What to Finance in Health and at What Price?

Leonardo Arregocés

Consultant in Health Policies

World Bank

Leonardo Arregocés worked as the director of the Medicines and Health Technologies Colombia's Ministry of Health and Social Protection—a role that involves spearheading the definition and implementation of pharmaceutical and health technology policy in the country. He has also worked as a consultant for Management Sciences for Health (MSH), where he was responsible for the piloting of a primary health costing tool in Ethiopia in partnership with the country's Ministry of Health and different sub-national health authorities. During his professional career, he has worked as an advisor to the CEO of Colombia's Institute of Health Technology Assessment (IETS) and as a consultant for the Inter-American Development Bank. In addition, Dr. Arregocés has worked for the consulting firm, G-Exponential, where he carried out a multinational evaluation of the response to the Zika virus outbreak in Latin American and the Caribbean for the Colombian Ministry of Health and the Autonomous University of Manizales [Universidad Autónoma de Manizales]. Between 2014 and 2016 he was a teacher at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM). Leonardo is a qualified medical doctor who graduated from the Pontificia Javeriana University and holds a doctoral degree in public health and policy from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM).

Mariana Barraza

Founding Partner

Blutitude

Mariana Barraza is a founding partner of Blutitude, an institution engaged in assessing medical services and adopting new technologies in medical care, providing specialized consulting services in health policy, planning and strategy, priority setting, and health technology evaluation. She works in the Better Health Program in Mexico under the UK Prosperity Fund. Mariana is a Senior Consultant in Pharmaceutical Policy and Health Systems. Since 2015, Barraza has been engaged in consulting projects—she has acted as advisor to the Undersecretariat for Integration and Development of the Health Sector and was coordinator of the Center for Pharmaceutical Policy Studies at the Mexican Health Foundation (Funsalud). She has also served as an advisor to the financial director of the Mexican Institute for Social Security and has provided support to the Mexican Ministry of Health for almost 10 years in different areas, including her assignment as deputy general director of financing policies in the Economic Analysis Unit. She has been involved in several projects related to the health system, including the 2003 reform of the General Health Law which created the Social Protection Health System (Seguro Popular), and the development of pharmaceutical policy proposals. She has also worked as a researcher at the Center for Health Economics at the University of York; and has worked as a consultant for the Inter-American Development Bank, the World Bank, the Pan American Health Organization, and Funsalud. Mariana has a degree in economics from the Mexico Autonomous Institute of Technology (ITAM) [Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México*] and a master's degree in health economics from the University of York.

Ricardo Bitrán

Founding partner and President

Bitrán & Associates

Ricardo Bitrán is a specialist consultant in health economics and health system financing. In 1995, he founded the international consulting firm, Bitrán & Associates (B&A), over which he currently presides, specializing in evaluating public health policy design and implementation for governments in Latin America and the Caribbean, Africa, and Asia. He has more than 35 years of experience as a consultant and researcher in the United States, Chile, and more than 50 developing countries in Africa, America, and Asia. He is an expert in health systems, health insurance and financing, health reform, and pharmaceutical markets. Dr. Bitrán is an advisor to the World Bank, Inter-American Development Bank, the United States Agency for Development, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Global Fund, UNICEF, the World Health Organization, UNAIDS, and other public and private organizations. For 10 years he worked at Abt Associates Inc. in Cambridge, initially as a health economist, and later as a senior scientist. Along with Marty Makinen, he created the International Health Group at Abt—today one of the largest groups of its kind in the world. Dr. Bitrán has 25 years of academic experience as a professor at Boston University, Tufts University, the University of Chile, and at the International Center for Children and the Family (CIDEF) in Paris. He was the academic director for Latin America and the Caribbean in the World Bank Institute's Flagship Course on Health Sector Reform and Sustainable Financing. He also helped develop and teach the global and regional flagship programs in cooperation with Wallonie-Bruxelles International (WBI) and Harvard University. Dr. Bitrán is the author of numerous academic papers, books, chapters, teaching materials, as well as research studies in health economics. He has a civil engineering degree from the University of Chile and holds an MBA in business administration and finance and a doctorate in health economics, both from Boston University.

Cheryl Cashin

Director in global Health Practice

Results for Development (R4D)

Cheryl Cashin is a managing director at Results for Development (R4D) in the global health practice, where she co-leads a portfolio of more than 20 projects and initiatives in global health systems. During her professional career, Dr. Cashin has led several initiatives at R4D that aim to build new models of support for countries in Africa, Asia, and Latin America to address complex health system issues. She designed and has led the Provider Payment Mechanisms Initiative of the Joint Learning Network for Universal Health Coverage since its launch in 2011. Currently, she is leading the Strategic Purchasing Africa Resource Center (SPARC) in partnership with Amref Health Africa. Both initiatives support networks of strategic partners in different countries to solve health system challenges and build global knowledge and evidence on how to implement solutions. Dr. Cashin specializes in the design, implementation, and evaluation of health financing policies in low- and middle-income countries, with a particular focus on health purchasing and provider payment for universal health coverage. She has worked in more than 20 countries, serving as a resident policy adviser in Albania, Georgia, and Kazakhstan, and as a non-resident adviser in Ghana, Indonesia, Uzbekistan, and Vietnam. She has also served as a health financing consultant for the World Bank, WHO, OECD and other international organizations. Dr. Cashin is a member of the World Bank's Flagship Course on Health Sector Reform and Sustainable Financing and the WHO's Advanced Course on Health Financing for Universal Coverage. She has held academic positions at Boston University's School of Public Health, the University of California, and at the Nicholas C. Petris Center. Dr. Cashin is the lead author of the book Paying for Performance in Health Care: Implications for Health System Performance and Accountability and is the editor/co-author of several other books, book chapters, and peer-reviewed journal articles on health financing and universal health coverage. Dr. Cashin has a doctoral degree in economics from the University of Washington and a master's in Applied Economics from Cornell University. She completed her undergraduate studies at Bucknell University.

Kalipso Chalkidou

Director of the Health Financing Department

World Health Organization

Kalipso Chalkidou is the Director of Health Finance and Economics at the World Health Organization. She is also a professor of Practice in Global Health at Imperial College London and an adjunct professor at Griffith University in Australia. Her work concentrates on helping governments build technical and institutional capacity for using evidence to inform health policy as they move towards universal healthcare coverage (UHC). She is interested in how local information, experience, and institutions can drive scientific and legitimate decisions on resource allocation. She has been involved in the Chinese rural health reforms and in national health reform projects in the United States, Colombia, Turkey, and the Middle East, working with the World Bank, the Pan-American Health Organization, the UK's Department of International Development (DFID) and the International Development Bank. She served as Director of Global Health Policy and Senior Associate at the Center for Global Development (CGD). Between 2007 and 2008, she joined the Johns Hopkins University School of Public Health as a Harkness Fellow in Health Policy and Practice, studying how comparative effectiveness research can inform policy and U.S. government drug pricing policies. From 2008 to 2016, she founded and ran NICE International, a non-profit group within the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE). She is a founding partner of the International Decision Support Initiative (IDSI), a network that works to improve health around the world by increasing the value and impact of evidence-based health spending. She has held visiting teaching positions at the Johns Hopkins University School of Public Health and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Dr. Chalkidou sits on several journal editorial boards and has published over 100 peer-reviewed papers and book chapters. Kalipso holds a medical degree from the University of Athens and a doctorate in molecular biology from Newcastle University.

