Dr Natalie Carvalho presents at the March 2019 Indonesian Technical Advisory Group on Immunization meeting

Dr Natalie Carvalho was invited to present on Economic Evaluation & Budget Impact Assessment at the recent Indonesian Technical Advisory Group on Immunization (ITAGI) meeting held March 18-19 in Jakarta, Indonesia. Established in 2007, the current mandate of ITAGI is to provide advice relating to vaccines to the Ministry of Health. Members of ITAGI are recognized experts in the fields of paediatrics, infectious diseases, immunology, medical microbiology, internal medicine, health economics, and epidemiology.

Dr Carvalho delivered two workshop training sessions at the 2-day meeting. The first session was an overview of health economics and methods for conducting economics evaluations of new vaccines, the second session covered budget impact analysis for new vaccine introductions. Dr Andrew Clark (London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine) presented sessions on using an excel-based decision-support model to evaluate the costs, health impact, and cost-effectiveness of rotavirus vaccine in Indonesia.

The ITAGI meeting was well attended, and included representatives from the Ministry of Health, ITAGI Health Economics working group, World Health Organization, UNICEF, GAVI, and several Indonesian Universities.

This research is being funded by the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute, in collaboration with the Gates Foundation and PATH. Dr Carvalho is supported by the University of Melbourne McKenzie Postdoctoral Fellowship.