Assistant/Associate Professor in Health Technology Assessment / Health Economics of Digital...

We seek an independent researcher in the field of HTA/Health economics enthusiastic about digital health innovations. Are you the scientist who can strengthen our multidisciplinary platform 'Strategic Intelligence for Digitalization of Societal Domains' (SI4DS)?

Assessing and optimizing the impact of digital health innovations

HTA and health economic evaluations have never been more important to keep our healthcare system accessible and affordable! Many digital health innovations, such as e-Health apps and AI algorithms, appear to have the potential to save costs, reduce workload in healthcare, and improve health outcomes. However, while many such innovations are being developed and used, quantitative studies evaluating and optimizing their impact remain rare.

Technologies such as e-Health apps and AI algorithms are ground-breaking, as they are likely to transform the health system and necessitate new policies, financing structures, communication strategies, infrastructure, and analytical methods. As a result, empirical evidence on their impact is often limited, and extrapolation of previous insights from other innovations may not be desirable. Furthermore, their benefits are determined by their use, that is, by the behavior of the end users. Finally, these benefits may go beyond traditional health and economic effects, encompassing for example waiting lists, waste in healthcare, patient empowerment, and continuous learning capabilities related to (health) outcomes. If you have a background in HTA or health economics and (want to) specialize in AI or e-Health, then we are looking for you!

The focus of this position is on developing flexible simulations models, reflecting individuals and their (care) context, needed to evaluate digital health innovations on a wide range of traditional and new outcome measures. Such models allow forecasting, that is: making predictions about the future by exploring a range of scenarios and identifying key factors and turning points related to scenario impact. Understanding possible futures regarding digitalization allows policy makers to develop resilient strategies, anticipating on upcoming developments.

The research strategy builds upon HTA, health economics, simulation (including agent-based modeling), organizational or business modelling, expert elicitation, data visualization, combined with interactive model building for strategic decision making.

The SI4DS platform

As member of the SI4DS team you will strengthen the new platform through research and education on model based impact assessment. Your work will support society to anticipate the impact of digital health innovations. This requires continuous interaction with societal partners. Applying a societal, organizational, and individual perspective during evaluation will draw on quantitative but also qualitative research fields and skills.

Responsibilities

The key job responsibilities include:

• Research: contributing to further developing the HTA research line within HTSR. Key activities are co-acquisition and co-execution of research projects focusing on impact analysis, producing high quality journal publications, and securing (inter)national scholarly visibility;
• Education: teaching at different levels; supervising BSc and MSc thesis projects;
• Valorization: engaging with partners, such as policy makers, hospitals, municipalities, insurers, care professionals, patients, and citizens, to identify challenges, questions, and relevant future scenarios related to digital health innovations;
• Organization: supporting SI4DS activities and committees within the TPS cluster and the broader Faculty.