Professor Simon Dixon BSc (Southampton), MSc (York), PhD (Sheffield)
Professor of Health Economics
Address:
HEDS, ScHARR
The University of Sheffield
Regent Court, 30 Regent Street
Sheffield S1 4DA
Direct telephone: (+44) (0)114 222 0724
General office fax: (+44) (0)114 272 4095
Room 1023
email : s.dixon@sheffield.ac.uk
Biography
My work at ScHARR has concentrated around undertaking and developing methods for economic evaluations alongside controlled trials. Whilst the main focus of this work has been pre-hospital and emergency care, I have undertaken evaluations in numerous other areas. A separate stream of work is examining the measurement and valuation of health care benefits. This is focusing on alternatives to, and extensions of, the standard QALY model.
Research interests
- Public preferences for public health (link to project page under 'See also').
- Use of attitudinal information in willingness to pay surveys.
- Measurement and valuation of health care benefits.
- Economic evaluation.
Teaching Interests
My teaching is concentrated around the methods of economic evaluation which I teaching in various formats on the MSc Health Economics and Decision Modelling, MSc Economics and Health Economics, MSc International Health Technology Assessment, Pricing and Reimbursement and the MBChB. I also give single lectures on other topics including writing research proposals and physician incentives across several other courses.
I am the module coordinator for the Economic Evaluation modules on MSc Health Economics and Decision Modelling, MSc Economics and Health Economics, MSc International Health Technology Assessment, Pricing and Reimbursement .
I am interested in supervising Research Students wishing to develop the methods of economic evaluation and benefit valuation. I am particularly interested in willingness to pay methods and the development of a more empirically based QALY approach, including the role of sequences and process utility.
I currently supervise, or sit on the supervisory panel for three students; Victoria Brennan, Kinga Lowrie and Sabine Grimm . Their topics relate to the evaluation of an electronic patient questionnaire, evaluation of telehealth and the valuation of innovation in non-pharmaceutical technologies.
Professional Activities
- Director Health Economics and Decision Science (HEDS)
- Member of the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) Technology Appraisal Committee
- Trial Steering Group member for a number of studies
Current Activities
- Development of a questionnaire and social tariff for dignity in health care and the general population.
- Estimating cover effects and production losses related to ill health.
- Evaluating cost effectiveness of insulin pumps in type 1 diabetes as part of a RCT.
- Valuing benefits and false positives from an extended neonatal screening programme for inborn metabolic disorders.
- Evaluation of hypertonic saline for infants with acute bronchitis.
Key publications
- Putting a value on the avoidance of false positive results when screening for inherited metabolic disease in the newborn. Journal of inherited metabolic disease, 2011.
- The role of patient preferences in cost effectiveness analysis: a conflict of values. Pharmacoeconomics, 2009, 27:705-712 (with J. Brazier, and J. Ratcliffe).
- Clinical effectiveness of health visitor training in psychologically informed approaches for depression in postnatal women: pragmatic cluster randomised trial in primary care. BMJ, 2009, 338:276-280 (with CJ. Morrell, P. Slade, and others).
- Is it cost effective to introduce paramedic practitioners for older people to the ambulance service? Results of a cluster randomised controlled trial. Emergency Medical Journal, 2009, 26:446-451 (with S. Mason, E. Knowles, and others).
- Cost-effectiveness analysis of different embryo transfer strategies in England. British Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology , 2008, 115:758-766 (with F. Faghih Nasiri, W. Ledger , and others)