HESG Survey 2018

When Bruce and Paula took over as National Organisers of HESG, they said they would undertake a short online survey to find out what people might like HESG to do in the future. That survey is now live, and we’re really pleased that so many members and non-members have already responded.

You have one week left to share your ideas and have your opinion counted – the survey will close on Friday 26th October. Findings from the survey will be reported to the HESG Members Meeting in York in January 2019.

This survey is now closed.

G. Crescoli

10th October 2018

HESG nominee sought for iHEA Board directorship

The International Health Economics Association would like to invite HESG to nominate someone to serve as an Association Nominated Director on the iHEA Board from January 2019.

In considering an appropriate nominee, the core criteria in the iHEA Bylaws are that the nominee should be:

An economist working on health and health care; and
An iHEA member for the last two years

In addition, iHEA are trying to promote a gender balance on the Board, and encourage female participation.

If you would like to be considered as the HESG representative on the iHEA Board, please complete the form available at the link below by October 26th.

https://hesg.org.uk/membership/ihea-association-nominated-director/

If a run off is needed this will take place in due course.

To access this form (and nominate yourself) you’ll have to be an HESG member. If you have not renewed yet, please click here to do so.

Drew Beamer

5th September 20184th September 2018

Important changes to HESG membership

Behind the scenes, the team has been working to consolidate HESG’s finances and streamline membership management. We would therefore like to inform all past, current, and future HESG members of three important changes.

Updated membership renewal period

Previously, HESG membership ran on a fixed academic calendar, with renewals due on October 1st each year. Effective immediately, new memberships will last for one year from the time of purchase. Memberships can be renewed at any time, with any remaining days automatically carried over.

All current memberships (paid under the previous arrangement) are valid until October 1st 2018.

New payment gateway

Previously, payments were processed by the University of Manchester. All membership payments will now be processed through the HESG website using PayPal. You can pay using your PayPal account or by entering your credit or debit card details. Your membership subscription will renew automatically after one year, but you can cancel your subscription at any time. Your data will be handled securely, as outlined in our privacy policy.

Visit the membership page for more details.

Mailing list

HESG will use MailChimp to send out announcements to members and non-members. As a member, you will receive members-only updates. You can join the new mailing list using the form below.

If you have any questions about these changes, please don’t hesitate to contact us.

13th February 2018

Sign-up now for the HESG Mentoring Pilot Programme

We’re pleased to announce that HESG will be running a pilot for a mentoring programme for early and mid-career HESG members. Applications are now open for 6 mentors and 6 mentees to take part in the pilot. The deadline for applications is 30th March 2018.

The scheme will be coordinated by Professor Rhiannon Tudor Edwards from the Centre for Health Economics and Medicines Evaluation (CHEME) at Bangor University. Applications can be submitted via the HESG website.

HESG Mentoring Slides

The mentoring process supports and encourages people to manage their own learning, in order to maximise their potential, develop their skills, improve their performance and become the person they want to be. The aim of the programme is to help foster a culture of mentorship at health economics research centres across the UK through this pilot voluntary inter-institutional scheme. This scheme is modelled on the Women in Universities Mentoring Scheme (WUMS).

In the first instance we are looking for 6 senior academics (Senior lecturer; Reader; Professor) and 6 early-mid career researchers (e.g. candidates who have almost or recently completed their PhD, or research officers, lecturers etc.). The scheme will match mentors and mentees based on shared interests in health economics methodology and/or an applied area of research. The scheme will particularly support mentees in the smaller or newer research centres, possibly through mentorship by mentors based in the larger or more established centres.

It is proposed that the mentoring arrangement will last for 12 months, with 4 face-to-face or Skype meeting dates (to be arranged by the mentee over that time period).

Visit our dedicated mentorship page for more information.

16th January 2018

Volunteers needed for the role of National Organiser

2018 is a big year for HESG. During the last Members’ Meeting at City, Profs Steve Morris and Matt Sutton announced the end of their term as joint National Organisers. The process has therefore begun to identify their replacements.

Here’s what Matt and Steve had to say in an email to the HESG mailing list.

As announced at the Members’ Meeting at the City HESG conference, we have now completed our fixed-term appointment. We have both thoroughly enjoyed the role. It is now time to refresh the leadership and organisation of the Group.
We both feel that it has been useful to share the role over the last five years, to provide continuous cover and to have a second opinion on more contentious issues. We are therefore suggesting that potential candidates consider carefully whether they would like to do the role as a job share.
Although HESG has a good record of promoting equality and diversity, we note that HESG has never had a female National Organiser. We therefore believe that expressions of interest from women would be particularly welcome.

