YHEC turns 40: Reflecting on the past, present and future

2026 marks a major milestone: 40 years of YHEC. To celebrate four decades at the interface of evidence, policy and practice, we are launching a special anniversary blog series.

We begin with first principles. In our opening post, Back to Basics: What is Health Economics?, YHEC CEO Professor Matthew Taylor revisits this foundational question.

Drawing on Alan Williams’ classic "plumbing diagram", Professor Taylor illustrates the true scope of the discipline and its critical relevance to contemporary policy challenges.

Read the blog and check back regularly for further blogs in the series.

How can we make health technology assessment more equitable?

Join YHEC's Hayden Holmes, Robert Malcolm and Angel Vargese, along with Miqdad Asaria (London School of Economics) and Professor Richard Cookson (University of York) for an essential online short course, delivered in partnership with ISPOR.

This session dives deep into Distributional Cost-Effectiveness Analysis (DCEA) and the complex trade-offs involved in modern decision-making.

The course explores:

• How to systematically quantify and evaluate equity in health technology assessment (HTA).
• Practical methodological insights for equity-informed policy.
• Strategies for addressing distributional impacts in healthcare.

It takes place on 29 and 30 April for 2 hours per day. 

Find out more. 

All YHEC in-house training courses are free in 2026

To celebrate our 40th anniversary, we are offering all YHEC in-house training courses free-of-charge for one year only in 2026.

This initiative reflects YHEC’s longstanding commitment to capacity building and to supporting high-quality, evidence-informed decision-making across health systems.

The focus, trainers, and academic rigour of these courses are unchanged; they are delivered by the same subject-matter experts who lead our commissioned consultancy work for public- and private-sector clients.

Our training programme covers core and emerging topics in health economics, health technology assessment and evidence generation, drawing on four decades of applied experience at the interface of research, policy and practice.

Explore the full range of courses and register your interest.

New webinar series: environmental impact in healthcare decision-making

Senior Research Consultant, Melissa Pegg, is hosting a free lunchtime online webinar series throughout 2026. It will explore how environmental sustainability can be incorporated into health economics and health technology assessment.

Across five 30-minute sessions, the series will cover key concepts, methods and emerging approaches for evaluating environmental outcomes in healthcare decision-making.

Session dates and topics:

• 27 February — What is Sustainable Healthcare and How Can We Prioritise Evaluating Environmental Outcomes?
• 24 April — What are Carbon Emissions and Scope 1–3?
• 17 July — Scope and Boundary Considerations in Environmental Sustainability Assessment
• 18 September — Evaluating Environmental Sustainability in Health Economics
• 27 November — Evaluating Environmental Sustainability in Health Technology Assessment

Find out more and register on our website.

Are you accounting for bias in Crohn’s disease clinical trials?

We are proud to share that YHEC’s Principal Statistician, Joe Moss, and Harriet Fewster have contributed to the development of a novel adjustment method for clinical trials. This method addresses heterogeneity caused by significant imbalances in discontinuation rates between treatment arms, a factor that can critically impact trial results in Crohn's Disease.

The team validated these adjustments through a series of network meta-analyses (NMAs) under various clinical assumptions. The findings will be presented at the European Crohn's and Colitis Organisation (ECCO) Congress 2026 on 20 February.

Interested in our statistical services? Contact us for more information.

YHEC will fundraise for Move the Masses in 2026

We're delighted to announce that our chosen charity for 2026 will be Move the Masses.

Move the Masses is a York-based charity, which aims to help people become more active. It's flagship concept 'Move Mates' is a walking buddy project which makes getting out for a walk a reality for people who would otherwise find it difficult to leave their homes. The charity pairs volunteers with beneficiaries for a weekly meetup and walk together. Move Mates volunteers give people the confidence and moral support to leave their homes and go for a walk, improving their physical and mental health and reducing isolation and loneliness.

Staff at YHEC will be taking part in a variety of fundraising activities throughout 2026. YHEC will match-fund up to £5,000 fundraised throughout the year - so for every £1 raised by YHEC staff, the company will give a further £1.

