Research Fellow in Health Economics

• PhD in Health Economics. University of Birmingham. Ongoing
• MSc in Health Economics and Health Policy, University of Birmingham, 2006
• BSc in Health Services Management, Technological Educational Institution of Athens, Greece, 2003

Lazaros Andronis joined the Health Economics Unit in 2006, shortly after he completed his MSc in Health Economics and Health Policy.

Since joining, Lazaros has worked on a number of projects, including

• Trial-based economic evaluations exploring the cost-effectiveness of interventions in the areas of heart failure and orthopaedics (BRUM-CHF, DAMASK)
• Single Technology Appraisals commissioned by NICE, where as a member of the independent Evidence Review Group, Lazaros assessed the manufacturer’s report on the cost-effectiveness of a pharmaceutical agent for acute and sub-acute manifestations of ulcerative colitis.
• Methodology work commissioned by the NIHR Health Technology Appraisal project, to explore the current use and role of sensitivity analysis in NICE decision making
• Economic evaluations of public health interventions, commissioned by the NICE Centre for Public Health Excellence to look into the cost-effectiveness of alternative options of providing public information to prevent skin cancer and cardiovascular disease

Lazaros has been successful in obtaining a NIHR Doctoral Research Fellowship. The award aims to fast-track individuals of outstanding potential early in their research careers and provides full-time funding to undertake Doctoral research. In his project, Lazaros is looking into existing analytic approaches for research priority-setting (value of information and cost-benefit (or payback) of research) with a view to determining their potential role and value in assisting research funding decisions. This project is expected to complete in October of 2012

Lazaros has been involved in both delivering lectures and co-ordinating modules of the MSc in Health Economics and Health Policy. He lectures on elements of economic evaluation in health care (including techniques for dealing with uncertainty in cost-effectiveness studies) and research-priority-setting. He is also involved in a number of practical sessions on decision model building, statistical analysis using Bayesian methods, and value of information analysis.

In the current academic year, Lazaros is supervising three MSc dissertation project.

Lazaros’ research interest is centred around the economic evaluation of health care interventions and programmes. This includes trial-based cost-effectiveness and cost-utility analyses, as well as decision analytic techniques involving Markov models and decision trees.

In parallel, Lazaros is interested in the economics of research. He is currently looking into the way research-funding decisions are made by major public and charitable organisation and the potential of model-based, analytic approaches (such as the ‘value of information’ and ‘cost-benefit (or payback) of research’) to inform the allocation of the available funds to competing research programmes.

Lazaros has attended short courses on

• Advanced statistical analysis for health technology assessment, including Bayesian analysis
• Statistical analysis for social research
• Time-to-event and survival analysis
• Advanced modelling methods for health economic evaluation

Lazaros has presented his work in international conferences (iHEA, ECHE, ATINER) and he reviews manuscripts for publication in scientific journals (British Medical Journal), grant applications (NIHR Health Technology Assessment; Netherlands Organisation for Health Research and Development (ZonMw)) and PhD studentships (Tenovus).

Brealey S, Andronis L, Dale V, Gibbon A, Gilbert F and Hendry M. The effect of waiting times from General Practitioner referral to Magnetic Resonance Imaging or orthopaedic consultation for the knee on patient-based outcomes. British Journal of Radiology. In press

Bryan S, Dormandy E, Roberts T, Ades A, Barton P, Juarez-Garcia A, Andronis L, Karnon J and Marteau T. Screening for sickle cell and thalassaemia in primary care: a cost-effectiveness study. British Journal of General Practice 2011; 61(591):620-627

Barton P, Andronis L, Briggs A, McPherson K and Capewell S. Effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of cardiovascular disease prevention in whole populations: modelling study. British Medical Journal 2011 28: 343

Pennant M, Takwoingi Y, Pennant L, Davenport C, Fry-Smith A, Eisinga A, et al. (2010) A systematic review of positron emission tomography (PET) and positron emission tomography/computed tomography (PET/CT) for the diagnosis of breast cancer recurrence. Health Technology Assessment; 14(50):1-103.

Brealey S, Andronis L, Dennis L, Atwell C, Bryan S, Coulton S, et al. (2010) Participants' preference for type of leaflet used to feed back the results of a randomised trial: a survey. Trials; 11:116.

Ashfaq K, Yahaya I , Hyde C, Andronis L, Barton P, Bayliss S, et al. (2010) Clinical effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of stem cell transplantation in the management of acute leukaemia: a systematic review. Health Technology Assessment; 14(54):iii-xi,

Bryan S, Andronis L, Hyde C, Connock M, Fry-Smith A, Wang D. (2010) Infliximab for the treatment of acute exacerbations of ulcerative colitis. Health Technology Assessment;14 Suppl 1:9-15.

Hyde C, Bryan S, Juarez-Garcia A, Andronis L, Fry-Smith A.(2009) Infliximab for the treatment of ulcerative colitis. Health Technology Assessment; 13 Suppl 3:7-11.

Andronis L, Barton P, Bryan S. (2009) Sensitivity analysis in economic evaluation: an audit of NICE current practice and a review of its use and value in decision-making. Health Technology Assessment; 13 (29):iii, ix-61.

DAMASK Trial Team (Andronis L, Atwell C, Brealey S, Bryan S, Collins S, Coulton S et al.) (2008) Effectiveness of GP access to MRI of the knee: a randomised trial. British Journal of General Practice; 58(556): e1-8

DAMASK Trial Team (Andronis L, Atwell C, Brealey S, Bryan S, Collins S, Coulton S et al.) (2008) Cost effectiveness of magnetic resonance imaging of the knee for patients presenting in primary care. British Journal of General Practice 58(556): e10-16