Anthony (Tony) Culyer

Emeritus professor

University of York

Anthony Culyer is an emeritus professor at the University of York, visiting professor at Imperial College London, and a senior research fellow at the Institute of Health Policy, Management, and Evaluation at the University of Toronto. He also works at the Center for Health Economics. From 1986 to 2001, Anthony was head of the Department of Economics at York University. He was co-editor and founder of the Journal of Health Economics and founder of the Health Economists' Study Group (HESG), the first professional organization for health economists that has been replicated around the world. From 2003 to 2006 he was chief scientist at the Institute for Work and Health (IWH) in Toronto, of which he is still an adjunct professor, and chaired Workplace Safety and Insurance Board's Research Council (WSIB). In 2016, Culyer was visiting professor at the School of Health Sciences at the University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa. He was the founding vice-chair of the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) and still presides over the International Decision Support Initiative (IDSI), successor to NICE International. Until recently, he chaired the London Office of Health Economics, of which he is still a member. In 1999, Culyer was awarded Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (CBE) and in the same year, he was awarded an honorary doctorate in economics by the Stockholm School of Economics. In 2015 he was awarded the William B. Graham Prize for Health Services Research and in the same year, he received the Avedis Donabedian Outcomes Research Lifetime Achievement Award from the Professional Society for Health Economics and Health Outcomes Research (ISPOR) and was awarded the Hall Laureate in Canada by the Justice Emmett Hall Memorial Foundation. Culyer is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, an Honorary Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians, and a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Science. In the academic area, he has written over 300 articles and edited or authored 36 books of which the most recent are The Encyclopedia of Health Economics (2014) and The Dictionary of Health Economics (2014). Culyer has a bachelor's degree in economics from the University of Exeter and holds a doctoral degree in economics from Stockholm University.

Marcella Distrutti

Health Specialist

Inter-American Development Bank

Marcella Distrutti has been a health specialist in the Social Protection and Health Division at the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) since 2015. She first joined the IDB in 2013 as a Young Professional. Before joining the IDB, Marcella worked at the Brazilian Ministry of Health, supporting the design and implementation of sexual and reproductive health policies. She also worked as a consultant for organizations such as the World Bank and the Clinton Foundation. In 2018, together with other specialists in the health sector, she co-authored the book, La priorización en Salud paso a paso: Cómo articulan sus procesos México, Brasil y Colombia [Health priority setting, step by step: How Mexico, Brazil and Colombia organize their processes]. Marcella holds a master's degree in health policy, planning and financing from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) and the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) and has a Master in Arts in international development and economics from Johns Hopkins University's School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS).

María Luisa Escobar

Specialist in Health Policy Innovation

Independent international consultant

María Luisa Escobar works as an independent consultant, analyst, strategist, and specialist in health policy innovation for international development. An economist with more than 20 years of experience in health systems policy and reform, health economics, and international development, she has designed and implemented strategies to foster effective dialogue on social policies and create collaborative learning environments. She has worked with developing countries in the analysis and design of social and health policies with different government institutions, multilateral agencies, private research institutions, and training organizations. Between 1990 and 1997 she worked at the Inter-American Development Bank as a senior health economist, designing and managing investment projects and knowledge products in the field of health economics. She also served as director of policy and planning and advisor in the Colombian Ministry of Health and Social Protection, working on the country's health reform. She analyzed innovative financing mechanisms for global health as a fellow in the Global Economy and Development Program at the Brookings Institution, where she conducted research on the impact of health insurance. She was manager of the Health Systems Practice at the World Bank Institute (the training arm of the World Bank). At this organization, she led an interdisciplinary group in the designing and implementation of innovative capacity-building programs that enable developing countries to address the complex challenges in their health systems—for example, the constitutional right to health and the quest for universal health coverage in Latin America. María Luisa graduated in economics from the Externado University (Universidad Externado de Colombia*) in Colombia, holds a master's degree in economics and a doctoral degree in economics, international development, and health from Rice University in Texas.

Jaime Espín

Professor

Andalusian School of Public Health

Jaime Espín is a professor at the Andalusian School of Public Health (EASP) [Escuela Andaluza de Salud Pública (EASP)*], where his teaching focuses on price policies, reimbursement of medicines, and the economic evaluation of health technologies. He also coordinates research and consulting projects in health economics, economic evaluation, and pharmaceutical policies. He has been a visiting professor and researcher at prestigious universities including the London School of Economics and Political Science, the University of Chicago, Columbia University, and Harvard University. His professional career has focused on economic evaluation and the study of pharmaceutical policies, mainly European, having served as an independent external advisor to the European Commission at the Pharmaceutical Forum, the World Health Organization, and the World Bank. He has been a member of the Experts Committee on Pharmaceutical Policies of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) and a member of the Pricing Policy Group of the WHO Project on Medicine Prices and Availability. He has more than 100 publications, including those published by PAHO, “The access to high-cost medicines in the Americas” and “Guideline for implementing generic strategies in Latin America and the Caribbean as a mechanism to improve access to medicines”. Most notably, Dr. Espín was co-author of the European Commission publication “Differences and commonalities in pricing and reimbursement systems in Europe”. Jaime Espín has a bachelor's degree in law from the University of Granada, a master's degree in health economics and health services management from the Andalusian School of Public Health, and a doctoral degree in economics from the University of Granada.

Manuel Espinoza

Head of the Health Technology Assessment Unit

Center for Clinical Research (Pontifical Catholic University of Chile)

Dr. Manuel Espinoza is a consultant at UNOPS and associate professor in the Department of Public Health and head of the Health Technology Assessment Unit at the Center for Clinical Research (Pontifical Catholic University of Chile). He is also an Honorary Fellow of the Center for Health Economics at York University and editor-in-chief of Value in Health Regional Issues, the journal published by the Professional Society for Health Economics and Health Outcomes Research (ISPOR). At this institution, he has been a member of the international board of directors, president of the ISPOR Latin America Consortium, and president of the ISPOR Chile Chapter. His work is focused on developing methods to explore heterogeneity in cost-effectiveness analysis and consider the elements of equity in the techniques of economic evaluation in health. He has also conducted research in areas such as priority setting, process definition, the institutional arrangement for decision-making on health coverage, and patient participation in health coverage decision-making. Additionally, Dr. Espinoza has extensive experience in applied research conducting cost-effectiveness and budget impact studies on medicines, medical devices, and screening programs. Dr. Espinoza is a licensed physician from the Pontificia Catholic University of Chile. He has a master's degree in epidemiology from the same institution and a master's degree in biostatistics from the University of Chile. Finally, Dr. Espinoza has an additional master's degree in health economics and a doctorate in economics, both from the University of York.

