From 1 April 2021, Dr. Esther de Bekker-Grob will be appointed as Full Professor of Health Economics & Health Preferences at Erasmus School of Health Policy & Management (ESHPM). With the establishment of this new chair, ESHPM gives an important impulse to research in health economics with a focus on preference research and choice modeling in particular.
These topics are of great strategic importance to ESHPM. The establishment of this chair emphasizes this. It intends to further stimulate the existing excellent research in this increasingly important field, as well as its translation to education and practice, nationally and internationally.
As dean ad interim of ESHPM, Professor Werner Brouwer, highlights: “Esther is a nationally and internationally recognized expert in this important field, who has built a strong and productive research program and broad collaborative networks in this area, is a Veni and Vidi laureate, and a highly valued colleague. ESHPM is therefore proud and happy to be able to appoint her as professor of Health Economics & Health Preferences.”
Dr. Esther de Bekker-Grob has a master’s degree in health sciences – health policy, economics, and management from the University of Maastricht, and obtained her PhD in health economics at the Erasmus University Rotterdam. Her fundamental and applied research yielded insights that are valuable for decision-making in healthcare, at both a macro and micro level (which include ex-ante evaluation of health policy, personalized medicine, and shared decision-making, respectively). She strives to achieve optimal health care decisions by promoting efficient and sensible spending in both the prevention, cure and care domains.
In order to achieve this goal, she will continue and initiate challenging and innovative research within four research lines: choice modeling; patient preference research; the development of a full-benefit instrument, and a “full-benefit HTA” framework. Hereto, connecting behavioral, econometric and medical sciences is crucial.
“Innovation by integration different disciplines is needed as a response to the strong push towards personalized medicine as well as dealing with scarcity in the allocation of healthcare,” says De Bekker-Grob, “and so advance the state-of-the-art to a point where effectively tackle urgent challenges in the field of health and health care is feasible.” Besides being appointed as Full Professor, de Bekker-Grob is Director Europe/Africa of the International Academy of Health Preference Research, Director of the interfaculty Erasmus Choice Modelling Centre, and an NWO Veni and Vidi laureate. The chair will be established at the Health Technology Assessment section of ESHPM.
- Associate professor
