Health Economics

Edina Sinanovic, Professor and Head of Division

Email:  Edina.Sinanovic@uct.ac.za

Phone: 021 406 6575

Publications

I am Professor and Head of the Health Economics Division in the School of Public Health at the University of Cape Town. I have training in economics and health economics. I did my PhD at the LSHTM, and have worked in the field of health economics in South Africa since 1997. My research falls within three areas: economic evaluation of health care interventions, especially in relation to tuberculosis, HIV, cancer and STIs; economic considerations in vaccination, with an emphasis on the economic modelling of new vaccines; and the cost of scaling up health care interventions.

I have extensive teaching and student supervision experience. I teach Theory and Application of Economic Evaluation in Health Care on the MPH, and Economic Evaluation for Health Care Decision Making on the Postgraduate Diploma in Health Economics. My doctoral students are studying topics including economic evaluation of interventions for prevention of pediatric drug resistant TB, extended cost effectiveness analysis of publicly funded interventions for early detection and treatment of breast cancer, and cost-effectiveness of models of prevention of mother to child transmission of HIV intervention.

I am a member of the Executive Committee of the Pharmaceutical & Technology Clinical Management Association of South Africa (PTCMA), with a focus on research and education.

I have served on the WHO Immunization and Vaccines related Implementation Research (IVIR) Advisory Committee. In 2020, I was appointed a member of the Strategic Scientific Advisory Board of the Botnar Research Centre for Child Health (BRCCH) at the University of Basel, Switzerland, which is dedicated to advancing global child and adolescent health.

Susan Cleary, Professor and Head of School

Email:  Susan.Cleary@uct.ac.za

Publications

Susan Cleary is Head of Department and Professor of Health Economics in the School of Public at the University of Cape Town. She joined the School in 2001, becoming the director of the Health Economics Unit (2007-2012), Associate Professor in 2011, Head of School and Director in 2022, and Professor from 2023. She holds a Masters’ in Economics (2001) and a PhD in Public Health specializing in Health Economics (2007), assessing equity and efficiency in HIV-treatment in South Africa. Her work focuses on research, capacity development and policy engagement within the areas of economic evaluation, health care priority setting and universal health coverage. She is interested in considerations of both distributive and procedural justice in health and health care. For the former, areas of interest include cost-effectiveness, affordability and financial risk protection to households from alternative interventions. For the latter, areas of interest include the governance of health technology assessment and related priority setting processes. She plays a key role in teaching health economics at the postgraduate diploma, masters’ and doctoral levels.

Olufunke Alaba, Senior Lecturer

Email:  Olufunke.Alaba@uct.ac.za

Phone:  021 406 6576

Publications

Olufunke Alaba is a Senior Lecturer in the Health Economics Unit and convenor of the Health Economics track in the Master of Public Health Programme. She is involved in teaching and research of health economics and health policy issues as well as the application of various Economic principles and tools to understanding and improving health outcomes, observed differentials in health and health outcomes, promoting economic growth and development.  Olufunke joined the Transformation Committee as Chair in February 2020.

Lucy Cunnama, Senior Lecturer

Email:  Lucy.Cunnama@uct.ac.za

Phone:  021 406 6754

Publications

Lucy Cunnama started working in the Health Economics Unit in May 2012. Her undergraduate degree was in Physiotherapy, after which she worked in the Eastern Cape at a rural hospital. Working in this environment inspired her to study public health and she finished her Master’s (MPH) degree in 2011, specializing in Health Economics. She currently supervises five MPH students, is on the Departmental Research Committee for the School of Public Health and Family medicine, co-convenes and teaches on the MPH health economics track and leads a module for the online Postgraduate Diploma in Health Economics. She is also a Health Economist on the Department of Health’s National TB Think Tank. Her research interests include economic evaluation; access to health care in the South African setting; tuberculosis diagnostics and treatment; paediatric pneumonia; and models of care relating to the prevention of mother to child transmission of HIV.

Amarech Obse, Research Officer

Email:  Amarech.Obse@uct.ac.za

Phone:  021 406 6752

Publications

Amarech Obse has joined the Health Economic Unit in 2015 as a post-doctoral research fellow. Her main area of research is health care financing and economics of stated preferences. Her current research focuses on analysis of health financing mechanisms and reforms in Africa and their effect on the Universal Health Coverage, the role of legal framework and regulations for private healthcare services under publicly funded systems in low- and middle-income countries, and preference elicitation for healthcare services.

She holds a Ph.D from Trinity College Dublin, Ireland. Her Ph.D research provided an
analysis of demand for health insurance in Ethiopia, focusing on preferences of civil servants for social health insurance plans. She has a Master’s and Bachelor’s  degrees in Economics from Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia. She previously worked at Addis Ababa University School of Public Health as a research assistant and lecturer.