Alejandro Gaviria

Former Minister of Health and Education

Colombia

Alejandro Gaviria is a Colombian academic, economist, writer, civil engineer, and politician. Between 2019 and 2021, he served as the president of the University of the Andes in Colombia. Previously, he served as director of the Center for Sustainable Development Goals for Latin America. Between 2012 and 2018, Alejandro Gaviria served as the minister of Health and Social Protection (Colombia), after leading the Faculty of Economics of the Universidad de los Andes for six years as its dean. During his time as minister, he was in charge of improving the financial sustainability of the Colombian health system by regulating the purchase of medicines and new technologies, which, in turn, created the Institute for Health Technology Assessment (IETS). Gaviria also served as a subdirectory of the national planning and development department and as a researcher for the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), the National Federation of Coffee Growers, and as a consultant for the World Bank. He has extensive experience as a researcher, professor, and public official. In his work as an educator, he has taught at universities De Los Andes, Rosario, Javeriana, Nacional de Colombia, and the University of California in San Diego. He has written several books and has been a columnist for Colombia’s national newspaper, El Espectador. Additionally, Alejandro has been a radio panelist on multiple occasions. In 2005, he was awarded the Juan Luis Londoño Medal. In 2009, he received the Simón Bolívar journalism award for best opinion article, and in 2010, the Portfolio newspaper named him the best Professor of Economics and Business Administration in the country. In 2018, he was awarded the Order of Boyacá, the highest recognition that the Colombian government awards to outstanding citizens for services to the country. Alejandro Gaviria completed his undergraduate degree in Civil Engineering from the Antioquia University School of Engineering and holds a master's degree in Economics from the Universidad de los Andes, and a doctoral degree in Economics from the University of California, San Diego.

Ursula Giedion

Senior Consultant in Health Economics

Inter-American Development Bank

Ursula Giedion was coordinator of the CRITERIA Network at the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and is a non-resident fellow at the Center for Global Development. Also works as an international consultant, advising countries around the world—particularly in Latin America and the Caribbean, Africa, and Asia—on subject areas such as health explicit priority setting, healthcare financing, and the design, implementation, and evaluation of health sector projects and reforms. During her career, she has worked for leading institutions such as the Center for Global Development (CGD), the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the Brookings Institution, the World Bank, and Results for Development (R4D). At the same time, she is a senior economist at Bitrán and Associates in Chile and has acted as advisor to the Colombian Ministry of Health for many years. Ursula has more than 25 years of professional experience, during which she has published a wide range of books and papers on health financing, of which many are centred on explicit priority setting. Her most notable publications include: “What's in What's Out: Designing Benefits for Health Coverage” and “Health Benefit Plans in Latin America: A Regional Comparison.”

Amanda Glassman

Executive Advisor to the President

Inter-American Development Bank

Glassman has over 25 years of experience working and publishing on health, social protection, evidence, and data management in low- and middle-income countries, with a focus on Latin America and the Caribbean. Prior to her current position, she served as Executive Vice President and Senior Fellow at the Center for Global Development (CGD), an expert group based in Washington, DC, as well as CEO of CGD Europe based in London, United Kingdom. Previously, Amanda was the Lead Social Protection and Health Technical Specialist in the Social Sector of the IDB, where she led policy dialogue and operations with member countries. Among the positions she has held since joining the Bank in 1997 as a Junior Professional Associate include Senior Social Development Specialist in the Office of Evaluation and Oversight (2005-2006) and Social Development Specialist in the former Regional Operations Department 3 (1998-2005). From 2006 to 2008, while on leave from the IDB, Amanda served as a Member and Deputy Director of the Global Health Financing Initiative at the Brookings Institution. Amanda Glassman holds a Master of Science degree from the Harvard School of Public Health and a Bachelor of Arts degree from Brown University.

Carolina Gómez

Advisor to the Minister's Office

Ministry of Health and Social Protection of Colombia

Carolina Gómez is a lawyer with extensive experience in pharmaceutical policy. She is the founder of the "Medicamentos, Información y Poder" think tank of the National University of Colombia [Universidad Nacional del Colombia *], where she currently works. She has served as an adviser to the general directorate of Colombia's National Food and Drug Surveillance Institute (INVIMA) and to the office of the Colombian Health Minister. She served as the director of medicines and medical devices in the Colombian Ministry of Health. Carolina obtained her law degree from the University of the Andes and completed a master's degree in law, from the University of California, Berkeley.

Eduardo González-Pier

Senior Technical Director for Health Financing

Palladium

Eduardo González-Pier is currently the team leader for the UK Prosperity Fund's Better Health program in Mexico, a global Associate at The Wilson Center, and a consulting partner for Blutitude and Innovasalud. His previous positions include a non-resident fellow at the Center for Global Development and undersecretary of integration and development of the health sector in the Mexican Health Ministry, executive president of the Mexican Health Foundation for health and finance, and director of the Mexican Institute of Social Security. He sits on the boards of several companies and foundations. With more than 25 years of experience in the health and social security sectors, Eduardo González-Pier has contributed to the development of health policy in Mexico, including major reforms, from varied high-level positions in the health ministry and the Mexican Institute of Social Security. His work focuses on providing sound evidence and analysis to inform policymaking and to promote the development of mechanisms and tools that improve health system performance. He holds a doctoral degree in economics from the University of Chicago.

Wolfgang Greiner

Professor

School of Public Health at Bielefeld University

Wolfgang Greiner is a professor of health economics and health management at Bielefeld University's School of Public Health. He is the author of numerous papers on health economics in various medical journals. Professor Greiner has been a member of the EuroQol Group since 1995 and has led several major projects in health economics. He was appointed to the German Federal Government's Council of Experts for the Evaluation of Health Care Developments in 2010. In 2015, he became a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Institute for Quality and Efficiency in Health Care (IQWiG). He founded the German subsidiary of the EuroQol Foundation and became a member of the international executive board in 2002. He has received several distinctions throughout his career including the Austrian Prize for Health Economics, the University of Hannover Science Prize, as well as the Medvantis Prize for Public Health Research. Since 2000, Professor Greiner has been working as a consultant for the European Commission on the evaluation of public health projects. He is also the editor-in-chief of the European Journal of Health Economics. In 2013, he was appointed as a member of the editorial board of the journals PharmacoEconomics, Health Economics Review, and Health Economics & Quality Management. Professor Greiner holds a doctorate in economics from the University of Hannover.

