Helen Mason

Helen Mason is a Professor of Health Economics and the lead for the Economics of Health and Wellbeing theme in the Yunus Centre for Social Business and Health.

Helen’s main research interest is in the development and use of methodologies to value the benefits from a range of health care interventions and community based initiatives. In 2007 she was awarded a PhD from Newcastle University in which she developed methods to estimate the monetary value of QALYs. Helen has expertise in a variety of valuation and preference elicitation methods including Willingness to Pay, Standard Gamble and Person Trade Off.

During her doctoral work, Helen became interested in the use of Q methodology to investigate the preferences of members of the public for health care priority setting. Her interest in Q methodology has continued and she has completed or supervised Q studies in the areas of end of life care for people with Dementia, young people and the transition to adult secondary care, and the views of people receiving treatment for substance use.

Helen leads the Economic Evaluation programme of work and supports the economic component of a large number of clinical trials funded by the National Institute for Health Research. She has also received research funding from the MRC, ESRC and CSO for methodological research using contingent valuation and Q methodology to explore societal values on health care resources allocation, particularly in the area of the provision of life extending treatments for people with terminal illness.

Helen is a member of the Health Improvement, Protection and Services Research Committee for Scottish Government Chief Scientist Office. She is Vice President of the International Society for the Scientific Study of Subjectivity, the international Q methodology society.

Helen regularly lectures on the Health Economics module on the MPH and is a guest lecturer on the MSc Health Economics at the University of York.

Helen is interested in supervising PhD in health economics and social values, particularly in the use of stated preference techniques and Q methodology.