Assistant Professor, Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics
Member of the Centre for Health Economics and Policy Analysis

Ron Goeree, a member of the Centre for Health Economics and Policy Analysis, received both his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in economics from McMaster University. He is an assistant professor in the department of Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, and director of the Program for Assessment of Technology in Health (PATH) at St. Joseph’s Healthcare. PATH is an innovative program of research on the evaluation of new and existing health care technologies. This research fosters an evidence-based framework for assessing the value of new health technologies, builds valuable research partnerships between users, payers and researchers, and provides the opportunity to demonstrate the potential for a controlled diffusion of the latest health technologies in Canada. Goeree previously worked as research co-ordinator, health economics, in CE&B, and as a faculty member with the Centre for Evaluation of Medicines at St. Joseph’s Healthcare. He now teaches in the Health Research Methodology (HRM) program, and has recently developed a new course in Advanced Decision Analytic Modelling. He is also developing a stream for the HRM program with a specific focus on health technology assessment (HTA), a rapidly growing field internationally with many interesting and challenging career opportunities. The goal of this field specialization is to educate and train individuals who will graduate with sufficient skills to be actively involved in independent and collaborative research in the field of HTA. Goeree is involved in numerous research projects of both the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long Term Care and the Canadian Agency for Drugs and Technology in Health. He also has extensive experience as a consultant on research activities of government bodies, and with many other agencies and corporations.

RESEARCH INTERESTS

• Health technology assessment
• Applied economic evaluation
• Outcome measurement and valuation for private/public decision-making
• Development of new methods and techniques for economic appraisal
• Stochastic analysis of concurrent clinical and economic trial data
• Development, analysis and interpretation of decision analytic models
• Budget impact analysis & publicly-financed affordability under a budget constraint

REPRESENTATIVE PUBLICATIONS

Goeree R , Blackhouse G, Petrovic R, Salama S. Cost of stroke in Canada : A one-year prospective study. Journal of Medical Economics. (forthcoming, 2005).

Weintraub WS, Barnett P, Chen S, Hartigan P, Casperson P, O’Rourke R, Boden WE, Lewis C, Veledar E, Becker E, Culler S, Kolm P, Mahoney E, Dunbar SB, Deaton C, O’Brien BJ, Goeree R, Blackhouse G, Nease R, Spertus J, Kaufman S, Teo, K. Economics methods in the clinical outcomes utilizing percutaneous coronary revascularization aggressive guideline-driven drug evaluation (COURAGE) trial. American Heart Journal (forthcoming, 2005).

Lynd LD, Goeree R, O’Brien BJ. Antiviral agents for influenza: a comparison of cost-effect iveness data. Pharmacoeconomics   2005; 23(11):1083-106.

Goeree R, Farahati, F, Burke N, Blackhouse G, O’Reilly D, Pyne J, Tarride, JE. The economic burden of schizophrenia in Canada in 2004. Current Medical Research and Opinion 2005; 21(12):2017-2028.

Tang AS, Ross H, Simpson CS, Mitchell LB, Dorian P, Goeree R, Hoffmaster B, Arnold M, Talajic M on behalf of the Canadian Heart Rhythm Society and the Canadian Cardiovascular Society. Canadian Cardiovascular Society / Canadian Heart Rhythm Society position paper on implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) use in Canada . Canadian Journal of Cardiology 2005; 21(Suppl A):11A-18A.

TEACHING ACTIVITIES

• Principles and components of contemporary Health Technology Assessment
• Costing methodology for economic evaluations
• Techniques of decision analytic modelling
• Trial-based & modelling-based analysis of uncertainty in economic appraisal
• Research translation & dissemination for researchers and public decision makers