Universitätsklinikum Hamburg-Eppendorf
The University Medical Centre Hamburg-Eppendorf (UKE) was founded in 1889 and is the largest hospital in Hamburg, incorporating 14 centres with 80 departments and more than 1,400 hospital beds. The medical school associated with the centre is among the largest in Germany, providing medical training for 3,500 MD students. With more than 10,000 employees, the UKE is the third-largest employer in the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg. About 2,400 of them are medical specialists and researchers, while more than 3,100 work as nurses and therapists. The Department of Health Economics and Health Services Research is part of the Centre for Psychosocial Medicine of the UKE and of the inter-faculty Hamburg Centre for Health Economics (HCHE) of the University of Hamburg. The HCHE is Germany’s largest health economic research centre with approximately 70 researchers. Major research areas of the Department of Health Economics and Health Services Research of the UKE include cost-of-illness and cost-effectiveness analyses and the measurement of preferences for health and health care, with a special focus on mental health care. Since 2010, the Department has received about 40 externally funded research grants and published approximately 300 peer-reviewed research articles.
Main tasks in the project
As an academic unit of the University Medical Centre Hamburg-Eppendorf (UKE), the Department of Health Economics and Health Services Research will oversee measurement and valuation of mental health services in the health and social care sector that are applicable across countries. The UKE will further contribute in generating a standardised framework for international comparability of mental health services.
Expertise of staff members involved
Prof. Hans-Helmut König (Principal Investigator)Prof. Dr Hans-Helmut König is a professor of Health Services Research and Health Economics and Head of the Department of Health Economics and Health Services Research at the University Medical Centre Hamburg-Eppendorf. His main research fields are cost-of-illness studies, empirical and model-based cost-effectiveness analyses, as well as the measurement of preferences for health and health care, with a special focus on mental health care.
Dr Alexander KonnopkaDr Alexander Konnopka is a senior researcher at the Department of Health Economics and Health Services Research at the University Medical Centre Hamburg-Eppendorf. He has university degrees in medicine and economics. His primary research experience includes cost-of-illness analyses and cost-effectiveness analyses alongside clinical trials with a particular focus on mental disorders. He was head of a research group within which a questionnaire for the measurement of health care utilisation and corresponding unit costs for mental disorders were developed for Germany.
Dr Christian BrettschneiderDr Christian Brettschneider is a Junior-Scientists-Group Leader at the Department of Health Economics and Health Services Research at the University Medical Centre Hamburg-Eppendorf. He has a Doctoral Degree from the University of Hamburg and a Diploma in Health Economics from the University of Cologne. His fields of expertise are trial-based economic evaluations, cost-of-illness studies, the development and validation of assessment instruments for resource-use and quality-of-life, and the valuation of resource use (unit cost calculation). Dr. Brettschneider has been referee for 42 scientific journals and is Associate Editor of BMC Psychiatry, BMC Health Services Research and Cost Effectiveness and Resource Allocation.
Louisa-Kristin MuntendorfLouisa-Kristin Muntendorf is a research associate and PhD candidate at the Department of Health Economics and Health Services Research at the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf. She studied Socioeconomics (BA) at Hamburg University and Health Economics (MSc) at York University, where she graduated in 2015.