Javier Guzmán

Director of the Global Health Policy Program

Center for Global Development (CGD)

Javier Guzmán is Director of the Global Health Policy Program at the Center for Global Development (CGD). Javier has worked in public health policy and practice for 17 years as a physician, researcher, analyst, and public policymaker. He worked for several years in the planning and implementation of primary health care projects in Colombia and, later, as a clinical postgraduate fellow in pediatrics at the Royal London Hospital. In 2015, he joined the Colombian government, first as Director of Medicines and Health Technologies at the Ministry of Health. Dr. Guzmán then served as Director-General of Colombia's Food and Drug Surveillance Institute (INVIMA), where he led the development and implementation of the strategic plan for modernizing the information systems related to market authorizations, inspections, and quality control, thereby improving the transparency and efficiency of the institution. Previously, as director of research for global health nongovernmental organizations in the UK and Australia, he managed health consulting and research projects that were focused on pharmaceutical policy, strengthening pharmaceutical systems, and diseases affecting middle-income countries. Javier Guzmán has a medical degree from the National University of Colombia, holds an MBA from the Australian Graduate School of Management, and a master's degree in health policy, planning, and financing (HPPF) from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) and the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE).

Katharina Hauck

Adjunct professor of Health Economics

Department of Infectious Disease Epidemiology at Imperial College London

Katharina Hauk is an adjunct professor in the Department of Infectious Disease Epidemiology at Imperial College London. She specializes in the economics of infectious diseases and the economic evaluation of complex public health interventions. Her research interests focus on the economics of HIV, health system strengthening, priority setting, cost-effectiveness analysis, the economic impact of epidemics, and the role of individual behavior in infectious disease transmission. She was previously appointed as a senior researcher at the Business School of Imperial College London. In addition, she has worked in the Department of Econometrics and Business Statistics at Monash University in Australia, the University of York's Center for Health Economics, and at the World Health Organization in Geneva as a member of the World Economic Forum. Katharina is deputy director of the Abdul Latif Jameel Institute for Disease and Emergency Analytics (J-IDEA) and head of economic evaluation of the HIV Prevention Trials Network (HPTN), a study on the impact of a prevention package on population-level HIV incidence in Zambia and South Africa. Dr. Hauk is also a member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Health and Healthcare Delivery Systems expert networks and the International Decision Support Initiative (IDSI). Additionally, she was co-chair for Economics of the Global Fund's Modelling Secretariat. Dr. Haukis a postdoctoral fellow of the Australian Research Council. Katharina has a bachelor's degree in economics from the Technical University of Berlin [Technische Universitat Berlin*], holds both a master's in health economics and a doctoral degree in economics from the University of York.

Robert Klitzman

Director of the master's program in Bioethics and member

Division of Psychiatry, Law and Ethics at Columbia University

Robert Klitzman is the director of the Bioethics master's program, a member of the Division of Psychiatry, Law, and Ethics at Columbia University, and a professor of Clinical Psychiatry at the College of Physicians and Surgeons. He co-founded and for five years co-directed the Center for Bioethics at Columbia University and was the director of the Ethics and Policy Core of the HIV Center for 10 years. Professor Klitzman has written nine books and more than 140 academic papers, drawing on multidisciplinary methods to examine ethical, psychological, and social issues in a variety of contexts in medicine and psychiatry. Specifically, he has examined decision-making concerning HIV disclosure, genetic testing, reproductive choices among people at risk for genetic disorders, neuroethics, HIV prevention and treatment, research ethics, doctor-patient relationships, and other subjects. He has received several subsidies from the National Health Institute and numerous awards for his work, including fellowships from the Russell Sage Foundation, the Commonwealth Fund, the Aaron Diamond Foundation, and the Rockefeller Foundation. He is a member of the Empire State Stem Cell Commission and of the Ethics Working Group at the HIV Prevention Trials Network (HPTN). Professor Klitzman is a regular contributor to the New York Times and has been widely interviewed on bioethics issues in the media. Dr. Klitzman received a bachelor’s degree from Princeton University, holds a Doctor of Medicine from Yale University School of Medicine, and was a resident at the Robert Wood Johnson School at the University of Pennsylvania.

Karl Lauterbach

Federal Minister of Health

Federal Republic of Germany

Karl Lauterbach is a professor and the director of the Institute of Health Economics and Clinical Epidemiology at the University of Cologne in Germany and an adjunct professor in the Department of Health Policy and Management at the Harvard School of Public Health. In 1992, he was a fellow of the Program of Medical Ethics at Harvard Medical School. Since 2005, he has been a Member of the German Bundestag (Parliament) for the Social Democratic Party (SPD) and was deputy chairman of the Social Democratic parliamentary group (2013-2019). Additionally, since 2019 he has been the speaker for consumer protection in the Social Democratic parliamentary group. Dr. Lauterbach's experience covers a wide range of topics in health policy, including cost-effectiveness research, evidence-based medicine, and quality research. He has served as senior medical advisor to the German government, the Ministry of Health, and the Chancellor. Over the past decade, he has had a significant influence on healthcare reforms in Germany and other European countries. As a lawmaker, he has been involved in more than 80 healthcare laws. In the academic world, Professor Lauterbach is the author of more than 100 scientific articles in international journals and he has written several books in the field of health economics and policy. Within his international academic networks, he has advised governments and governmental agencies in Europe, the United States, and the Middle East. He is a member of the World Bank's Flagship Program and a consultant for the Inter-American Development Bank. He is one of the leading experts and policymakers in the containment of the COVID-19 pandemic in Germany. Professor Lauterbach studied medicine at the University of Düsseldorf in Germany and at the University of Texas at San Antonio. He received his doctoral degree from the Institute of Nuclear Medicine at the Jülich Research Center. He received a master’s degree in public health from Harvard University, where he focused on epidemiology, health policies, and management. Dr. Lauterbach also holds a master's degree in health policy and management from Harvard University.

Alia Luz

Health Financing Consultant

World Health Organization (WHO)

Alia Luz is a project associate in the International Health Intervention and Technology Assessment Program (HITAP), which is a semi-autonomous research unit of the Ministry of Health of Thailand. Created in 2007 as a non-profit organization, the unit oversees the evaluation of health technologies, programs, and policies. As coordinator of the International Program, Alia is responsible for bilateral and multilateral collaboration with international organizations, health technology assessment networks (HTA), academic units, and governments of other countries. Her collaborative work aims to transmit experience in health technology assessment and support development capabilities. She is involved in a variety of projects, including the analysis of factors and barriers to the development of HTAs, the economic evaluation of national projects, analysis of quantitative research methods, and capacity building for the generation of evidence in low- and middle-income countries. In addition to technical support in international and local economic evaluation projects, Alia provides logistical and administrative coordination for the organization's regional projects in Asia. Alia holds a bachelor's degree in Economics from Bryn Mawr College, USA. In 2018, she received her master's degree in Health Policy, Planning, and Financing (HPPF) from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) and the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE).

