This page provides all the information needed for a successful HESG meeting. All members should be familiar with these guidelines.

For more guidance, members can view a recording of a webinar hosted by the ECR subcommittee, titled ‘How to do a HESG discussion well‘.

Meeting format

HESG meetings are intended for health economists rather than more generally for people interested in health economics. Although the group has an academic function – the creation and transmission of knowledge and ideas – its members work in commercial, academic and government settings and its concerns are applied and policy orientated as well as theoretical.

The HESG meetings have a distinctive style and feel, attempting to maintain a study group atmosphere despite large numbers. All papers are pre-circulated and discussed in hour-long sessions using discussants rather than author presentations. The range of papers reflects the current balance of work, the largest categories being economic evaluation, health outcome measurement and the finance and organisation of health care. However, every meeting has papers on other recognisably traditional economics subjects such as consumer demand, industry behaviour (particularly hospitals and pharmaceutical companies) and behaviour of the labour market. HESG welcomes people from a variety of backgrounds at our meetings, but they are intended for economists and its ‘working language’ is economics.

Instructions to authors

The format of the Health Economists’ Study Group – pre-circulated papers with discussants rather than authors presenting their own work – requires a set of procedures which must be closely followed if the sessions, and the meeting as a whole, are to be successful. An important part of this procedure is the rules for production and distribution of papers, which will be strictly applied by this meeting’s organisers. These cover the size of papers and the timetable for their distribution.

First, we have restrictions on the size of papers to give the discussant and other participants the opportunity to read the papers. The restrictions are no more than 20 A4 pages (including tables) AND no more than 7,500 words. There are no exemptions from this rule. The 20-page limit includes Appendices and reference lists.

For illustration, the word limit fits the page limit using a one-and-a-half-spaced 12-point proportionally-spaced font or typeface with 1″ (2.5cm) all-round margins and a reasonable number of paragraphs and headings.

Any papers going beyond these limits will be sent back to authors and excluded from the meeting unless reduced to fit.

Second, we have deadlines for distribution that must be kept. Please submit a PDF version of your paper no later than the advertised date.

You may wish to add the following disclaimer, or something similar, to your HESG paper to reflect the work-in-progress nature of the work presented: “Work-in-progress, please do not cite without authors’ permission”.

Meeting procedure

The following rules will operate at HESG meetings:

1. Authors will not read, summarise or even introduce their papers.
2. Each session will begin with the Discussant’s comments. Discussants will have a maximum of 20 minutes, including a brief summary of the paper. This summary should enable any attendees who have not read the paper to follow the session and participate in it, although the main focus of the time should be on discussion points.
3. Authors may then have a maximum of 5 minutes, but only to clear up misunderstandings, not to reply to the Discussant’s points. These clarifications should be kept to a minimum, and often none are needed.
4. General discussion follows, moderated by the Chair. Authors and Discussants may take part, but should exercise restraint. In particular, Authors should not engage in a ‘question and answer’ session with those raising points.
5. The Discussant and the Author, in that order, may speak for 5 minutes at the end if they wish.

Before the session starts the Chair, Author and Discussant should discuss amongst themselves how the session will work. All should ensure that the Chair is aware of any specific requirements from the Author or Discussant to ensure that they are able to get the most out of the session. This may include specific requirements relating to vision or hearing impairments, considerations around neurodiversity, anxiety, etc.

Please therefore arrive at your session early if possible, to allow time for this discussion. It is also a good idea to seek out the other members of your session in advance, for example in a coffee break, and introduce yourselves.

HESG strives to create a supportive environment where delegates are treated with respect at all times. Please ensure that you and others uphold this during the conference.

Discussants

The aim of the discussion should be:

• To be constructively helpful to authors.
• If possible, to construct an agenda that will guide the general discussion during the session.

Chairs

• Ensure the procedural rules are adhered to, minimise unproductive use of time and maximise participation.
• When opening the discussion to everyone, ask speakers to state who they are and where they come from, make sure everyone can hear the question, if not ask the speaker to repeat.
• Do not let anyone monopolise the talk, unless no-one else wants to speak.
• The discussion is not a question and answer session, so do not allow authors to respond to every point as it is made, unless there is not much participation from others. Authors will get their chance to reply at the end.
• It can help to meet with the Discussant and Author beforehand to create a good structure for the discussion.
• If you make a good structure, and speakers raise points at an inappropriate time, ask them to raise them later.
• Chairs should not ask questions when other people wish to do so. Look out for speakers from the audience rather than the chance to speak yourself. Although it is your responsibility to revive the discussion if the audience is not forthcoming initially.
• Chairs can end a session early if it seems that there is no more to be said, but they should try to enable and encourage discussion wherever possible. As a Chair, please come to the session with some discussion points prepared which you can raise in the event of a lack of questions from the audience. Don’t be afraid of the silence, audience members often need a little time to join in.