Welcome to YHEC's July 2025 Newsletter
Read on to find out about all the latest news at YHEC.
Latest News at YHEC
Navigating the EU HTA Regulation with YHEC
For nearly 40 years, YHEC has been a trusted advisor to the healthcare industry, guiding organisations through the complexities of the HTA landscape. As this landscape evolves, our commitment to providing expert guidance continues.
The new EU HTA Regulation (HTAR) is the latest legislation that will impact the industry. This legislation came into effect for oncology and ATMPs in January 2025, and will apply to all medicinal products from January 2030. However, there remains uncertainty about how the EU HTAR will be implemented - especially for vaccines.
We are excited to share our latest perspective article, reporting the challenges and opportunities associated with vaccine meta-analyses and indirect treatment comparisons in light of the EU HTAR. Published in a special issue of the Journal of Market Access and Health Policy that focuses on EU HTA, we are proud to be thought leaders in this area.
Congratulations to YHEC authors, Erin Barker, Joe Moss, Charlotte Graham, Rachael McCool and Emily Gregg.
Read the article.
Leading the conversation on environmental sustainability at HTAi in Argentina
YHEC Project Director, Robert Malcolm, and Senior Research Consultant, Melissa Pegg, were delighted to attend the HTAi Annual Meeting 2025 in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
They delivered a comprehensive range of presentations, including a plenary talk on environmental sustainability, an engaging panel session, a podium presentation and two insightful oral presentations.
Speaking on her time at the conference, Melissa said:
"Globally, we are seeing the healthcare sector witnessing an escalating demand for timely, pertinent, and high-quality evidence that extends beyond conventional HTA instruments. The 2025 HTAi Annual Meeting in Buenos Aires provided insights into the evolving methodological landscape of HTA and broader domains like environmental sustainability.
Presenting at plenary 2 enabled critical depth, challenging us all to consider how HTA must adapt in order to remain effective and impactful. The dialogue on stage sparked further perspectives and insights, in hallways and at coffee breaks, reflecting just how timely and necessary these discussions are."
Contact us to find out more about our work in this important space.
Can health equity and economic evaluation go hand-in-hand?
Reducing health inequity is a challenging global issue. The impact of new health technologies on health equity should be considered during the health technology assessment process in a range of countries. Countries and their respective HTA processes differ in how much emphasis they place on equity.
In this blog, YHEC’s Robert Malcolm shares his insights on the importance of incorporating health equity into economic evaluation, how we can do this, and what he hopes to see in the future in this area.
Delivering impact through innovation
YHEC is proud to have contributed to several high-impact projects featured in the latest Health Innovation Yorkshire and Humber report.
Working with our partners, we’ve tackled diverse topics, including using technology to reduce post-operative infections, supporting digital tools for anxiety management and advancing new approaches for testing for influenza. Our team has provided independent, real-world evidence on economic impact and system-wide value.
These collaborations illustrate how robust analysis can drive meaningful improvements in health outcomes and cost-effectiveness.
Get in touch to discuss how we can support your next project.
YHEC at the NHS Confed Expo
YHEC's experts attended the recent NHS Confed Expo in Manchester. Director, Professor Matthew Taylor, was joined by Associate Directors, Nick Hex and Hayden Holmes, Project Directors, Jo Hanlon and Robert Malcolm, and Senior Research Consultant, Rachael MacDonald. The team had discussions with innovators and policymakers to explore the latest technologies to help transform health and care.
Visit our website to find out more about our services.
More news
Sharing insights on virtual wards
The 10-year NHS Plan has been published, including a commitment to establishing a single virtual ward system.
YHEC's Barbara Uzdzinska and Rachael MacDonald presented their key learnings on the topic at the NIHR Hospital at Home and Virtual Wards Conference in Leeds. They explored the question "Home Comforts with Hospital-Level Care: the Perfect Combination or an Obvious Juxtaposition?"
In their talk, they shared findings from a series of cost-comparison models assessing hospital at home, and discussed how future economic evaluations could be optimised.
Contact us to find out more about our work on virtual wards.
Careers in research consultancy
It's great to work at YHEC! Project Director, Robert Malcolm and Research Consultant, Luc Curtis-Gretton, attended a postgraduate science, technology, engineering, mathematics and medicine (STEMM) careers fair at the University of York to talk to students about their roles. Luc delivered a presentation about higher education, opportunities in STEMM, and the varied routes into research careers.
Find out more about YHEC and what we do.
YHEC staff tackle new fundraising challenge
YHEC staff are fundraising for York Foodbank in 2025. For our latest challenge, we’re planning to walk the 21 miles of the Knaresborough Circular in July.
This demanding eight-hour hike in North Yorkshire will take the team through the Nidd Gorge with steep descents and climbs.
Sponsor the team and help us reach our target.
