Value in Health Regional Issues

An Official Journal Of The International Society For Pharmacoeconomics And Outcomes Research

Co-Editors-in-Chief

Federico Augustovski MD, MSc, PhD
(January 1, 2012 – December 31, 2014)
Director, Economic Evaluations and HTA Department, Institute for Clinical Effectiveness and Health Policy (IECS)
Professor of Public Health, University of Buenos Aires; Family and Community Medicine Division, Hospital Italiano of Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Argentina
E-mail: faugustovski@iecs.org.ar

Bong-Min Yang, PhD
(January 1, 2012 – December 31, 2014)
Professor, Health Economics
School of Public Health, Executive Director, Institute of Health and Environment, Seoul National University
Seoul, South Korea
E-mail: bmyang@snu.ac.kr

Federico Augustovski MD, MSc, PhD is the current Director of Health Economic Evaluations and Technology Assessment at the Institute for Clinical Effectiveness and Health Policy (www.iecs.org.ar), an independent non-profit organization and one of the few INAHTA agencies in Latin America (LA), that works in close contact with public and private bodies in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico and other LA countries. This group is a multidisciplinary team devoted to clinical and economic evaluations of new and existing prevention, diagnostic and treatment technologies and conducts research and provides education and technical support. He also heads at IECS the ProVac Center of Excellence in Economic Evaluations and Decision Analysis, as part of a PAHO initiative to build national capacity to make evidence-based decisions on new vaccines introduction. He is a Professor of Public Health at the School of Public Health of the University of Buenos Aires, where he teaches courses to graduate and postgraduate students in the decision sciences, patient-reported outcomes (PRO) development in health, as well as health economic evaluations.

He obtained his Medical Degree with honors at the aforementioned University (1986-1991), and is a specialist in family medicine and a staff physician at the Family and Community Medicine Division of the Italian Hospital in Buenos Aires. He received his MSc in Epidemiology from the Harvard School of Public Health (1997-1999), and was an Alban Scholar of the European Union in Health Economics (2003-2004), gaining research and training experience at the Centre for Health Economics at York University in the UK. His research production and publication in international peer-reviewed journals is concentrated in health technology assessment and health economic evaluations (i.e. multicountry studies in Latin America and the NEVALAT Project [Latin American collaboration of Health Economic Evaluations]), as well as in PRO and preference status measures and validation (i.e. derivation of Argentine weights for the EQ-5D, Argentine SF-36 validation, and discrete choice experiments).

Professor Augustovski has served ISPOR in various capacities in the last several years, as founder and first President of the ISPOR Argentina Regional Chapter, first Chair of the ISPOR Latin American Consortium, Committee Chair for the ISPOR 1st and 2nd Latin America Conferences (in Colombia & Brazil, respectively), and as a Task Force member. He has also been awarded the 2009 ISPOR International Fellowship and is a member of the ISPOR Health Science Policy Council, and most recently served as Co-Editor of the Value in Health Special Issue: Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research in Latin America.

Bong-Min Yang PhDPhD is a health economist at the Seoul National University (SNU), South Korea. He is currently Executive Director of the Institute of Health and Environment, SNU, and Professor of the School of Public Health, SNU. He was immediate past President of KAHTA (Korea Association of Health Technology Assessment), having served two consecutive terms. For years, he had been the Director of the Center for Economic Evaluation, Institute of Health and Environment, SNU, a team dedicated to economic evaluations of new and existing health technologies. In the past, he served the school as Dean, and served the KHEA (Korea Health Economic Association) as President. Dr. Yang had additionally served in the policy decision-making arena, serving as Chairperson of the Health Insurance Reform Committee and Chairperson of the Drug Pricing and Reimbursement Committee for the Korean Government.

He obtained his BA in Economics at Seoul National University (1970-1976), served in the Korean military (1974-1975), obtained his PhD in Economics at the Penn State Unversity (1977-1982). He taught two years at Penn State University (1982-1984) and one year at the University of Massachusetts-Lowell (1984-1985) as tenure-track Assistant Professor of Economics, before he joined the current Seoul National University as faculty of Health Economics. He spent three years at Harvard School of Public Health as Takemi Research Fellow (1989-1990, 1995-1996) and Visiting Scientist (2006-2007).

Dr. Yang has conducted research and published widely in health economics and health care systems. His recent research focuses on economic evaluations of health technologies, including the burden of disease, costs, and cost-effectiveness of treatments. In addition to his research and publications, Dr. Yang has worked as a consultant for the WHO, ADB (Asia Development Bank), United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), and the World Bank.

Dr. Yang has actively served ISPOR in several positions. He served as Chair of the ISPOR 3rd Asia-Pacific Conference in 2008, as Chair-Elect of the ISPOR Asia Consortium Executive Committee for 2008-2010, as Co-Chair of the Workshop Review Committee for the ISPOR 4th ISPOR Asia-Pacific Conference in 2010, and twice as Co-Editor of the Value in Health Asia Special Issues (2009 & 2012). He currently is serving as Chair of the ISPOR Asia Consortium Executive Committee for 2010-2012, as member of ISPOR Board of Directors for 2010-2012, and as Chair of the ISPOR publication Management Advisory Board.