Mission Statement

The Health Economics Resource Center (HERC) supports the economic research of HSR in order to increase health care efficiency and value for Veterans and the nation. To fulfill this mission, HERC trains and advises researchers, makes VA data sources accessible to them, creates new economic datasets, disseminates economic methods and findings, and helps HSR identify and answer questions that are important to VA.

HERC economists and staff produce pioneering, rigorous health economics and related research that improves health care within and beyond VA.

Our research activities include innovation and excellence in:

• Performing cost and cost-effectiveness analyses
• Studying the efficiency of health care
• Evaluating health programs and interventions
• Planning, managing, and analyzing randomized clinical trials
• Health care decision modeling
• Assessing health-related quality of life
• Health economics and health services research

To fulfill our mission, we:

• Build collaborative relationships with researchers within and beyond the VA system
• Obtain extramural funding for research activities
• Disseminate research and evaluation findings by publishing reports and papers in peer-reviewed journals
• Create datasets, guidebooks, and other resources to facilitate health economic analyses in VA
• Educate researchers in health economics methods and datasets
• Provide leadership to the discipline of health economics within VA
• Facilitate the translation of research results into improved health care

We are committed to:

• Integrity
• High quality of work
• Productivity
• Transparency
• Mutual trust and respect
• Teamwork
• Investment in people through learning and mentoring
• A flexible, supportive, and enjoyable work environment