By Lucy Xiaolu Wang, Ph.D., UMass Amherst
The IHEA Special Interest Group on Digital Health Technology
After nearly a year of preparation, the Special Interest Group (SIG) on Digital Health Technology (DHT) was approved by the International Health Economics Association (IHEA) board in February 2024. The DHT SIG aims to advance the study of digital innovations in healthcare, covering topic areas including telemedicine, AI-driven diagnostics, digital therapeutics, electronic health records, and algorithm applications/biases in health care. Created to support research and teaching on the economics of digital health, the SIG facilitates knowledge exchange, provides opportunities for researchers at all career stages, and offers specific support for early-career scholars. It serves as a global platform for sharing work and engaging with key topics in the field. By focusing on how digital technologies can enhance healthcare delivery, improve outcomes, and address key issues like cost and access, the SIG engages with some of the most pressing topics in modern healthcare. Learn more about the activities and subscribe to our newsletter for updates via our SIG website.
Event Highlights: Webinars and ECR Engagement
Since its inception, the DHT SIG has hosted two major events to engage the health economics community. The inaugural webinar, “Digital Innovations in Healthcare: The Role of Telemedicine and Artificial Intelligence,” took place on April 23, 2024, and featured speakers David Cutler (Harvard University) and Dan Zeltzer (Tel Aviv University). Dan Zeltzer discussed the rise of telemedicine during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, examining how increased access to primary care and digital devices for home examinations has reshaped patient care. David Cutler followed with insights into the potential of AI in healthcare, including its effects on clinical and non-clinical care, drawing comparisons with past experiences such as the adoption of electronic medical records (EMRs) and AI applications across industries. The webinar provided a comprehensive look at how digital innovations are changing healthcare utilization, quality, and costs. You can watch the full recording here.
On September 19, 2024, we hosted the first DHT SIG Early Career Researcher (ECR) Zoom mixer with seven flash talks, featuring a diverse group of junior scholars – postdoctoral researchers and Assistant Professors – who voluntarily submitted research through our open call. The event centered on three key themes: telehealth, health-innovation, and algorithm-health, with presentations covering research settings and coauthor collaborations from across four continents. Zhang Zhang (Johns Hopkins University) and Alex Wellsjo (UC San Diego) presented works on telehealth, followed by Thomas Schaper (ZEW Mannheim) and Ann-Christin Kreyer (Max Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition) discussing research on health innovation. The final segment on algorithm-health featured Evora Hailin Zhu (Chinese University of Hong Kong), Emma Dean (Dartmouth), and April Yushan Wu (Chinese University of Hong Kong). This mixer provided a great opportunity for junior scholars to share early-stage work in a low-stress environment and learn from each other quickly via flash talks. This Zoom session was not recorded to protect unpublished works of junior scholars.
Looking Ahead: The DHT SIG Two-Year Plan
Over the next two years, the DHT SIG will work on building a strong global network for digital health researchers. We will host webinars on key topics such as AI and healthcare data, along with virtual networking events and curriculum sessions to foster professional development. Members are welcome to share recent publications, working papers, and conference or workshop opportunities via our newsletter. Additionally, our SIG will offer pre-submission abstract reviews, providing feedback to researchers – particularly early-career scholars in resource limited institutions – before submitting to major conferences like IHEA. Our upcoming webinars and ECR Zoom events will be scheduled to accommodate participants in different time zones, ensuring that those who couldn’t attend past online events can participate in future activities. These initiatives reflect our commitment to fostering inclusion, diversity, and advancing research on digital health technology globally.
ASHEcon’s New Program Area: Innovation and Digitization
We are excited to announce the launch of ASHEcon’s new program area, “Innovation and Digitization”, this year, just in time for submissions to the 2025 annual meeting. This program area provides a dedicated platform for research on technological and organizational innovations in healthcare. Topics such as health technology innovation, digital health technology, intellectual property system design, AI applications (machine learning/natural language processing), new organizational practices, and data-driven decision-making are more than welcome in this area. We look forward to learning from researchers studying technological changes to address health challenges, enhance decision-making, and improve healthcare system efficiency. We also welcome submissions from the public and private sectors and encourage knowledge sharing across disciplines. Please consider signing up as a discussant to help us build and strengthen this new program area. As the inaugural program chair, I look forward to receiving your submissions and organizing sessions.