proposal submission: October 21, 2022
  • Article submission: 6 months from the date of grant acceptance.
  • Grant disbursement: three installments
    • First installment: At the beginning
    • Second installment: After submission of the first draft (by the 4th month),
    • Third installment: After submission to journal (by 6^th month)
      
• Support from the HERN network
  • A mentor to guide the grant winner in the process of writing the article
  • The mentor will also be a co-author of the article if the mentor agrees

• Deliverables:

A journal article submitted to a Q1 or Q2 journal in the fields of health, public health, environmental and occupational health with a minimum impact factor of 2

• Guideline regarding authorship policy and mentoring

i) The research grant recipient must be the article’s first and corresponding author when the article is submitted to a journal. If the project mentor is on board, he or she may contribute to the article as a second author.

ii) Prior ethical approval must be obtained when using primary data.

iii) It is crucial to uphold all public health research standards.

Essays

• Objective

To foster research interest and analytical thinking in the field of health economics to undergraduate students and to provide them a chance to experience academic writing firsthand.

• Grant for essays

BDT 10,000 each for three undergraduate student winners in an essay competition.

• Time frame
  • Essay submission deadline: November 21, 2022
  • Grant disbursement: One installment after the announcement of the winners
    
• Deliverables:
  One essay within 2000 words with relevant referencing. The essay will be published on the HERN website and will be showcased on all our platforms.

Please submit your research proposal or essay to the email address:
farihamunia.ark@gmail.com

Email subject line for submitting research proposals: Research_Proposal_HERN_2022
Email subject line for submitting essays: Essays_HERN_2022

On September 5, 2022, the Health Economics Research Network (HERN), in collaboration with the ARK Foundation, University of York, RESPIRE, and ASTRA, hosted a workshop on “Policies to Address Smokeless Tobacco Control in Bangladesh” at the Six Seasons Hotel in Dhaka. Public health professionals, representatives of various non-governmental organizations, national and international tobacco control experts, development workers, journalists, and researchers were at the workshop.

Kamran Siddiqui, a professor of global public health in the University of York’s Department of Health Sciences, gave the keynote address at the gathering. In comparison to other nations, he claimed that smokeless tobacco use and prevalence are exceptionally high in Bangladesh, India, and Pakistan. Although the rate of smokers of cigarettes and bidis has marginally declined in Bangladesh over the past few years, the rate of smokers of smokeless tobacco has remained essentially stable. Therefore, this area must receive special attention. He also offered numerous suggestions to simultaneously limit the use of smokeless tobacco products. Some of those are eliminating flavors, limiting TSNAs, establishing standards, and keeping an eye on their ingredients; implementing licensing for retail sales and workable substitutes; strictly prohibiting online/social media advertising; empowering local governments to enact sales bans, and frequently raising taxes higher than cigarettes with a minimum floor price equal to a 20-stick cigarette pack.

Twenty-two million individuals in Bangladesh today use smokeless tobacco, representing around 58% of all tobacco users, according to speakers at the event! Smokeless tobacco products do not receive the same attention as cigarettes and bidis regarding reducing their detrimental effects on public health. Speakers at the event claimed that 84% of the packs containing smokeless tobacco products in Bangladesh lack adequate pictorial health warnings. Even if they have visual health warnings, they do not adhere to the rules. Additionally, 30% of packets have no health warnings at all.

Former Director General of the Medical Education Department, Professor AHM Enayet Hossain, presided over the event. The Director of the National TB Control Programme, Professor Shakil Ahmed, was present as chief guest. The National Professional Officer of the World Health Organization (WHO), Dr. Syed Mahfuzul Huq; former director of primary health care of the Directorate of Healthcare Services, Dr. Khaleda Islam; former chairman of the National Board of Revenue, Dr. Nasir Uddin Ahmed; and Project Director and Joint Secretary of the Bangladesh Cancer Society, Professor Dr. Golam Mohiuddin Faruque; and Technical Consultant of International Organization The Union, Advocate Syed Mahbubul Alam Tahin were present as panel discussants. The program was moderated by the Executive Director of ARK Foundation and Professor of Economics at the University of Dhaka, Rumana Huque.

With the aim of building a resilient health system, ARK Foundation has launched the Health Economics Research Network (HERN) in Bangladesh with the support of the Centre for Health Economics at the University of York, UK. The launching event of the network was held on April 19, 2022 at the Six Seasons Hotel in Dhaka. The network aims to create a platform which will facilitate high quality research in the field of health economics to inform policy and practice in order to improve population health. 

Professor Rumana Huque, Ph.D., Executive Director, ARK Foundation, and Professor Dr Najma Siddiqi from University of York launched HERN by inaugurating the website and logo of the organization.

 Professor Rumana Huque said that a number of students are completing undergraduate and postgraduate degrees in economics and health economics each year from different public and private universities of Bangladesh. However, they still require the practical experience of applying the theory into practice. She also said that the network would work to bridge the knowledge gap and create a platform for local researchers to carry out context-specific research in the field of health economics.

According to Professor Najma Siddiqi, limited networking opportunities with national and international experts create major obstacle for building competent leaders for research in the field of health economics. She hoped that the network would be successful in bringing together academics and experts from across Bangladesh to build health economics research capacity in the country, and facilitate related research in the future.

SM Abdullah, Associate Professor of Economics at the University of Dhaka and a Researcher of ARK Foundation gave a brief overview about the network and said that the capacity building efforts would remain a priority objective of the network. He shared future activities of the network including organizing workshops, seminars and training sessions. Md Nazmul Hossain, Assistant Professor of Economics at the University of Dhaka and a Researcher of ARK Foundation showcased the recent research works conducted by the organization in different sectors.

ARK Foundation also announced two research grants for students and early career researchers on the occasion of the launching of the network. Information about the grants and membership opportunity will be available on the website and social media of HERN.

The launching ceremony was also joined by academics, experts, researchers, development professionals, and students from different institutions.

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News Brief:

Tahmid Hasan

Research and Communications Officer

ARK Foundation, Bangladesh

01975888855

Venue: Conference Room, Bureau of Economic Research (BER), University of DMass media were the major source of information about COVID-19. Finances, employment, and physical health were the most frequently mentioned concerns. Overall, participants reported good knowledge and following advice. In Bangladesh, being female and higher levels of health-related quality of life (HRQoL) predicted poor and better knowledge, respectively, while in Pakistan being female predicted better knowledge. Receiving information from television predicted better knowledge in both countries. In Bangladesh, being female, accessing information from multiple media sources, and better HRQoL predicted better practice. In Pakistan, poorer knowledge of COVID-19 prevention measures predicted poorer practice.