Cancer Focus NI is currently funding Research Fellow in health economics, Dr Ethna McFerran at Queen’s University Belfast.

What is health economics and why does it matter?

Why invest in health economics?

Health economics plays an important role in helping to understand the economic burden of cancer and can provide evidence to inform decisions about which health services offer the best value for money.

Ideally, every patient would receive the best treatment right away, but sadly healthcare budgets are often limited.  This is where the work of health economists come in. Their role is to provide decision-makers with evidence which can be used to help them decide how best to use their limited budget efficiently and fairly.

Cancer patients, health care professionals and the public alike are interested in new medications, treatments and health care improvements, especially when they hold the potential to help people live longer and to have a better quality of life.

What does health economics research involve?

Our cancer health economist examines a range of issues, from analysing what effects lifestyle choices have on health, to examining the costs and benefits of personalised cancer care medicine, to helping provide the evidence base for changes in cancer policy.  Her work is not just about efficiency but also fairness, and the impact of inequity on health outcomes. She works closely with researchers across Queen’s, including Prof Mark Lawler in the Centre for Cancer Research and Cell Biology, Dr Anna Gavin in the Northern Ireland Cancer Registry and Prof Ciaran O’Neill at the Centre for Public Health.

The cancer health economist works with patients, the public, clinicians and a range of stakeholders to help understand the key issues in relation to the cost of cancer and to answer questions which help decision-makers to understand the likely impact of making changes to our health services. She also actively links with clinical and industry partners to help understand the potential benefits of new technologies for cancer patients and to understand the types of settings that new innovations might best be used.

Which areas will be researched during this project?

As part of this research project the following areas will be considered:

• What is the economic burden of cancer, with a specific focus on a number of different cancer types?
• What are the costs and benefits of providing a skin cancer prevention programme?
• Can we offer more personalised Prostate Specific Antigen (PSA) testing (for prostate cancer)?
• What effect are tobacco control programmes having on cancer?
• What has been the benefits of the bowel screening programme to date?
• What are the best approaches to ensure appropriate delivery of precision medicine in cancer?

As part of her work, Dr McFerran has recently helped to raise concerns about how decisions about the bowel screening test may affect patients and hospitals in Northern Ireland. Read more here.