Help us to support this cause by making a donation. 

Staff news

Two members of YHEC staff are celebrating the start of 2026 with new roles.

Joe Goldbacher has been promoted to Senior Research Consultant.

Charlotte Graham has been appointed as Project Manager. Charlotte moves into the role after 2 successful years in YHEC's Medical Communications team. 

Congratulations to them both!

Congratulations to Emre!

YHEC Research Consultant, Emre Dixon, recently graduated with an MSc in Health Economics from the University of York. 

Well done Emre!

BMC Rheumatology

A new qualitative study, co-authored by Emily Gregg, Charlotte Graham, Deborah Watkins and Rachael McCool, has been published in the BMC Rheumatology journal. 

It draws on international expert opinion to examine how clinicians define and apply core concepts in Sjögren’s disease, including disease activity, severity, progression and remission. Across seven major thematic areas, the findings highlight substantial variation and a lack of consensus on several definitions commonly used in daily practice, particularly around “severity”, “systemic involvement” and the role of patient perspectives.

Read more. 

BMJ Paediatrics Open

The economic potential of Tellmi, a novel digital mental health support app designed for children and young adults, is explored in new research.

The paper is co-authored by Laura Kelly, Hayden Holmes and Charlotte Graham. Using survey data from Tellmi users, the study presents an early economic evaluation comparing healthcare resource use with standard care from an NHS perspective.

Read the full paper.

The Lancet Planetary Health

A new commentary published in The Lancet Planetary Health sets out a multi-stakeholder, systems-based approach to addressing the growing public and environmental health risks associated with pharmaceuticals in the environment.

It highlights how pharmaceutical pollution contributes to ecological harm, biodiversity loss and antimicrobial resistance, and applies the proposed framework to a UK case study, identifying 37 synergistic intervention points across the pharmaceutical lifecycle.

The article is co-authored by Hayden Holmes, Melissa Pegg and Professor Matthew Taylor, alongside international collaborators.

Read more.

PharmacoEconomics - Open

New cost-effectiveness evidence for RefluxStop in refractory gastroesophageal reflux disease has been published in PharmacoEconomics - Open. 

The study is a model-based evaluation, co-authored by Sam Harper and Stuart Mealing. It is the latest in a series of articles examining RefluxStop across healthcare settings across Europe, including Switzerland, Sweden, Norway and the UK.

Read the full paper.

Thorax

A new paper published in Thorax provides robust economic evidence on delivering smoking cessation support directly within lung cancer screening programmes.

Co-authored by  Robert Malcolm, Hayden Holmes and Professor Matthew Taylor, the study applies a cohort-based Markov model, adapted from NICE smoking cessation guidance, to assess the cost-effectiveness of smoking cessation interventions and service delivery approaches.

The findings support embedding smoking cessation treatment within lung cancer screening visits as a means to improve outcomes, reduce NHS costs, and address health inequalities.

Read more via our website.

Vacancy: Project Director

YHEC is seeking to appoint a Project Director within the Reviews and Evidence Synthesis (RES) team.

Key responsibilities include: project oversight from inception to delivery; engagement with multidisciplinary teams; business development through proposal preparation and client engagement; and contribution to organisational development within the RES team.

YHEC combines academic rigour with practical impact, working alongside health systems, industry partners and HTA bodies. The role offers an opportunity to contribute to high-profile evidence synthesis work that informs policy and practice.

Find out more and apply.

Closing date: Sunday 08 March at 5pm

Vacancies: research assistants

Are you an early career researcher or recent graduate? YHEC is recruiting two research assistants to work on a wide range of projects in our digital health technologies (DHT) modelling team.

We are a health economics research and consulting company owned by, and based at, the University of York. We provide consultancy and research to a wide range of public and private sector bodies.

We have an active career development programme and successful applicants will be supported to develop their research skills.

Visit our website to find out more and apply.

Closing date: Friday 13 February at 5pm