Ellen Rafferty, MPH, PhD

Area of Study / Keywords

Health Economics Immunization Vaccination Public Health Epidemiology Health Administrative Data

About

Dr. Rafferty is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Medicine, Division of Preventive Medicine, as well as a Senior Principal Health Economist at the Institute of Health Economics. Her research focuses on the epidemiologic and economic impact of public health policies and infectious diseases. She is interested in the incorporation of economics into immunization decision-making, and to that aim has worked with a variety of provincial and national organizations, including Health Canada, the Alberta Ministry of Health, Public Health Agency of Canada, National Advisory Committee on Immunization, and Alberta Health Services. 

Dr. Rafferty is interested in using health administrative data to inform policy. From 2018-2020 Dr. Rafferty completed a HSIF postdoctoral fellowship embedded at Alberta Health, where she estimated the cost-effectiveness of a respiratory syncytial virus immunization program. 

 As a project manager and collaborator of the One Society Network (https://onesocietynetwork.ca/) she is working to incorporate an intersectoral perspective into pandemic response and policy. One Society Network is funded through NSERC and PHAC under their Emerging Infectious Disease Modeling (EIDM) Initiative. 

SPH 671 - Introduction to Health Economic Evaluation

A required course for the Graduate Embedded Certificate in Health Economic Evaluation, this 3-credit course provides an introduction to health economic evaluation. Methodological areas covered include: (1) types of economic evaluation (including cost-effectiveness and cost-utility analysis); (2) defining the target population; (3) comparators; (4) the perspective of the evaluation; (5) time preference and discounting; (6) measuring and valuing health; (7) resource use and costs; (8) uncertainty and probabilistic analysis; (9) equity considerations; and (10) analysis and reporting of economic evaluations. Students will be introduced to Indigenous perspectives on measuring and valuing health, and those of other equity-seeking groups, and will consider the implications for health economic evaluations. By the end of the course, students will be familiar with current best practices for conducting health economic evaluations in Canada. Students will also learn how to construct basic decision analytic models, providing practical experience in applying these methods. No prior economics courses or experience required. Note: Credit may not be obtained for both PHS 671 and SPH 671.

Browse more courses taught by Ellen Rafferty

Masimbi O., Schurer J.M., Rafferty E., Ndahimana J.D.A., Amuguni J.H.

MALARIA JOURNAL. 2022 May; 21 (1) 10.1186/s12936-022-04158-x

Rafferty E., Paulden M., Buchan S.A., Robinson J.L., Bettinger J.A., Kumar M., Svenson L.W., MacDonald S.E.

PHARMACOECONOMICS. 2022 May; 40 (6):633-645 10.1007/s40273-022-01142-w

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