Aurelio Mejía

Director of Public and Legal Affairs

AFIDRO COLOMBIA

Aurelio Mejía was the director of regulations at the Colombian Ministry of Commerce, Industry, and Tourism. A specialist in health economics and priority setting in health, he served as the director of medicine and health technologies at the Ministry of Health and Social Protection in Colombia between 2018 and 2020. He previously worked at the Institute for Health Technology Assessment (IETS) in his country as the technical director of health technology assessment and later as a consultant for IETS from 2012 to 2018. Additionally, he served as a professor and researcher in health economics and economic evaluation at the University of Antioquia and as a consultant for the Inter-American Development Bank. He is also the co-editor of the Value in Health Regional Issues journal. Aurelio graduated with a bachelor's degree in economics from the University of Antioquia in Colombia and has a master's degree in health economics from the University of York and a specialization in Government, Management, and Public Affairs from the University Externado in Colombia [Universidad Externado de Colombia*].

Ole Norheim

Professor of Medical Ethics, and Adjunct Professor

University of Bergen, Harvard University School of Public Health

Ole Norheim is the director of Bergen Center for Ethics and Priority Setting, a physician and professor of medical ethics in the Department of Global Public Health and Primary Care at the University of Bergen. He is also an adjunct professor in the Department of Global Health and Population in the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. His research interests include theories of distributive justice, inequality in health, how ethics apply to priority setting in health systems, how to achieve universal health coverage, and the Sustainable Development Goal for health. He firmly believes that the priority setting for health should aim for the greatest number of years of healthy life for all and be fairly distributed. He is currently heading the research projects “Inclusive Evaluation of Public Health Interventions for the NRC Health Foundation” and “Disease Control Priorities – Ethiopia” for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. He is a member of the Lancet NCDI Poverty Commission and the Lancet Global Health Commission on High Quality Health Systems. Norheim has chaired the 2009 revision of Norwegian Guidelines for Primary Prevention of Cardiovascular Disease of the World Health Organization, and the third Norwegian National Committee on Priority Setting in Health Care. Norheim has published more than 160 papers in journals such as The Lancet, British Medical Journal, Bulletin of the World Health Organization, PLOS One, Health Policy and Planning, Social Science and Medicine, and the Journal of Medical Ethics. He is a physician who graduated from the University of Bergen and holds a doctorate from the University of Oslo School of Medicine.

Annette Ozaltin

Senior Fellow

Results for Development (R4D)

Annette Ozaltin is a senior fellow at Results for Development (R4D) leading an innovation call, supported by the Department for International Development's COVID Action initiative, to support countries in leveraging technology to build resilient health systems during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond. She was the health financing director at ThinkWell, where she focused on sustainable immunization financing as a leader of the Immunization Costing Action Network (ICAN). Annette Ozaltin has 18 years of experience in global health policy, health systems, and health financing, working with philanthropic, bilateral, and multilateral organizations, along with private sector and non-governmental development bodies to design and implement policies and programs to improve the performance of health systems in low- and middle-income countries. Previously, she worked for R4D as the director of the Primary Health Care Performance initiative and co-facilitated a collaborative project on costing for provider payment for the Joint Learning Network for Universal Health Coverage. She has also worked at Deloitte Consulting, University Research Company (URC), and FHI360. Her recent work has focused on universal health coverage and primary health care initiatives. Annette has a bachelor's degree from the University of Virginia and a master's in Administration, Design, and Analysis of Health Studies from the Harvard University School of Public Health.

Andrés Pichon-Riviere

Executive Director, and Director

Institute for Clinical Effectiveness and Health Policy (IECS), Department of Health Technology Assessment and Health Economics of Argentina

Andrés Pichon-Riviere has been a board member of the Institute for Clinical Effectiveness and Health Policy (IECS) since 2002. Since that time, he has served as the executive director and director of the Health Technology Assessment and Economic Evaluations Department, which has been—since 2013—the Collaborating Center of the World Health Organization (PAHO / WHO) for health technology assessments. He also leads several postgraduate courses that the IECS offers in the knowledge area. Additionally, Pichon-Riviere is a full-time professor of public health at the School of Medicine of the University of Buenos Aires (UBA) and a member of the board of directors of the University's Master in Clinical Effectiveness program. Between 2010 and 2014, he was vice-chair of the International Network of Agencies for Health Technology Assessment (INAHTA), the network that brings together the main technology assessment agencies around the world. He also served as the director of Health Technology Assessment international (HTAI) from 2012 to 2015. In 2008, he received the Global Health Leadership award from the Global Health Research Initiative for promoting health technology assessment in the region. He has coordinated academic projects in research and technical cooperation in health technology assessment and economic evaluations in cooperation with governments, international agencies, and academic and private institutions in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Mexico, Panama, Peru, Uruguay, and Venezuela. His recent work has involved health technology assessment agencies, establishing priority setting mechanisms for health resources, defining health benefit packages, and evaluating the impact and cost-effectiveness of medicines, devices, programs, and health policies. In 2018, one of the research projects he led on the disease burden from smoking and its costs on Latin American health systems, earned the IECS, an award from the WHO. Andrés Pichon-Riviere graduated from the University of Buenos Aires with a Doctor of Medicine focusing on public health and has a master's degree in Clinical Epidemiology from the Harvard University School of Public Health.

Diana Pinto

Doctor of Science in Population and International Health

Inter-American Development Bank

Diana Pinto worked as a leading health specialist at the IDB office in Washington DC between 2011 and 2021. A Colombian national, before joining the IDB, she served as Associate Professor at the Faculty of Medicine of the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana and as Associate Researcher at Fedesarrollo, researching applied health economics. She also served as a health policy advisor to the Ministry of Social Protection and was in charge of the design and evaluation of health sector policy, and the development and coordination of technical studies to support decision-making. Diana has published peer-reviewed articles and has authored and edited book chapters on health systems issues. She has also served as a member of international health policy advisory boards and research committees. Diana is a doctor of medicine and holds a Master of Science in Health Administration from the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana and an ScD in Population and International Health (international program in health policy and economics) from the Harvard School of Public Health.

