EHPG Committee Members
Dr. Rocco Friebel
Dr. Rocco Friebel is an Associate Professor of Health Policy at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), Director of the Global Surgery Policy Unit (a partnership between the LSE and the Royal College of Surgeons of England), and Deputy Director of LSE Health. He specializes in the economics of health system delivery and healthcare regulation aimed at improving the quality of care. His research encompasses regulation, health system strengthening, patient safety, econometric evaluation, and priority setting, with publications in world-leading journals including Health Affairs, The Lancet, and Social Science & Medicine. Dr. Friebel is Editor-in-Chief of Health Economics, Policy and Law (HEPL, Cambridge University Press), a Steering Committee member of the European Health Policy Group, and the Founder and Host of LSE’s HealthTalks podcast series. He regularly advises international organizations (e.g., WHO, OECD) and national governments, including on the measurement of integrated emergency, critical, and operative care (World Health Assembly resolution 76.2).
Prof. Cornelia Henschke
Cornelia Henschke, PhD, is the Deputy Director of the Berlin Centre for Health Economics Research (BerlinHECOR) at the Department of Health Care Management, Berlin University of Technology. She also leads the Health Economics unit at the department. Cornelia was a Harkness/B. Braun Stiftung Fellow in Health Care Policy and Practice in 2018-19 in the USA. Her research focuses on health systems research, health economics, and health services research, with a particular emphasis on the impact of interventions on structures, processes, outcomes, and costs. She also investigates topics related to value-based decision-making, financing models, and digitalization in healthcare. In addition to publishing peer-reviewed articles in leading health economics and health policy journals, she co-authors policy-relevant reports, e.g., for the German Ministry of Health.
Prof. Iris Wallenburg
Iris Wallenburg is a Professor in Sociology of Care at the Erasmus School of Health Policy & Management (ESHPM) of Erasmus University Rotterdam, the Netherlands. Her research revolves around health labor market issues in healthcare, and how social, spatial, economic, and technological innovations can contribute to a different organization and delivery of care, and with what consequences for care practices and healthcare policy. Examples include regional cooperation, professional role development, assetization of care, and the development and deployment of technology. She is Chair of the research programme on Workforce & Sustainability at ESHPM, and academic lead of AiPact, a multidisciplinary program at Erasmus University aimed at promoting the use of socially relevant artificial intelligence in healthcare. Additionally, she is a member of the Steering Committee of the European Health Policy Group and Editor-in-Chief of the journal Health Economics Policy and Law (HEPL, Cambridge University Press).
Prof. Aleksandra Torbica
Aleksandra Torbica, MSc, PhD, is an Associate Professor at the Department of Social and Political Sciences at Bocconi University and currently holds the position of President of the European Health Economics Association (EuHEA). She is the former President of the Italian Health Economic Association (2021-2023) and former Director of the Centre for Research on Health and Social Care Management (2017-2022) at Bocconi University. She earned her MSc degree in Health Economics, Management, and Policy from Bocconi University, and a PhD in Economics and Management of Public Organizations from the University of Parma. Prof. Torbica's research interests focus on the interplay between global health policy, health economics, and public health. She has led numerous research grants funded by the European Commission and international donor agencies. She has co-authored over 100 papers in prestigious publication outlets, spanning health economics, health services research, and health policy. Her dedication to advancing scholarship was further evident in her role as a Special Advisor to the Chair of the Pan European Commission on Health and Sustainable Development from 2020 to 2021, endorsed by WHO EURO.
Prof. Zeynep Or
Zeynep Or is the research director at the Institute for Research and Information in Health Economics (IRDES) and an affiliated professor of economics at the Interdisciplinary Laboratory for Applied Research in Health Economics & Management (LIRAES), Paris City University. She specializes in comparative policy analysis, international health policy, and public policy evaluations. Her research interests include the assessment of performance and sustainability of the healthcare sector, and the efficiency and quality of care across providers and organizations. She is an active member of several international networks, such as the European Observatory of Health Systems and Policy Monitor and collaborates regularly as an expert with the World Health Organization and the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). She has been an associate editor of the journal Health Policy since 2013.
Dr. Anna Nicińska
Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Economic Sciences, University of Warsaw, Fellow of The Bekker Programme visiting London School of Economics and Political Sciences, and Fellow of Higher Education Scholarship for Excellent Young Scholars. Her research interests include processes of individual ageing over the life course from the perspective of behavioral and institutional economics. She focuses on the formation of preferences and habits, outcomes at the end of life, intergenerational financial transfers, non-kin networks of informal support, and smart city solutions for aging populations. Currently, she investigates the impact of exposure to communism on health-related preferences and behaviors in later life and examines factors shaping preferences towards active mobility.
Prof. Søren Rud Kristensen
Søren Rud Kristensen is a Professor at the University of Southern Denmark, and Honorary Senior Lecturer at the Centre for Health Policy at the Institute of Global Health Innovation at Imperial College London. He holds a PhD in Economics from the University of Southern Denmark. His research focuses on the organization and performance of the healthcare sector with a particular interest in the design and effects of incentives for the cost and quality of care. His research takes point of departure in agency theory and often involves the micro-econometric analysis of large administrative datasets.