Maximizing health through the rapidly developing fields of comparative and cost-effectiveness.

Lieven Annemans is a Full Professor of Health Economics at Ghent University and Brussels University (Belgium) and cofounder of the Interuniversity Centre for Health Economics Research. He is Past-President of the International Society for PharmacoEconomics and Outcomes Research, a member of the Flemish Council for Health and Wellbeing (advising the Minister of Health), and an external expert to the Belgian Health Care Knowledge Centre, the Belgian health technology assessment body. He has 20 years experience in health-economic evaluations of pharmaceutical drugs, vaccines, medical devices, diagnostics and preventive health actions in various medical areas. He is author of the book 'Health economics for noneconomists: an introduction to the concepts, methods and pitfalls of health economic evaluations' and of the recent report 'Towards valuable innovation in the EU' (a background report to the EU council of ministers of health). His main research interests are epidemiological models, health technology assessment, retrospective/prospective health-economic evaluations and physician payment systems. He has published approximately 150 papers in peer-reviewed journals, presented approximately 300 posters/papers at scientific conferences, and has given approximately 500 lectures and trainings on health economics and health technology assessment.