Professor, Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics
Member, Centre for Health Economics and Policy Analysis
Member, McMaster Institute for Environment and Health

Stephen Birch is a Professor in the Department of Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics and a member of CHEPA at McMaster University. He is a previous recipient of the Faculty of Health Sciences Rose Levy Rosenstadt Award and a research scholarship award under Health Canada's National Health Research and Development Program. He received his doctorate in economics at the University of York in the United Kingdom. His main research interests are in methods for economic evaluation of health interventions, equity in health care resource allocation and the relationship between health and environments. He is senior editor, health economics for Social Science and Medicine. He is a member of the Board of Directors for the Hamilton Niagara Haldimand Brant Local Health Integration Network. Birch also has academic appointments in the School of Medicine at the University of Manchester, U.K., and the Centre for Health Economics Research and Evaluation at the University of Technology Sydney, Australia.

RESEARCH INTERESTS

• economic evaluation
• resource allocation
• population health

REPRESENTATIVE PUBLICATIONS

Birch S, Gafni A. Economists’ dream or nightmare? Maximizing health gains from available resources using the NICE guidelines. Health Economics, Policy and Law, 2007; 2; 193-202. 

Gafni A, Birch S.  Up the garden PATH of “cost savings” in Ontario Canada: When costing less means costing more.  Pharmacoeconomics 2007 25; 523-528

Birch S, Gafni A.  Achievements and challenges of Medicare in Canada : Are we there yet?  Are we on course?. International Journal of Health Services, 2005; 35: 443-463.

Birch S, Donaldson C. Valuing the benefits and costs of health care programmes: Where’s the ‘extra’ in extra welfarism?. Social Science and Medicine, 2003; 56: 1121-1133.

Birch S.  Health human resources planning for the new millenium: Inputs in the production of health, illness and recovery in populations. Canadian Journal of Nursing Research, 2002; 33(4):109-114.

Sendi P, Gafni A, Birch S.  Opportunity costs and uncertainty in the economic evaluation of health care interventions.  Health Economics, 2002; 11(1):23-32.

Kumar M, Birch S, Maturana A, Gafni A. Ecnomic Evaluation of HIV screening in pregnant women attending antenatal clinics in India.  Health Policy, 2006; 7: 233-243

TEACHING ACTIVITIES

• Fundamentals of Health Economics  
• Health Economics