Dr Sayem Ahmed ☕️

Dr Sayem Ahmed

Lecturer in Health Economics

Brunel University London

Dr Sayem Ahmed joined Brunel University London in August 2024 as a tenured Lecturer in Health Economics. He leads health economics teaching in the Division of Global Public Health and is the Programme Director of MSc Health Economics and Health Policy (online). His research specializes in health economics, particularly health technology assessment (HTA), economic evaluations, and healthcare financing, focusing on evidence-based resource allocation. Sayem completed his PhD in Health Economics at Karolinska Institutet, Sweden, in 2020, where he explored healthcare financing in low- and middle-income countries.

Before Brunel, he worked on economic evaluations and decision modelling at Bangor University, contributing to the RENAL-HF project, an NIHR-funded AI-based monitoring system for renal function in heart failure patients. At the University of Glasgow, he co-led the HTA Policy and Principles module and conducted cost-effectiveness analyses of several NIHR-funded studies, including the CHOICE study on the home vs. hospital cervical ripening, the STOPPIT-3 study on antenatal corticosteroids on twin pregnancies and PERFORM trial on rehabilitation programs for multimorbidity. He secured a EuroQol Group grant for a health-related quality-of-life measurement tool (EQ-5D) valuation in Bangladesh.

Previously, as lead Health Economist at the Oxford University Clinical Research Unit (OUCRU) in Vietnam, Sayem integrated economic evaluations into clinical trials for infectious diseases like dengue, malaria, HIV and tuberculosis. His work included a One Health study on agricultural antimicrobial use in Vietnam. His role at Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine involved health economic assessments of intervention targeting neglected tropical diseases in sub-Saharan Africa.

Sayem began his research career in 2011 at icddr,b in Bangladesh, where he led multiple research projects. At icddr,b, Sayem secured 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.

Since 2015, he has done several consultancies for the World Health Organization (WHO), the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank on universal health coverage. Recently, he was appointed to the WHO Expert Panel on Health Valuation, where he advises the WHO and the World Bank on methods for assessing the burden of foodborne diseases. He is keen on health economics research and teaching collaborations.

Research interest

- Health and economic burden assessment
- Cost-effectiveness analysis
- Financing healthcare
- Equity in health and healthcare
- Economics of noncommunicable diseases and multimorbidities
- Health economic modelling
- Economic evaluations alongside clinical trials and observational studies

Education

  • PhD in Health Economics, 2020

    Karolinska Instutet, Stockholm, Sweden

    MSc in Statistics, 2008

    University of Dhaka, Dhaka, Bangladesh

    Master’s in Health Economics, 2007

    University of Dhaka, Dhaka, Bangladesh

  • BSc in Statistics, 2006

    University of Dhaka, Dhaka, Bangladesh

Experiences

 
 
 
 
 
Brunel University London
Lecturer in Health Economics
August 2024 – Present London, United Kingdom

Responsibilities include:

  • Provide innovative teaching methods to encourage participation and promote self-development and education
  • To seek new areas of research and carry out high-quality research to enhance the research assessment rating of the department, research institute and college
  • To develop collaborative research programmes internally and externally
  • Publication of research in refereed publications and presentations at conferences
  • Application and attracting of external research funding
  • Management of research grants
  • Supervise MSc and PhD students
 
 
 
 
 
Bangor University
Research Fellow (Health Economist)
December 2023 – July 2024 Bangor, United Kingdom

Responsibilities include:

  • Working on research projects including economic evaluation and modelling at CHEME
  • Provide training and mentorship for other researchers within the CHEME research centre
  • Disseminate research findings within CHEME and academic conferences
  • Scientific publication from health economics studies
  • Lead on the health economic component in the development of grant applications for new projects involving the CHEME research centre
  • Supervise MSc and PhD students
 
 
 
 
 
University of Glasgow
Research Associate (Health Economist)
December 2021 – November 2023 Glasgow, United Kingdom

Responsibilities include:

  • Working on 3 research projects including economic evaluations alongside clinical trials at HEHTA
  • Supervising MSc and PhD students at HEHTA and University of Gothenburg
  • Conducting health economics module for MSc program at HEHTA
  • Disseminate research findings within HEHTA and academic conferences
  • Scientific publication from health economics studies
 
 
 
 
 
Oxford University of Clinical Research (OUCRU)
Health Economist
December 2020 – November 2021 Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

Responsibilities include:

  • I led the health economics team of Oxford University of Clinical Research Unit (OUCRU), a large-scale clinical and public health research unit based in Vietnam with considerable support from the Wellcome Trust.
  • Contributed to capacity development of the local staff members in health economics research
  • Supervised PhD student, research staff and interns
  • My research dealt with health economics research studies, including intervention costing, cost of illness analysis, cost-effectiveness analysis and evaluation of health financing systems of Vietnam and other low- and middle-income countries.
  • Added economic evaluation study in different clinical trials of Oxford University of Clinical Research Unit targeting infectious disease including HIV AIDS, hepatitis, dengue, Tuberculosis and malaria
 
 
 
 
 
Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine
Research Assistant (Health Economist)
October 2018 – November 2020 Liverpool, United Kingdom

Responsibilities include:

  • I was responsible for conducting the health economics component of NIHR funded African Snakebite Research Group. I contributed to study design, data-capture tools development, and training of the local country teams (Kenya and Nigeria) on the study methodology including cost-analysis and financial protection.
  • I visited the survey sites in Kenya and Nigeria regularly to monitor study activities and take measures to ensure the data quality, data management and analysis, disseminate the study findings to the policy level and publish them in scientific journals
  • Contribute to designing teaching sessions and prepared materials on health economics for two masters programmes namely, Key themes in international health and health policy (TROP937) and Topics in global health (LIFE236)
  • I was involved in student assessment and supervision of students for their thesis work
  • Develop research concept notes for competitive grant application
 
 
 
 
 
icddr,b
Assistant Scientist
January 2013 – December 2016 Dhaka, Bangladesh

Responsibilities include:

  • Scientific proposal development
  • Research project management
  • Scientific analysis, and knowledge creation
  • Scientific capacity building/training
  • Disseminate study findings and translating research into policy
  • Conduct sessions for health economics module of masters of public health programme at James P Grant School of Public Health, BRAC university
  • Student assessment and supervision for their thesis work
 
 
 
 
 
icddr,b
Research Investigator
January 2013 – December 2016 Dhaka, Bangladesh
Grant application writing, research project management, scientific analysis, dissemination, manuscript writing and conduct training.
 
 
 
 
 
icddr,b
Research Officer
February 2011 – December 2012 Dhaka, Bangladesh
Study design, data analysis, scientific report writing

Recent Publications

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(2022). Disease-specific distress healthcare financing and catastrophic out-of-pocket expenditure for hospitalization in Bangladesh.. International journal for equity in health.

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(2022). Factors affecting the healthcare utilization from Shasthyo Suroksha Karmasuchi scheme among the below-poverty-line population in one subdistrict in Bangladesh: a cross sectional study.. BMC health services research.

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(2022). Direct Medical Costs of Tetanus, Dengue, and Sepsis Patients in an Intensive Care Unit in Vietnam. Frontiers in Public Health.

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(2022). Household Microenvironment and Under-Fives Health Outcomes in Uganda: Focusing on Multidimensional Energy Poverty and Women Empowerment Indices. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health.

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(2022). Remittances and food security in Bangladesh: an empirical country-level analysis.. Public health nutrition.

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