Letter from the Directors
Dear Prospective Participant,
It is our pleasure to introduce to you the new master program in Health Economics and Policy with classes starting in the fall of 2011. Barcelona has a well known critical mass of researchers and practitioners in the field that ensure the most successful training and career prospect.
One nice feature about health economics is that it makes the task of motivating the program an easy one. It is obvious that there is a growing need of experts with a solid training in all aspects related to this fast evolving sector. Indeed, most countries around the world are trying to come up with new systems to strike the correct balance between efficiency (the quantity versus quality tradeoff) and equity. The health sector is witnessing technological advances whose implementation may be well justified from the purely medical point of view, but that also pose complex ethical and financial problems. From biomarkers to the exploitation of the genome, from mother cell applications to the discovery of new but extremely costly treatments, all are elements forcing countries to adapt their health care sectors and assess their value for money. Hence, the multiple reforms that we are witnessing in the last decade. Also, the issue of individual responsibility (lifestyles, preventive behavior) and therefore incentives is becoming ever so poignant. Health is indeed one of the main components of our welfare, but old recipes have become obsolete.
These issues, we are sure, should spur the curiosity of any individual concerned with the well-being of our society. We have set up a program that combines analytical rigor and a deep knowledge of the interface of economics and medicine. Most of all, we aim to give our students the capability to appraise existing policy interventions and to formulate improvements over these policies in order to get better health outcomes.
Please contact us should you have questions on the required background or on the program itself.
Prof. Pau Olivella
Program Director, Health Economics and Policy Program
Prof. Guillem López-Casasnovas
Scientific Director, Health Economics and Policy Program
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