Topic: Getting the most out of life - Understanding the opportunity cost of your decisions

The combination of constrained resources and increasing demands in health care is making priority setting a crucial factor for health policy. This is particularly essential in South Africa where a great deal remains to be done for the country to achieve universal health coverage through the implementation of the National Health Insurance (NHI).

If the aim of the NHI is to maximise benefits to the society with a limited budget– and conversely minimize opportunity costs – there is a need to measure the relative costs and benefits of alternative interventions. A health care intervention that is cost-effective is one in which additional health benefits have been leveraged against their additional costs, resulting in a more efficient healthcare provision.

In this inaugural lecture, Edina will reflect on her life and career to date focused on providing policy makers with the economic evidence they need to maximise the use of limited resources. She will outline the critical role of economic evaluation in health priority setting, and the work she has done in this area, especially in relation to tuberculosis interventions and the HPV vaccine.

Date: Monday, 18 September 2023
Time: 17:00 SAST
Venue: Wolfson Lecture Theatre, IDM Building, Health Sciences campus