Sayem

Dr Sayem Ahmed joined Brunel University London in August 2024 as a Lecturer in Health Economics within the Department of Health Sciences. He is the director of the MSc Health Economics and Health Policy (online) programme and leads other health economics teaching in the Division of Global Public Health.

His research focuses on health economics, particularly health technology assessment (HTA), economic evaluation, and healthcare financing, with significant contributions to evidence-based resource allocation decision-making in healthcare worldwide. Sayem completed his PhD in Health Economics from the Karolinska Institutet, Sweden, in 2020, where he investigated complex healthcare financing issues and solutions for low- and middle-income countries.

Before joining Brunel, he was a Research Fellow at the Centre for Health Economics and Medicines Evaluation (CHEME) at Bangor University. His work there focused on on economic evaluations, decision modelling, and econometric analysis of healthcare interventions at Bangor University. Notably, he contributed to the RENAL-HF project, which developed an AI-based monitoring system for renal function in heart failure patients, where he designed an economic evaluation study using large UK health datasets like the Clinical Practice Research Datalink (CPRD) and hospital episode statistics (HES).

Previously, at the Health Economics and Technology Assessment (HEHTA) research group, University of Glasgow, Dr. Ahmed co-led the HTA Policy and Principles module within the MSc in Health Economics online program, covering HTA practices in the UK and globally. He played a crucial role in several NIHR-funded studies, including the CHOICE study on the cost-effectiveness of home vs. in-hospital cervical ripening, the STOPPIT-3 study on antenatal corticosteroids’ impact on twin pregnancies and PERFORM trial on a rehabilitation program for individuals with multiple long-term conditions. During his time at Glasgow, Sayem also secured a EuroQol Group research grant for a health-related quality of life measurement tool (EQ5D) valuation in Bangladesh.

Prior to Glasgow, Dr. Ahmed was the lead Health Economist at the Centre for Tropical Medicine and Global Health, Nuffield Department of Clinical Medicine (NDM), University of Oxford (2020–2021). Based at the Oxford University Clinical Research Unit (OUCRU) in Vietnam, he led the health economics research group, integrating economic evaluation into clinical trials targeting infectious diseases such as dengue, malaria, tuberculosis, and hepatitis C virus (HCV). His work included a One Health study on agricultural antimicrobial use in Vietnam and cost-effectiveness modelling for HCV treatments. At OUCRU, Sayem developed the health economics section of a research proposal on targeted combination intervention approach for curbing HIV epidemic in Indonesia which is funded by Medical Research Council (MRC),UK.

Sayem’s role as Health Economist at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine (LSTM) from 2018 to 2020 involved health economic assessments of neglected tropical diseases, particularly snakebites, and cost-effectiveness analyses of emergency response systems in sub-Saharan Africa.

Sayem began his research career in 2011 at ICDDR,B in Bangladesh, where he led multiple health economics research projects. At ICDDR,B Sayem secured several research grants from the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida), the USAID Bangladesh and the UK Research and Innovation (UKRI). His experience includes a role at the Bangladesh National Health Account Committee, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. He was involved as a consultant with the UN agencies- the World Health Organization (WHO), and the World Bank, where he contributed to reports on health service coverage and financial protection indicators for Universal Health Coverage. In 2024, Sayem was appointed to the WHO Expert Panel on Health Valuation, where he is advising WHO and the World Bank on methodologies for estimating the economic burden of foodborne diseases at the global, regional, and national levels. This role represents a valuable opportunity to further his contributions to health valuation research on an international scale. Sayem is an Academic Editor for BMC Health Services Research and PLOS Global Public Health journals.