Pre-conference: Microsimulation models as a health policy decision support tool  

Wednesday 9 November, 9:00 – 12:30 CET in Beta 8 (followed by network lunch)

Organised by:

EUPHA Public health economics section, in collaboration with the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)

Background

Microsimulation has long been used in economics and policies, for instance to study income taxes or unemployment. These models are powerful tools which allow testing “what if” scenarios. Health economics is not an exception with such models being increasingly used to assess the potential impact of policies. Using individuals as the unit of analysis, different individual life trajectories can be simulated during which life events compete to occur. Assigning costs to life events, the economic impact of different scenarios, including savings in healthcare expenditure, can also be evaluated.

This pre-conference will discuss some of the key methodological steps of microsimulation modelling taking as examples models used to inform policy-making in various fields, from promoting healthier lifestyles to tackling infectious diseases.

Programme

09:00 Welcome and opening (EUPHA-ECO)

09:20 Microsimulation – basic methodological steps and framework (EUPHA-ECO)

09:40 Microsimulation modelling on antimicrobial resistance and infectious diseases – the OECD’s Strategic Public Health Planning (SPHeP) models (OECD)

10:30 Coffee break

10:50 Forecasting intensive care unit demand during the COVID-19 pandemic: A spatial age-structured microsimulation model (BiB - Federal Institute for Population Research)

11:20 Microsimulation modelling on behavioural risk factors: examples on alcohol, nutrition and physical activity (Imperial College London)

11:50 Open discussion

12:20 Wrap up and key messages (EUPHA-ECO)

Registration

The registration fee is € 75 which includes networking lunch and refreshments.