prof. Nick Verhaeghe (PhD)

Our research group focuses on health economic aspects of healthcare, with particular emphasis on health economic evaluations, cost studies, and research related to healthcare financing in both national and international contexts. We aim to provide evidence that supports informed decision-making in healthcare policy and practice. Health economic evaluations are essential for understanding the value of prevention, screening and (medical) interventions and optimizing resource allocation. In addition, our cost studies examine the financial implications of healthcare systems and explore sustainable financing models that can address the challenges faced by health systems.
We place a strong emphasis on multidisciplinary collaboration, recognizing that health economic evidence is a key component of Health Technology Assessment (HTA). HTA plays a crucial role in shaping healthcare policies, ensuring that the most effective and cost-efficient interventions are prioritized. To fully capture the broader impacts of prevention, screening, and treatment, we frequently collaborate with other research groups specializing in fields such as clinical medicine, public health, and social sciences. This interdisciplinary approach enables us to account for the wide-ranging effects of healthcare interventions on individuals, populations, and healthcare systems as a whole.
Through these collaborations and comprehensive studies, our research group strives to contribute to the development of evidence-based policies that promote efficient, equitable, and sustainable healthcare systems. 
 

Prof. Nick Verhaeghe has a master in Healthcare Management and Policy and a PhD in Social Health Sciences, both obtained at Ghent University. His main research interests are cost-effectiveness analyses related to treatment, screening and prevention strategies for different target populations, cost-of-illness studies and the role of financial incentives aimed at more integrated care for people with chronic conditions. He is a principal investigator at  the Interuniversity Centre for Health Economics Research (i-CHER), Ghent University. Since May 2022, he is the coordinator of the working group ‘Mental health care financing’ (aimed at improving the financing of mental health care in Flanders and Belgium) at the ‘Staten-Generaal Geestelijke Gezondheid’. He is also member of the ‘Special Interest Group Health Economics and Integrated Care’ at the International Foundation for Integrated Care and the ‘Health Economics Organization’ (Vereniging voor Gezondheidseconomie).
 

• Pieter Vynckier – post-doctoral researcher
• Annick Meertens – PhD fellow
   

• A Nationwide Exploration of Social Inequalities in Cancer Mortality Amidst the COVID-19 Pandemic in Belgium. Cancer Medicine, 2025. (PMID: 39778068)
• Cost-of-Illness of Skin Cancer: A Systematic Review. Pharmacoeconomics, 2024. (PMID: 38755518)
• Evaluating the health and health economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on delayed cancer care in Belgium : a Markov model study protocol. PLOS ONE, 2023. (PMID: 37903130)
• A systematic review of health economic evaluation in adjuvant breast radiotherapy: Quality counted by numbers. Radiotherapy and Oncology, 2017. (PMID: 28923574)
   

• Lab address: Ghent University, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Department of Public Health and Primary Care, Campus UZ-Ghent, entrance 42, 4th Floor, Corneel Heymanslaan 10, 9000 Gent
• Website lab
• Nick Verhaeghe is interested to receive invitations for presentations or talks