Hands-on course on epidemiological modelling of infectious diseases and health economic evaluations for vaccines.
Description
Improve your skills and knowledge on infectious disease modelling and health economic evaluations. The first three days handle statistical and mathematical models for airborne and close-contact diseases. The program continues with two days full of principles and best practices for health economic evaluations with a focus on vaccines. This course is hands-on with tutorials in the R and builds upon experience and knowledge from experts in the field.
Program
Mathematical models are increasingly used to study infectious disease transmission, simulate reactive strategies and inform policy. In this course we focus on dynamic or time-dependent models representing the transmission of evolutionary systems. We start with basic concepts of transmission models for infectious diseases and continue with parameter estimation and social contact patterns. The level of model complexity increases from deterministic compartmental models up to stochastic individual-based models and we provide hands-on tutorials in R. Health interventions are assessed with respect to both effects and costs in health economic evaluations or health technology assessments. The objective is to optimize health outcomes for a constrained health budget. We elaborate in this course on cost-effectiveness and cost-benefit analyses for infectious disease interventions with focus on vaccines. We demonstrate different types of uncertainty for economic evaluations and key aspects to evaluate preventive and curative medicine.
The course consists of two parts:
Modelling Infectious Diseases (Monday-Wednesday)
Mathematical models are increasingly used to study infectious disease transmission, simulate reactive strategies and inform policy. In this course we focus on dynamic or time-dependent models representing the transmission of evolutionary systems. We start with basic concepts of transmission models for infectious diseases and continue with parameter estimation and social contact patterns. The level of model complexity increases from deterministic compartmental models up to stochastic individual-based models and we provide hands-on tutorials in R.
Health Economics for Vaccines (Thursday-Friday)
Health interventions are assessed with respect to both effects and costs in health economic evaluations or health technology assessments. The objective is to optimize health outcomes for a constrained health budget. We elaborate in this course on cost-effectiveness and cost-benefit analyses for infectious disease interventions with focus on vaccines. We demonstrate different types of uncertainty for economic evaluations and key aspects to evaluate preventive and curative medicine.
Experience with R is a plus, though we provide basic info upfront and are there to help you.
Target group: Health science professionals, (bio)statisticians, economists, mathematicians, etc. who want to expand their modelling toolbox and/or increase their understanding of cost-effectiveness analysis.
This interdisciplinary initiative is organised and funded by
- Antwerp Summer and Winter University
- University of Antwerp
- Hasselt University
- Quetelet Society
Remarks
Successful completion of the summer school can be awarded with 3 credits according the European Credit Transfer System (ECTS). To award ECTS credits, participants are evaluated on a report of a case-study linked to the course material, which has to be send in one month after the course. To include the credits in the curriculum at the home institution, participants need an agreement with the responsible person at their university.
A certificate of attendance is issued as a micro-credential.