Our Latest Publications
The European Journal of Health Economics
We’re pleased to announce a new publication in The European Journal of Health Economics: "Clinical equivalence and non-inferiority within health technology assessment".
Co-authored by YHEC’s Professor Matthew Taylor, Joe Goldbacher and Charlotte Graham, the study reviews international guidance on non-inferiority and clinical equivalence trials, and highlights pervasive shortcomings in trial reporting, particularly concerning non-inferiority margins. The article concludes that HTA submissions that claim non-inferiority or equivalence should present the technical, biological and/or pharmacokinetic reasonings that support the claim before presenting trial evidence.
Value in Health
New research confirms YHEC as a leader in advancing methodological best practice in health economics and HTA.
The study, "Economic evaluation results are substantially affected by parameter input correlation", was published in Value in Health. It highlights a critical oversight in probabilistic sensitivity analysis: ignoring input parameter correlation can distort estimates of uncertainty in cost-effectiveness.
Using a simple model, our team shows how different correlation assumptions can substantially shift decision uncertainty - even when ICERs stay constant.
Co-authored by Erin Barker, Harriet Fewster, Karina Watts, Emily Gregg and Professor Matthew Taylor, the paper is available for free for a limited time.
Health and Social Care Delivery Research
We're delighted to present a new publication, co-authored by YHEC's Mick Arber: "How lived experiences of illness trajectories, burdens of treatment, and social inequalities shape service user and caregiver participation in health and social care: a theory-informed qualitative evidence synthesis".
The paper, published in Health and Social Care Delivery Research, offers key insights for health and social care policy. It explores how service users and caregivers engage with care across six complex conditions, including Parkinson’s, schizophrenia and brain cancer. The findings highlight the work involved in navigating care, and the role of personal capacity, social networks, stigma, and structural disadvantage.
ISPOR Values and Outcomes Spotlight
In this new article, "This Technology Should Be Compared With?… And for Whom? The Digital Health Population Conundrum", we tackle a key issue that we regularly encounter: how to define appropriate comparators and populations when evaluating digital health technologies (DHTs).
Robert Malcolm, Maisie Green, Rebecca Naylor and Hayden Holmes examine the challenges and call for flexible, context-sensitive models that better reflect real-world implementation.
Read more on the YHEC website.
Upcoming Webinars and Online Training Courses
Public Health Economics and Wider Policy Considerations
This half-day training course will provide an understanding of the principles of modelling public health interventions. The course will also focus on some of the methods and techniques used to consider wider policy considerations in decision making, including health inequalities and environmental sustainability. It will cover what implementation science is and the value it has in optimising the benefit of new healthcare interventions.
Monday 21 July
Identifying Economic Evidence for HTA
Health economics evidence is a key element in health services research and particularly in health technology assessments. Identifying economic evidence to inform HTA can involve searching a range of databases and using a variety of strategies. This study day will include a ‘jargon buster’ session on the basics of health economics and economic models. It will also feature presentations about key economics information resources including the CEA Registry, and explorations of options for searching to identify data for economic models.
Wednesday 10 September
Practical Issues in Producing Network Meta-Analyses for HTA
Network meta-analyses (NMAs) are often complex and challenging projects to undertake and involve various planning considerations that are critical for successful delivery. This two-day workshop is offered by experienced reviewers and statisticians from YHEC. It offers an introduction to the practical issues involved in commissioning and performing NMAs for project managers, research commissioners and others new to these techniques.
Tuesday 16 September and Wednesday 17 September
Citation Analysis: Discovering New Uses Within Systematic Reviews
With the introduction of new tools and more access to citation indexes, citation analysis may offer new opportunities for assisting with systematic reviews, particularly reviews of complex questions where searchers may not always be confident that their subject searches are exhaustive. This online workshop will describe some of the new tools and how to use them.
Tuesday 23 September
Careers at YHEC
Join our gold-standard team
YHEC holds the Investors in People Gold award and the Senior Team actively encourages staff training and development. Benefits of working at YHEC include a generous annual leave package, flexible working and an active Wellbeing Committee.
New vacancy: Research Assistant
Are you a recent graduate with a degree in economics, biomedical sciences, psychology, mathematics or statistics? York Health Economics Consortium (YHEC) is looking for a Research Assistant to join our Pharmaceutical Sector.
You'll undertake diverse research projects, including data analysis, literature reviews, developing health economic models in Excel, and preparing reports and proposals. This role offers a fast-paced environment where you'll work on multiple projects and contribute to quantifying the economic impact of health technologies.
Closing Date: 03 August 2025
Learn more and apply.
Get in touch
Phone: +44 (0)1904 323620 Email: yhec@york.ac.uk
YHEC, Enterprise House, Innovation Way, University of York, York, YO10 5NQ, United Kingdom
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