Conferences

2025: Centre for Health Economics (CHE) 2025 Workshop

The Centre for Health Economics (CHE) 2025 Workshop, co-organized with the Camphor Economics Circle, was held on June 15, 2025, at the University of Nottingham Ningbo China (UNNC). Hosted in the New International Conference Center, the event brought together a diverse group of scholars and experts to discuss critical issues in health economics and policy. The program featured keynote addresses from Dr Hongqiao Fu of Peking University, who presented a modelling study on the impacts of increasing taxes on tobacco, alcohol, and sugary beverages in China, and Professor Susan Jihui Chen from Illinois State University, who discussed the effects of competition on prescription payments in retail pharmacy markets.

The workshop's agenda included a wide array of selected talks and poster presentations covering modern challenges in the field, such as using Large Language Models (LLMs) to measure health data and extract cost-effectiveness information. Other sessions explored the long-term effects of famine exposure, equity in Chinese healthcare financing, and the impact of local tobacco regulations. The conference served as a high-level professional platform for academic exchange, particularly among young economists, while highlighting UNNC’s role as a hub for international research and health sector policy development in China.

2024: Applications of Novel Data Analytics in Economics, Healthcare, and Public Health (joint with the Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention) 

The "Applications of Novel Data Analytics in Economics, Healthcare, and Public Health" conference was held on June 20-21, 2024, at the University of Nottingham Ningbo China (UNNC). This interdisciplinary gathering was co-organized by the UNNC Centre for Health Economics and the editorial office of the China CDC Weekly. The event focused on the transformative role of artificial intelligence and machine learning in modern research, aiming to bridge the gap between complex data analytics and practical policy interventions in fields ranging from personalized medicine to economic modeling.

The conference agenda featured diverse sessions on "digital intelligence," exploring topics such as AI-enabled payment reforms, the use of mobile signaling data to track healthcare utilization, and the economic burden of diseases like drug-resistant tuberculosis. Distinguished speakers from institutions like Peking University, Fudan University, and the China CDC discussed how data-driven insights can strengthen national vaccination strategies and tobacco control policies. Beyond the technical presentations, the event concluded with a field trip to the Ningbo CDC, ensuring that the participants—while experts in digital modeling—stayed grounded in the real-world application of their research.

2023: Annual Conference: Data Science and Health Economics: Mobility, Healthcare System, and Pandemic Prevention

The "Data Science and Health Economics: Mobility, Healthcare System, and Pandemic Prevention" conference was held on June 3–4, 2023, at the University of Nottingham Ningbo China (UNNC), organised by the Centre for Health Economics. The event focused on leveraging digital instruments and big data to improve clinical interventions, public health policy, and pandemic prevention strategies. Academic sessions covered diverse themes, including implementation science, the use of mobile signaling data to analyze healthcare utilization, and the transformative potential of artificial intelligence in universal health research.

The conference brought together a global assembly of experts from prestigious institutions, including Johns Hopkins, Harvard, Yale, and top-tier Chinese universities such as Peking and Fudan. Industry perspectives were integrated through contributions from the founder of DXY.cn and researchers from China Unicom, highlighting the practical application of data science in the healthcare sector. The event concluded with a field trip to the Yinzhou Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, allowing participants to observe real-world public health data management.

2021: Economics of Geonomics Web Conference

The "Ethical, legal, and social implications of genomics and precision medicine" workshop, organized by the Centre for Health Economics (CHE) at the University of Nottingham Ningbo China (UNNC), took place online via Zoom from July 17–18, 2021. Funded by the Nottingham China Health Institute, the two-day event explored the multifaceted challenges of integrating genetic data into healthcare and economic research. The first day focused on ethical issues, featuring speakers such as Professor Xiaomei Zhai from the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, while the second day addressed economic considerations, including cost-effectiveness frameworks for gene sequencing in hereditary cancers and the emerging field of genoeconomics. Expert contributors included Scott Grosse from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Dr. Chen Zhu from China Agricultural University, whose work integrates genetic data to analyze economic behaviors.

2019:

• Gender and Health" Workshop

The "Gender and Health" Workshop, organized by the Centre for Health Economics (CHE) at the University of Nottingham Ningbo China (UNNC), took place on March 14, 2019. Hosted at the New International Conference Centre, the event was a collaborative effort involving several prominent organizations, including the Gender Studies Research Priority Group, the Chinese Economists Society, and the Camphor Economists Circle. The workshop aimed to foster interdisciplinary research and enhance understanding of health economics through a gendered lens, bringing together academic experts and professional staff to discuss the intersection of gender, health policy, and economic development in China and beyond.

The full-day agenda was divided into four sessions featuring keynote addresses and research presentations on diverse topics. Keynote speakers included Professor Yaohui Zhao, who discussed the challenges of population ageing, and Professor Jin Feng, who addressed elderly responses to health insurance cost-sharing. Other sessions explored the impact of telemedicine through a gender perspective, the relationship between sex ratios and mental health, and the migration decisions of young women in rural China. By facilitating these high-level academic exchanges, the workshop supported CHE's goal of becoming a leading center for health sector economics and policy research in China.

• Sino-UK Forum

The 2019 Sino-UK Health Forum, held on May 10–11 at the University of Nottingham Ningbo China, was an inaugural conference themed "Health-Care Reform in China: Past, Present and the Future". Marking the tenth anniversary of China's 2009 health-care reform plan, the forum provided a platform for the academic community to evaluate the nation's progress and address its ability to manage emerging challenges like population ageing and the rising burden of non-communicable diseases. The event featured a policy forum with high-level speakers, including former officials from the National Health Commission, alongside an academic conference that selected 36 research papers for oral presentation. Facilitated by the School of Economics and the Centre for Health Economics, the forum also encouraged participants to submit their work to a special issue of the China Economic Review to further contribute to the discourse on global health policy.