Health Benefit Package Design: Integrating Multiple Objectives to Spend Smarter

PRESENTER

• Kate Lofgren, PhD Candidate in Health Policy, Harvard University

HOST

• Janeen Madan Keller, Assistant Director of Global Health Policy and Senior Policy Analyst, Center for Global Development

ABOUT THE EVENT

The World Health Organization has declared a need for smarter spending strategies to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. But what does ‘spending smarter’ mean? Should we prioritize TB screening and treatment or improved coverage of basic surgical services? What happens when we care about multiple aims, like population health outcomes and patient out-of-pocket health expenditures? Rarely are the same interventions the ‘best buys’ across all dimensions of interest. In this talk, Kate Lofgren will explore how mathematical optimization can formally account for multiple objectives and inform public financing decisions. Spending smarter can mean different decisions depending on the objective(s).

Kate Lofgren is a Ph.D. Candidate in Health Policy at Harvard University. Prior to Harvard, Kate was a visiting researcher at the National Institute of Public Health (INSP) in Mexico and a Post-Bachelor Fellow at the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation in Seattle.

Please bring your lunch; beverages will be provided.