Quantifying the health impacts of policies - Principles, methods, and models

Over the last few years, the quantification of health impacts has gained markedly in importance, especially the quantification of impacts on health resulting from policies, plans and programs. Different approaches, models, and tools have been, or are being, developed internationally for this purpose.

We want to take the issue of quantification forward - e.g. for application in health-related assessments in North Rhine-Westphalia and for application in projects like the EC-funded  RAPID project. Aiming at widespread use, well-accepted quantification models and tools are crucial.

To provide an overview of the "state of the art" of health impact quantification, the predecessor of LZG.NRW (LIGA.NRW) organized this invitational workshop (1.5 day) open to interested professional audiences. International speakers were invited, based on existing collaborations and shared professional fields of work.

A key result wanted from this international workshop was a summary of the "state of the art" of health impact quantification approaches and their respective ranges of application, e.g., differentiation of impact on various population subgroups.

Programme of the Workshop

Quantifying the health impacts of policies - Principles, methods, and models

Welcome

Eleftheria Lehmann, Director General of LIGA.NRW

Session 1: Principles of quantification of health impacts

Vision and promise of quantification in health-related Impact Assessments
Rainer Fehr, LIGA.NRW (Germany)

Summary Measures of Population Health (SMPH) in health-related Impact Assessments
Annette Prüss-Üstün, WHO Geneva (Switzerland)

Critical comment on the use of Summary Measures of Population Health (SMPH) in health-related Impact Assessments
Michael Schümann, BSG (Germany)

Equity and quantification in health-related Impact Assessments
Fiona Haigh, IMPACT+ (United Kingdom)

Session 2: Models / projects

PREVENT
Esther de Vries, Erasmus MC (the Netherlands)

DYNAMO HIA
Wilma Nusselder, Erasmus MC (the Netherlands), Hendriek Boshuizen, RIVM (the Netherlands)

BoD in NRW
Claudia Terschüren, LIGA.NRW (Germany), Claudia Hornberg, University of Bielefeld (Germany)

HEIMTSA / INTARESE Toolbox
Introduction about the projects / integrated environmental HIA
Hilary Cowie, IOM (Scotland)

INTARESE-based Guidebook / Resource Centre
Volker Klotz, University of Stuttgart (Germany)

HEIMTSA-based computational Toolbox
Alberto Gotti, JRC (Italy)

Current area of application: major case study
Volker Klotz, University of Stuttgart (Germany)

Impact Calculation Tool
Anne Knol, RIVM (the Netherlands), Virpi Kollanus, THL (Finland)

Health Forecasting
Jeroen van Meijgaard, UCLA (United States of America)

Workshop report

LIGA.Fokus 11
Scientific Expert Workshop.
Quantifying the health impacts of policies - Principles, methods, and models.
Düsseldorf, Germany, 16 - 17 March 2010.
Düsseldorf: LIGA.NRW 2010, 87 S.
ISBN 978-3-88139-173-3