These are the problems that the Guide to health Economic Analysis and Research (GEAR) resource aims to answer. It is an online platform dedicated towards helping LMICs’ academics, researchers and economic evaluation practitioners worldwide conduct high quality, policy relevant healthcare research. GEAR compiles and resolves gaps arising from methodological issues in the conduct and the use of economic evaluations. The resource will explore the issues in the conduct and the use of these evidences, potential solutions to the issues and future research questions to address these issues but also will.

The site is based on tiDSI) supported. The paper, “Identifying Priority Methodological Issues in Economic Evaluation in Low- and Middle-Income Countries: Finding the Holy Grail,” details the results of a literature review and questionnaire used to survey national and international experts, academics, public health officials, and relevant stakeholders on economic evaluation methodological issues. The respondents ranked the issues by order of priority or importance per their own experiences working in their country and/or abroad as well as propose some solutions that they consider relevant. These results were analyzed, triangulated with research questions proposed by the research team based on t he solutions nominated, and presented on the database. The prioritization of methodological problems and finding their solutions will lead to methodological research for improved tools in the conduct of economic evaluations. This database, which is funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation through the iDSI grant and the Thailand Research Fund, complements this work and provides immediate solutions to researchers’ needs.

On March 8, 2017, in Pretoria, South Africa, the website was launched to a group of partners
from the International Decision Support Initiative (iDSI) and LMIC partners from Colombia, Ethiopia, Ghana, Indonesia, South Africa, Switzerland, Tanzania, Thailand,      the UK, the US, Malawi, and Zambia. Prof. Anthony Culyer, a British Economist and Emeritus Professor of the University of York, opened the proceedings and likened it to the Professor Arrow’s founding of health economics. A short introductory and training workshop followed, showing that participants found the GEAR useful and helpful. Finally, Dr. Suwit Wibulpolprasert, former Chair of the National List of Essential Medicines in Thailand, closed the program by bidding the participants to bring the GEAR out to the world, to provide solutions to all researchers in need.

In a recent policy brief, Oxford Policy Management and the International Decision Support Initiative (iDSI) have asked “would the VfM analysis that the UK’s Department for International Development conduct on their programme expenditure be more useful if lessons were learnt from the iDSI Reference Case for Economic Evaluation?”. It is argued that significant methodological improvements are available to DFID – which could make the information they generate more useful for their decision makers. These recommendations are also applicable to other donors who follow similar guidelines for monitoring their VfM.

Alex Jones’ blog post exploring some of the issues raised in the brief is available on the Oxford Policy Management website.

On 24 July 2015, CHE hosted a full day’s training event for the 2015 cohort of Health Fellows, accepted onto the prestigious Overseas Development Institute’s (ODI) Fellowship Scheme. The post-graduate economists and statisticians will soon be working in the very heart of Ministries of Health in Haiti, Liberia, Malawi, Mozambique, Sierra Leone, South Sudan, Thailand, and Zanzibar. They were joined by seven economists from the ODI and its Centre for Aid and Public Expenditure (CAPE).

Attendees were treated to presentations delivered by Maria Goddard, Luigi Siciliani, Karl Claxton, Jessica Ochalek, Miqdad Asaria, and Ryota Nakamura, as well as Francis Ruiz and Laura Morris from NICE International. The presentations provided an introduction to the key themes and topics in health economics which will be used by the Health Fellows to aid them in their new roles.

CHE would like to thank Robin Sherbourne at the ODI and Paul Revill for his support with organising this event, and wish all of the 2015 Health Fellows the very best in their forthcoming placements.

For further information about the Overseas Development Institute’s Fellowship Scheme, please visit: www.odi.org/fellowship-scheme