HESG is therefore seeking volunteers to take on the role.

The nature of the role

The role of National Organiser holds a fixed term of five years. To support the role, HESG has paid £2,000 per year for administration. Responsibilities include:

Maintaining an administrative system for membership of HESG, including applications for membership, record keeping and subscriptions. There were approximately 340 paid-up members in 2016/17.
Ensuring that HESG meetings are held, including recruitment of volunteers to be local organisers, maintenance of a forward plan for meetings and advice to and support for local organisers.
Ensuring that members have access to information that they require – including the maintenance of databases on membership and meeting papers as well as details of forthcoming meetings.
Maintaining financial accounts for the HESG and exercising control over its finances, including financial support for PhD students to attend HESG meetings. HESG currently has a reserve of approximately £8,000 and an annual turnover of approximately £5,000.
Holding and chairing a Members’ Meeting at each HESG meeting and ensuring that the decisions agreed by the meeting are implemented.
Acting as a representative of HESG to the rest of the world.
Overseeing the organisation of the HESG website.
Managing the HESG JISCmail email discussion list.

Matt and Steve will be happy to discuss the responsibilities of the role with potential candidates.

Call for volunteers

Expressions of interest must be submitted by 16th February 2018. If the expression of interest is from a single party it should include an indication of willingness (or unwillingness) to job share. Joint expressions of interest from two volunteers will be very welcome.

If it happens that there are multiple expressions of interest (let’s hope that there are), then volunteers will be given the opportunity to withdraw and solo candidates will be given the opportunity to join forces. Then – in a HESG first – a ballot of members will be conducted to select the next National Organiser(s). This is a very good time to make sure you have paid your subscription for 2017/18. The ballot will be supported by statements from candidates.

The new organiser(s) will be in place by the end of May 2018 and must run their inaugural Members’ Meeting in Bristol (20-22 June 2018).

If you are considering volunteering, please contact Matt or Steve, or send a message via the website. And remember that deadline: 16th February 2018.

And, finally, let’s send a big thank you to Steve and Matt for their efforts over the last 5 (ish) years. HESG has continued to develop over their term, with meetings maintaining the collegial atmosphere and high-quality content that make HESG meetings the highlight of many health economists’ year.

16th October 201713th October 2017

The new HESG website

Welcome to the new HESG.org.uk. For some time, we’ve been having problems with the HESG website. Members and other visitors haven’t been able to access the information they needed. As HESG members ourselves, we appreciate that this was frustrating at times. The new website is up-and-running but is still work-in-progress. There are several key things that we would like visitors to the new website to be able to do. In this blog post, we’ll briefly explain what these are and how long it will be until these features are fully launched.

Information about upcoming meetings

The next HESG meeting will be at City, University of London, in January 2018. All of the information about the meeting is provided on the local hosts’ website, where registration is now open. Historically – at least, since the Internet has been around – this is how information about HESG meetings has been provided. Going forward, we’d like to provide all of this information centrally on the HESG website. This will include abstract submission, programme details, travel advice, and everything else you might expect. This won’t preclude local hosts from providing their own web pages, but we hope that a single online destination for information about upcoming meetings will make life easier for authors, discussants, and all delegates. The summer 2018 meeting of HESG will take place at the University of Bristol, and this will be the first meeting for which we hope to provide this comprehensive coverage on the HESG website.

Information about past meetings

There are a variety of reasons why HESG members and other visitors to our website might like to find information about past HESG meetings. Members may want to access past papers. This is something that has been lacking from the HESG website in recent years, and something that we know people expect as a part of their membership. Visitors may also have an interest in the history of HESG. The meetings have been running regularly since 1972 and, to date, there have been 90 meetings in total. Getting all of the available information from all of these meetings onto the website is no mean feat. It will take us several months (at least) to achieve this. Each past meeting will have its own web page, from which members will be able to download the accepted papers. We’d like to make as much archival material available as possible, so if you are able to provide any documents that we could add to the website, please contact the webmaster.

Manage your membership

HESG membership runs annually from October 1st. By the time of the summer meeting, it’s not always easy to remember whether or not you’ve renewed your membership for the year. The new website will allow you to check your membership status. This functionality will be fully available once this year’s sign-ups and renewals have been processed. Membership payments are handled by the University of Manchester. As payment is processed separately, there may be a slight delay in updating your details on the HESG website. If you believe that your membership status is not correct, please contact us.

We would like to continue to develop the HESG website and to add new functionality. If you are an HESG member and interested in contributing to the development and maintenance of the new website – especially if you are familiar with WordPress – please contact our webmaster.