Lorena Prieto

Professor

Postgraduate School at the University of the Pacific, and the Postgraduate School at the Peruvian University of Applied Sciences

Lorena Prieto is a professor at the University of the Pacific Postgraduate School and at the Postgraduate School of the Peruvian University of Applied Sciences [Universidad Peruana de Ciencias Aplicadas*], which are both located in Peru. She also carries out consulting and research work on issues related to health economics and financing. She has 24 years of experience conducting work for international organizations such as the Inter-American Development Bank, World Bank, United States Agency for International Development, UNICEF, World Health Organization, Pan- American Health Organization, Global Fund, the Brookings Institution, as well as for public institutions. Dr. Prieto has undertaken projects in the health sector involving sector analysis and diagnosis, cost-effectiveness analysis, and studies on out-of-pocket health expenditure and financial protection. Besides this, she has also developed courses in economics and health sector reform. She has worked on projects in Peru, Suriname, Chile, Bolivia, Paraguay, Argentina, Honduras, Guyana, and Guatemala. She has been published in academic journals such as The Lancet, The Pan American Journal of Public Health, the Bulletin of the World Health Organization, Health Policy and Planning, as well as in the publications by the Brookings Institution, Inter-American Development Bank, Grupo Editorial Norma and the Partnerships for Health Reform Project. Dr. Prieto has bachelor's degree in business engineering and economics from the University of Chile, a master's in political economy, and a doctoral degree in economics from Boston University.

Ferdinando Regalia

Chief of the Social Protection and Health Division

Inter-American Development Bank

Ferdinando Regalia is the chief of the Social Protection and Health Division of the Inter-American Development Bank, where he oversees the preparation of key lending operations and technical assistance projects in social protection and comprehensive analytical studies in the areas of poverty, social protection, and health. In this position, he has led innovative public-private partnership initiatives such as the Mesoamerica Health Initiative, the Regional Initiative for Malaria Elimination in Latin America, the Early Childhood Development Innovation Fund, among others. Regalia has more than 20 years of experience in the design and implementation of development policies and programs. Before taking up his current position, he served as principal advisor to the IDB's Vice Presidency for Sectors and Knowledge, and as chief of economics and social policy at UNICEF South Africa. Regalia also served as a social protection specialist and economist in the World Bank's Poverty and Economic Reduction Management Network, where he conducted research on poverty issues and coordinated the technical cooperation under the regional program for improving surveys and ways of measuring living conditions in Latin America and the Caribbean (MECOVI). Ferdinando has been published in peer-reviewed journals such as Population Studies, Journal of Development Effectiveness, Economics of Education Review, and Journal of Labor Economics, and is the author of book chapters on social protection and results-based financing mechanisms. Ferdinando, who has Italian nationality, holds a doctorate and a master's degree in economics from Pompeu Fabra University of Barcelona [Univesidad Pompeu Fabra].

Paul Rodríguez

Professor

School of Economics at the National University of Rosario

Paul Rodríguez is a professor at the Faculty of Economics at the National University of Rosario in Colombia. He specializes in applied economics in economic development, mostly in the field of health economics. He has been involved in research projects with organizations such as the Institute for the Evaluation of Health Technologies (IETS), the Inter-American Development Bank, the World Bank, and the Institute for Fiscal Studies of the United Kingdom (IFS). His research has been published in journals such as World Development, Economics and Human Biology, PLOS One, among other publications. Paul has a degree in economics and a master's degree in economics from the National University of Rosario. In addition, he has a doctoral degree in economics from University College London.

Joan Rovira Forns

Associate Professor, and Emeritus Professor of the Department of Economic Theory

Andalusian School of Public Health, University of Barcelona

Associate professor at the Andalusian School of Public Health and emeritus professor in the Department of Economic Theory at the University of Barcelona, Joan worked as a consultant for Ecuador's Ministry of Public Health as well as for the following countries: Moldova, Romania, Indonesia, Burkina Faso, Colombia, Panama, Guatemala, Brazil, and Mexico. He has served as a consultant and advisor for public and private organizations both nationally and internationally, including WHO, PAHO, IDB, OECD, UNIDO, the European Commission, Farmaindustria, the Catalan Department of Health, the Spanish health ministry's Directorate-General for Pharmacy and Health Products, as well as working with the industry. Joan was the research director of SOIKOS SL (Centre for Studies in Health Economics and Social Policy) between 1988 and 2006. From June 2001 to June 2004, he worked as a senior health economist for medicines in the World Bank's Human Development Department, where he was responsible for promoting the definition of a World Bank strategy on medicines, coordinating the Bank's activities with other organizations, international bodies, and advising regions on issues related to pharmaceutical policy. He was president of the Spanish Health Economics Association (1987-1989) and a member of the ISPOR Steering Committee (2000-2002). He has researched and published on topics related to health economics, economic evaluation in healthcare programs, priority definition, disease costs, pharmaceutical market regulation, medicine prices, and the impact of intellectual property rights on access to drugs. He is editor emeritus of the Cost Effectiveness and Resource Allocation journal and a member of the PharmacoEconomics editorial board. Joan holds a doctoral degree in economic sciences.

Adolfo Rubistein

Director, and Former Health Minister of Argentina

Center for Health Policy Implementation and Innovation (CIIPS) at the IECS

Adolfo Rubinstein currently serves as the director of the Center for Implementation and Innovation in Health Policy (CIIPS) at the Argentine Institute for Clinical Effectiveness and Health Policy (IECS). Following an extensive academic and professional career, he was appointed as Secretary of State for Health Promotion, Prevention, and Risk Control in the Argentine Ministry of Health in February 2017 and went on to hold the position of National Minister of Health and Government Secretary in the same year until December 2019. He was the founder and head of the Family and Community Medicine Service at the Italian Hospital in Buenos Aires [Hospital Italiano de Buenos Aires] between 1989 and 2010; and since its creation in 2002 until February 2017, he served as the director-general of IECS and the director of the Center of Excellence in Cardiovascular Health for South America (CESCAS) of the same institution. He is a full-time professor of public health and family medicine and director of the master's program in Clinical Effectiveness at the School of Medicine of the University of Buenos Aires (UBA). [Universidad de Buenos Aires (UBA)].Most recently, he was appointed as a visiting professor at the Lown Cardiovascular Program at Harvard University School of Public Health. His research focuses on the epidemiology and the implementation of preventive interventions in the control of chronic diseases and health impact evaluations of programs and public policies. He has published more than 120 articles in peer-reviewed journals throughout the years, as well as chapters and textbooks about primary care and epidemiology. Since 2015, he has been a researcher with the National Scientific and Technical Research Council (CONICET) of Argentina. Dr. Rubinstein is a medical doctor who graduated from the School of Medicine at UBA, holds a master's degree in Clinical Epidemiology from the Harvard School of Public Health, a diploma in Health Economics from the University of York, and a doctoral degree in Public Health from UBA.

Francis Ruiz

Senior policy analyst, and senior adviser

International Decision Support Initiative (iDSI), Institute of Global Health Innovation at the Imperial College London

Francis Ruiz is a senior policy analyst for the Global Health Program in the International Decision Support Initiative (iDSI). He is also a senior adviser to the Institute of Global Health Innovation at Imperial College London, leading the engagement with iDSI China. Additionally, he manages various knowledge products on health economics. He previously worked at the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) within the Technology Appraisal program, the Guidelines team, and with NICE International. He has a special interest in health economics and has worked on several technology appraisals and guidelines in a variety of therapeutic areas. Before joining NICE, Francis worked for over six years in clinical data management and health economics in the pharmaceutical sector. Francis graduated with a bachelor's degree in physiology from the University of Dundee. He also holds a postgraduate diploma in psychology from the Royal Holloway (University of London) and a master's in health policy, planning, and financing from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) and the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE).

