Functioning health systems are vital to ensure widespread use of effective health interventions. The Centre has an active research program in health systems and health economics to inform the optimal coordination of policy instruments and service delivery platforms. Our broad aim is to support better public health decision-making with a multidisciplinary research approach that integrates infectious disease epidemiology, mathematical models of infectious disease dynamics, health economics, and econometrics.

In addition to its in-house epidemiological and economic modelling capacity, the Centre works closely with clinicians, partners in-country, and national and international institutions to generate rigorous analyses that are translated into evidence-based health policy around the world. Specific areas of research are resource allocation and priority setting, the cost-effectiveness of complex interventions that treat infectious disease and control their spread, the economies of scale in determining the cost-benefit of different interventions to control the Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs), performance of healthcare systems, and costs of infectious disease to societies.

The Health Economics Group is leading the economic evaluation of PopART, the HPTN 071  study. PopART is the worldwide largest HIV prevention trial and examines the impact of a package of HIV prevention interventions on community-level HIV incidence. The study was conducted in 21 communities in the Western Cape of South Africa, and in Zambia.