Anne Mason
Professor

Profile

Biography

Anne Mason is Emerita professor in the Centre for Health Economics.  She was the director of the NIHR Policy Research Unit in the Economics of Health and Social Care Systems (ESHCRU) from 2017 to 2025.  She has served as a member of the NIHR Health Service and Delivery Research (HS&DR) Researcher-led Prioritisation Committee (2013 – 2018) and the NIHR Policy Research Programme (PRP) Commissioning committee (2021 – 2023).

Her main research interests are the role of economic incentives in influencing behaviour, in particular the intended and unintended effects of payment and incentive mechanisms in the health and social care systems. Her research career has covered an eclectic mix of topics, spanning hospital car parking charges, respite and end-of-life care, treatments for psoriasis, funding of cancer drugs and questions of how entitlement to care is defined within the NHS.

Improving the quality and coordination of care for older people is an ongoing research interest.  She also has a special interest in the demand for health and social care, how this differs from need – and what ‘need’ actually means and how to measure it – and how demand, need and supply interact to determine access to care. 

Research

Overview

• how economic incentives influence behaviour
• effects of primary care on emergency admissions
• funding and incentivising integrated care

Research group(s)

• Health and social care policy

External activities

Memberships

• NIHR Policy Research Programme (PRP) Commissioning committee
  2021 – 2023 committee member
• NIHR HS&DR Researcher-led Prioritisation Committee
  2013-2018 committee member

Invited talks and conferences

• Centre for Health Economics at Warwick seminar, University of Warwick, UK. 21 May 2020.
  • Incentives to tackle underdiagnosis in dementia & the tale of elusive data.
• Centre for Health and Social Economics (CHESS) annual seminar, National Institute for Health and Welfare (THL), Helsinki, Finland, 26 November 2015
  • Integration and efficiency in health and social care: Lessons from the UK and abroad (keynote speaker)
• 14th International Conference on Integrated Care, Brussels, 4 April 2014
  • Financial mechanisms for integrating funds for health and social care: do they enable integrated care?
• Department of Health seminar, London, 14 March 2014
  • Financial mechanisms for integrating funds across health and social care: evidence review
• Primary Care Mental Health Conference, University of Manchester, 20 March 2013
  • Is higher primary care quality associated with lower hospital admissions for people with severe mental illness?
• European Conference on Health Economics Zurich, 18-21 July 2012
  • Lessons learnt from the EuroDRG project (preconference workshop): DRGs for appendectomy
  • The good, the bad and the ugly: investigating variations in efficiency in hospitals in the English NHS 
• 9th Evidence Based Update Meeting: Psoriasis, Holywell Park, Loughborough, 12-May 2011
  • Topical Treatments for Chronic Plaque Psoriasis: an update
• European Conference on Health Economics Helsinki, 7-10 July 2010 
  • Why do hospital costs vary? An evaluation of hospital efficiency and quality of care in England using Diagnosis Related Groups (DRGs)
  • Integrated Resource Mechanisms within Health Care & across Health & Social Care: Evidence from the International Literature
  • DRGs and hospital efficiency: Panacea or pitfall? 
• Health Economic Study Group Meeting, Cork, 23-25 June 2010 
  • Hospital Funding and Efficiency: Evidence on DRG-based reimbursement 
• Commissioning for Health and Well Being: Policy into Practice, Durham, 31 March 2010 
  • Prioritising Investment in Health and Wellbeing: Overview of Tools and their Relevance for Commissioners 
• ISPOR 12th Annual European Congress, Paris, 24 - 27 October 2009
  •  Is NICE Too Nasty? A comparison of anticancer drug coverage decisions in the United States and United Kingdom 
• Cochrane Skin Group 12th Annual Meeting, London, 13-14 June 2008 
  • Topical Treatments for Chronic Plaque Psoriasis: a systematic review 
• ISPOR 13th Annual International Meeting, Toronto, May 3-7 2008 
  • NHS Reimbursement of New Cancer Drugs: is NICE getting nastier?