Jong-Su Ryu

Professor

Yonsei University Postgraduate School of Public Health

Jong-Su Ryu is a professor in the Postgraduate Graduate School of Public Health at Yonsei University in South Korea, where he teaches in both the Master of Global Health Security program and the Master of Health Policy and Financing program for foreign public health officials with careers in low- and middle-income countries. In addition, Jong-Su holds online seminars directed at governments in other countries to contribute towards developing capacities in medical care and epidemic preparedness. He previously worked as a commissioner on the Korean National Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service in developing universal health coverage and as a researcher on global projects undertaken by HIRA International Group. He was the presenter of the debate program "UpFront" launched by the Korean International Broadcasting Foundation. He was secretary-general of the UNICEF Korean Committee, adviser on the United Nations Millennium Development Goals, and assistant manager, manager, and managing director of development research, and planning at the New York Catholic Foundation. Additionally, he advised and led projects in health for international institutions, including the Steering Group of Joint Learning Network (JLN), Bahrain's ICT, the National Health Insurance Global Organizations Network. In cooperation with the World Bank and the Export-Import Bank of Korea, Ryu was the main researcher in the consultation on national health policies of the Knowledge Sharing Program (KSP) in Colombia and Peru. Professor Jong-Su Ryu holds a master's in social service policies from the University of Fordham in New York.

Martín Sabignoso

Health policy expert

Expert Committee of the World Health Organization (WHO)

Martín Sabignoso is a senior consultant for Latin America on financial reforms in health, financing mechanisms for results, and strategic purchases. He is also a member of the Expert Committee of the World Health Organization (WHO) in the commission of the guidance project to implement accelerated global measures in favor of adolescent health (AA-HA!), which promotes the global health strategy for adolescents and youth by 2030. Former Director of the Plan Nacer / Sumar Program in Argentina, an ambitious results-based financing program. Professor of Health Economics in the Master in Public Policy of the Faculty of Economics of the National University of La Plata. Director of the Specialization in Health Communication of the Faculty of Journalism and Social Communication of the National University of La Plata. Martín has held various positions in the Ministry of Health of Argentina and has served as a senior consultant for the Inter-American Development Bank for the entire Latin American and Caribbean region, consultant for the WHO Finance and Governance Department, and consultant for the European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies, for which he made the country report for the 2019 G20 meeting. Martín Sabignoso is a lawyer from the University of Buenos Aires. He has a master's degree in Business Law from the Austral University and Public Policy Administration from the Latin American Faculty of Social Sciences (FLACSO).

Leandro Safatle

Expert in drug price regulation, and Former executive secretary

CMED/ANVISA in Brazil

Leandro Safatle is an expert in drug price regulation and currently works at the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Fiocruz) in Brasilia. Attached to the Brazilian Ministry of Health, Fiocruz is one of Latin America's most prominent health science and technology institutions. Between 2014 and 2019 he was executive secretary of the Chamber for the Regulation of the Drug Market (CMED) where he was responsible for regulating the Brazilian pharmaceutical market and directly advising the Council of State Ministers and the executive director of the National Health Surveillance Agency (ANVISA) on this issue. In the past, he worked as a specialist, coordinator, and advisor to the Secretariat of Science, Technology, and Strategic Supplies at the Ministry of Health. He also acted as a consultant for different national and international institutions and organizations, such as the Ministry of Finance, the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), the Secretariat for Economic Rights, the Brazilian National Association of Postgraduate Programs in Economics (ANPEC), the Institute of Applied Economic Research (IPEA), the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), and for the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB). Leandro graduated in economics from the University of Brasilia [Universidad de Brasilia] and holds a range of certifications in public administration and government management from the Brazilian National School of Public Administration (ENAP) and the Dom Cabral Foundation [Fundação Dom Cabral] in Nova Lima, Brazil.

Peter Smith

Emeritus professor, and Professor

Imperial College London, York University Center for Health Economics

Peter Smith is an emeritus professor of health policy at Imperial College London and a professor at the Center for Health Economics at the University of York. He began his academic career in the Department of Public Health at the University of Cambridge and has worked and published in different disciplines, such as statistics, operational research, and accounting. His most important works have been on the economics of health and the wider public services. He was director of the Center for Health Economics at the University of York. At Imperial College, he founded and co-directed the Center for Health Policy in the Institute of Global Health Innovation. Peter has acted in numerous UK government advisory capacities. He has also advised many overseas governments and international agencies, including the World Health Organization, the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, the European Commission, the Global Fund, and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. Professor Smith's current interests are focused on evaluating health system performance—with a particular focus on international comparison, measuring and improving health system performance, and universal health coverage. With his colleagues, he has published widely on these subjects and other related topics, including 14 books and more than 150 articles in peer-reviewed journals. Professor Smith graduated in mathematics from the University of Oxford.

Fatima Suleman

Professor of pharmaceutical sciences

School of Health Sciences at the University of KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa

Fatima Suleman is a professor and director of the WHO Collaborating Center for Drug Policy and Evidence-Based Practice at the University of KwaZulu-Natal School of Health Sciences in South Africa. In 2010, she was appointed by the health minister to serve on the National Pricing Committee, and currently, Suleman chairs the committee. Between 2016 and 2018, she held the Prince Claus Chair of Development and Equity: Affordable (Bio) Therapeutics for Public Health at Utrecht University. She was appointed as chair of the WHO advisory group on the Availability and Affordability of Cancer Medicines for 2018 and in 2019, she served as rapporteur for the WHO's Expert Committee on Selection and Use of Essential Medicines. In addition, Dr. Suleman has been a technical consultant for the WHO on projects related to drug prices and international cooperation in Europe, Rwanda, Sri Lanka, and Malaysia. She was a member and co-chair of the Review Committee of the WHO Guidelines for National Pharmaceutical Policies (2019-2020). Dr. Suleman is a Fulbright Scholar (2002-2004), a member of the South African Primary Health Care Essential Drugs List Review Committee and of the University of KwaZulu-Natal Provincial Essential Drug Program Coordinating Committee. The University of KwaZulu-Natal awarded her the Distinguished Teachers' Award in 2010 for her role in curriculum development and innovative teaching practices. Her research has been published in various journals and presented at several national and international conferences. She has received numerous grants from the National Research Foundation, the University of KwaZulu-Natal, the Medical Research Council, and the National Institute of Health. In addition, she is currently co-ordinating two online master's programs in the School of Health Sciences at the University of KwaZulu-Natal. She is also a contributor to the Oslo Cochrane Center in the field of pharmaceutical policy. Dr. Fatima Suleman holds both a bachelor’s and master’s degree in pharmacy from the University of Durban-Westville. She has a doctoral degree from the University of Illinois in Chicago.

