Preparing the Next Generation of HEOR Leaders: An Interview with Health Economist Meng Li

March 10, 2026

"HEOR provides the analytic tools needed to weigh the benefits and risks of a new medical technology, including non-health benefits like improving productivity, against its cost."

At the Center for the Evaluation of Value and Risk in Health (CEVR) at Tufts Medical Center, researchers study value, cost-effectiveness, and risk tradeoffs in health care decisions. Among them is Meng Li, PhD, a health economist whose work focuses measuring novel elements of value for medical technologies and evaluating the impact of new drug innovations on population health and equity

This work informs Dr. Li’s teaching in the Health Economics and Outcomes Research (HEOR) Certificate Program at the Tufts University Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences. We spoke with Dr. Li about what students learn in her course and how HEOR training prepares professionals to address complex challenges in health policy.

What concepts and skills will students learn during your course?

"A central goal of the certificate program is to help students understand how evidence on value is used in real-world health care decision-making. In my course, we discuss the history and practice of health technology assessment (HTA) in the United States and across the globe. Students learn how HTA bodies synthesize clinical and economic evidence on medical technologies and how stakeholders participate in the assessment process."

How does HEOR training help students engage with complex policy issues like how drug prices and rebates can influence patients’ access to treatment?

"HEOR provides the analytic tools needed to weigh the benefits and risks of a new medical technology, including non-health benefits like improving productivity, against its cost. For example, in a recent study my colleagues and I conducted, “Inclusion of Societal Costs in Published Cost-Effectiveness Analysis, 2013-23,” we analyzed nearly 8,000 studies to see how often they included effects on society at large. We found that only 25% of those studies did.

This choice can have profound effects on how decision-makers understand the value of a medical technology. Many conditions—including mental health, chronic illness, and pediatric diseases—affect daily life and excluding how treatments can help people get back to work, community service, and family responsibilities can misestimate their value.

In the course, we use examples like this to help students see how rigorous analysis can illuminate complex policy dynamics and suggest evidence-based strategies for reform."

How will industry professionals and researchers benefit from the HEOR Certificate program?

"For professionals working in pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, HEOR plays an important role in demonstrating the value of new therapies. It can be used during clinical trial design to ensure studies include outcomes that demonstrate the value of new technologies. After market authorization, companies increasingly need to demonstrate the value of their products to health insurers and the US government, which now can negotiate prices for certain drugs.

Researchers also benefit from gaining a stronger foundation in economic evaluation and real-world evidence, skills that are increasingly important across academia, policy organizations, and the life sciences industry."

Who can students expect to learn from during your course?

"Students will learn from a range of experts who contribute lectures throughout the program. Guest lecturers include experts such as Peter Neumann, Joshua Cohen, James Chambers, Daniel Ollendorf, Tara Lavelle, Paige Lin, and Natalia Olchanski who bring perspectives from health technology assessment, cost-effectiveness analysis, real-world evidence, and regulatory policy.

Hearing from experts working across academia, policy organizations, and health economics research helps students understand how HEOR methods are applied in practice and how evidence informs decisions about value, coverage, and patient access.

Programs like the Tufts HEOR Certificate prepare the next generation of researchers and professionals to evaluate evidence, understand payer decision-making, and contribute to more informed health policy."

Department:

Certificate in Health Economics & Outcomes Research