PhD student Jinjing from the Qolead consortium recently attended the lolaHESG 2025 conference. Below, she shares her reflections on this inspiring day!
I just returned from the lolaHESG 2025 conference—and what an inspiring experience it was!
Unlike traditional academic conferences, lolaHESG takes a refreshing approach: instead of presenting your own paper, a fellow researcher presents it for you. A full hour of in-depth discussion is guided by a dedicated discussant and a group of researchers. This format creates space for thoughtful, constructive feedback that genuinely pushes our work forward.
It was also energizing to connect with peers across the Netherlands working on health economics, equitable healthcare resource allocation, and policy reform.
Another highlight was the strong focus on dementia-related research this year. We had an entire session dedicated to this topic, covering issues such as gender differences in institutionalization and mortality, quality of life measurement, patterns of emergency department use, and the societal costs of dementia. The session on dementia reflected its recognition as a critical public health challenge. Within health economics, we are actively working to understand this complexity from our own perspective—seeking to answer pressing questions and contribute to meaningful solutions.
A standout moment for me was the keynote by David McDaid (LSE), who shared powerful insights on how health economics can inform and drive real-world policy—especially in mental health and wellbeing. His talk was both thought-provoking and practical, offering valuable advice on amplifying the impact of our research.
This conference was a powerful reminder of how essential peer engagement is—not only for building technically sound models, but also for ensuring that our research remains relevant to real-world policy and societal needs.