Yot Teerawattananon

Founding leader

Health Intervention and Technology Assessment Program (HITAP) at the Ministry of Public Health of Thailand

Yot Teerawattananon is a founding leader of the Health Intervention and Technology Assessment Program (HITAP) under the Ministry of Public Health of Thailand. The work of HITAP has been used to inform policy decisions regarding the adoption of drugs, vaccines, medical devices, health promotion, and disease prevention programs under the universal health coverage plan and the national reimbursement list of pharmaceuticals in there. Yot is also a member of several national policy committees in Thailand, including the Committee for the Development of the National List of Essential Medicines since 2007. Recently, he also serves as a visiting professor at the National University's Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health. from Singapore, as well as a member of the Executive Board of the International Decision Support Initiative (iDSI) and a non-resident associate of the Center for Global Development (CGD). Previously, he served as a physician and director of the Pong Hospital in northern Thailand. In addition, he has provided technical advice to many national and international agencies such as the World Health Organization, the World Bank, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Asian Development Bank, providing extensive knowledge on key global health issues. Teerawattananon is the founder and past president of HTAsiaLink, a regional network comprising more than 37 health technology assessment agencies throughout the Asia-Pacific region. His interests include capacity development, the institutionalization of health technology assessment, and the development of evidence-based policies. He has published more than 150 articles in indexed journals and served as an editor for several of these journals. Yot is a physician from Chulalongkorn University in Thailand and holds a Ph.D. in Health Economics from the University of East Anglia.

Sabine Vogler

Head of the Pharmacoeconomics Department, and Head of

Austrian Public Health Institute, WHO Collaborating Center for Pharmaceutical Pricing and Reimbursement Policies

Dr. Sabine Vogler is head of the Pharmacoeconomics Department at the Austrian Public Health Institute and leads the WHO Collaborating Center for Pharmaceutical Pricing and Reimbursement Policies. She began her professional career as a researcher in 1995 in the Austrian Health Institute Economics Department and was a professor and research assistant at Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration. She has experience in the analysis of healthcare systems in Europe, specializing in pharmaceutical systems. In particular, she has more than 15 years of research experience in the areas of pricing and reimbursement, rational use of medicines, the distribution of pharmaceuticals, and pharmaceutical policy analysis. She has in-depth knowledge on health economics analysis and evaluation, analysis of healthcare financing, co-payments, and in analyses and comparisons of medicine pricing. In 2005, she founded the Pharmaceutical Pricing and Reimbursement Information (PPRI) network, which currently comprises around 90 competent authorities for drug pricing and reimbursement from 46, mainly European, countries, and includes international institutions like the WHO, the European Commission, OECD, and the World Bank. She has worked as a consultant for the WHO, OECD, and the European Commission. In addition, she is a member of the WHO/HAI Global Pharmaceutical Pricing Group and of the Piperksa group for promoting a rational use of medicines. She is the co-author of numerous publications in leading journals in the field, such as The Lancet, Value in Health, Health Policy, and PLOS One. Dr. Vogler has a degree in commerce from Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration and a doctorate in social and economic sciences from the same university.

David Watkins

Assistant professor

Division of General Internal Medicine and in the Department of Global Health at the University of Washington in Seattle

David Watkins is an assistant professor in the Division of General Internal Medicine and in the Department of Global Health at the University of Washington in Seattle. Dr. Watkins studies health system reform and policy challenges, with a particular emphasis on universal health coverage and the growing burden of non-communicable diseases in low- and middle-income countries. He is also a key contributor to the Disease Control Priorities (DCP) project and leads part of the initiative from the University of Washington. Dr. Watkins' team works in several thematic areas: population and economic modeling to support policy analysis, integrated healthcare delivery, and the use of evidence in policy formulation. In addition to his research work, he teaches on global non-communicable diseases and quantitative research methods and continues to practice as an internal medicine specialist at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle. Dr. Watkins received a Bachelor of Science from Rhodes College, a Doctor of Medicine from Duke University, and completed his residency in internal medicine at the University of Washington. He also holds a Master of Public Health from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation and a research fellowship in health economics from the Disease Control Priorities Network.

Tommy Wilkinson

Principal Analyst

Ministry of Health New Zealand

Tommy Wilkinson is a health economist and clinical pharmacist who worked as a senior researcher at the University of Cape Town and a health economics leader for the International Decision Support Initiative (iDSI) for Sub-Saharan Africa, based at the School of Public Health. from the University of the Witwatersrand. Under iDSI, Tommy leads a series of research and technical assistance projects aimed at strengthening the prioritization and assessment of health technologies in South Africa and Sub-Saharan Africa. Previously, he served as a health economist at the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), working on the development of clinical guidelines and the advisory team for NICE International, where he led technical assistance projects in low- and middle-income countries, including the development of capacities for the evaluation of health technologies and the investigation of methodologies for their economic evaluation. Before NICE, he was Therapeutic Group Manager at the New Zealand Pharmaceutical Management Agency (Pharmac) and as a clinical pharmacist has worked at various UK National Health Service hospitals on primary care drug management. Tommy is a pharmacist who graduated from the University of Otago in New Zealand, with courses in clinical, hospital, and therapeutic pharmacy from the University of Bath, and holds a master's degree in Health Economics from the University of York.

Veronika Wirtz

Associate Professor

Boston University School of Public Health

Veronika Wirtz is an Associate Professor in the Department of Global Health at the Boston University School of Public Health, where she is also Director of the World Health Organization Collaborating Center on Drug Policy. Her research focuses on strengthening the health system and policy and program evaluation for accessing and using medicines. She is a visiting professor at the National Institute of Public Health (INSP) in Mexico, where she has taught short courses in Pharmacoepidemiology and Research. She is the coordinator of a student exchange program between these institutions. She was a researcher and professor at INSP and a founding member and head of the Research Group on Medicines in Public Health. She also served as co-chair of the Lancet Commission on Essential Medicines Policies. She has worked as a technical advisor for several international organizations, including the World Health Organization, the Pan American Health Organization, the World Bank, the Global Fund, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Alliance for Health Policy and Systems Research, Health Action International and the Ford Foundation. She has also worked with the Ministry of Health in Mexico. Additionally, she is associate editor of Health Systems and Reform, a leading journal that publishes research on health systems and policy. Veronika received her training as a pharmacist from the Albert-Ludwigs University in Freiburg, and both her Master's in Clinical Pharmacy and her doctorate from the University of London. During her career, she has published widely in international journals such as The Lancet, British Medical Journal, and the World Health Organization Bulletin, among other publications.