Laura Bojke, Professor of Health Economics, Centre for Health Economics
Laura has over 20 years' experience in economic evaluation. She leads the Economic Evaluation team in CHE and co-leads the Applied Research and Collaborations (ARC) Yorkshire and Humber Health Economics theme.
The program of work includes the use of economic evaluation across sectors, economic evaluation for local decision makers and the use of routine data for economic evaluation.
email: laura.bojke@york.ac.uk
Our 60-second interview with Laura:
What do you do in the field of mental health?
I am a health economist, specialising in economic evaluation, with a particular interest in public health, including public health interventions and programmes that impact on mental health and wellbeing. In my career I have worked on many evaluations of mental health interventions, understanding their impact on health and wellbeing, and putting these into context with the opportunity costs of provision.
What do you find most rewarding and inspiring in this work?
The methods for evaluation are continuously evolving in this area, which makes for an exciting and inspiring work environment. Data cannot fully meet the needs of decision makers, who want to understand the effectiveness and costs of investments, capturing the chronic nature of many mental illnesses. This means that we, as analysts, must utilise cutting edge methods to push the data to its maximum, whilst ensuring that we recognise uncertainties in our evidence and use this to set the agenda for future research.
What is the most challenging or complicated aspect of this work?
Data and data linkage is a real challenge in this area. We are yet to fully understand the impact of mental illness on the care and third sectors as well as the wider economy. Linked health and care data will help to answer important questions around the wider impact of changes in provision of mental health services in the NHS. A key public health problem is climate change and its current and anticipated impact on physical and mental health, for current and future populations. This is an area where good data linkage is also essential.
What impact do you hope your work is having- or can potentially have?
I work in collaborative teams to provide, data driven, answers to key policy questions, helping to inform the provision of health and care services. My work has helped to inform both local and national commissioning decisions and to help guide the direction of further research.
Could you share with us one piece of advice that you follow for your own mental health?
Try to have a good work/life balance. Exercise regularly, eat good food, spend time outdoors and take time to appreciate the things around you!