Academic-practice partnerships for conducting economic analyses

Public health professionals understand the importance of having high-quality evidence of a program’s impact on population health. In addition, many times we are asked to provide evidence of a program’s impact on financial or economic outcomes. Many in the public health workforce have training in (or are familiar partnering with) specialists in, program evaluation. Far fewer in the workforce have specialized training in economic evaluations of public health programs and policies. Partnering with an economist to perform such analyses is an increasingly common strategy that leverages the relevance and impact of applied public health practice with the methodological expertise of an academic.

Yet these partnerships face a range of challenges. It can be difficult to tie-in to existing academic capacity in many communities. Aligning the scope, timeline, and deliverables of an economic analysis with the needs of both practitioners and academics can be especially challenging. Funding and sustaining these partnerships can require both creativity and luck.

This presentation draws on the presenter’s experience as a tenure-track faculty member at a large research university concurrently working as health economist at a large local health department. Aimed at public health professionals, the presentation outlines: common motivations for health departments interested in engaging an economist, challenges in recruiting an economist (and solutions for under-funded departments), how to prioritize projects for mutual benefit, and lessons learned from a first-in-the-nation health economist position spanning a university and local health department.