Helen Banks

Helen Banks is a Senior Researcher in Health Economics and Health Technology Assessment (HTA) at the Centre for Research on Health and Social Care Management (CERGAS) of SDA Bocconi School of Management.

Since 2012, she has been conducting research at CERGAS, where she has contributed to numerous Italian and international projects. These include HEU-EFS (Harmonised Approach to Early Feasibility Studies for Medical Devices in the European Union, Innovative Health Initiative Joint Undertaking); HI-PRIX (Health Innovation Next Generation Payment & Pricing Models, EU Horizon Europe); Epa-Rity: Inequalities in Liver Transplantation (Cariplo Foundation call on inequalities); BRIDGE Health (EU Health Programme 2014-2020); and Medtechta and EuroHOPE (both funded under the EU Seventh Framework Programme, FP7). Her Italian projects have focused on national, regional, and local healthcare data flows across a range of therapeutic areas and health policy domains.

Before joining CERGAS, she gained experience in the private sector, working on the analysis of regional healthcare data and on multi-year projects for the accreditation of hospitals and local health authorities (ASLs) according to the Joint Commission International (JCI) methodology. She was also involved in health education, management consulting, and business intelligence activities for pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies.

Her main research interests include the statistical analysis of administrative and real-world clinical data, with particular emphasis on the transformation and linkage of data derived from different health information systems. Her work aims to evaluate healthcare system performance, costs, care pathways, and health outcomes. Her research activities also encompass qualitative studies on health policy and decision-making processes, with a focus on the perspectives of stakeholders involved in the design, implementation, and evaluation of public policies.

She is also engaged in research on Health Technology Assessment (HTA) and comparative analyses of regulatory frameworks and governance systems for medical devices in Europe and other international contexts.

She is the author of numerous publications in the fields of health economics, health policy, and HTA. Her work has appeared in leading journals, including Health Economics, Health Policy, Applied Health Economics and Health Policy, eClinicalMedicine, Expert Review of Medical Devices, Clinical Therapeutics, PLOS ONE, BMC Medical Research Methodology, Journal of Cancer Policy, and Europace.

Earlier in her career, she contributed to newsletters, articles, books, and manuals focused on pharmaceutical research, quality management, U.S. healthcare reform, and health education during the early years of the AIDS epidemic.

She is a member of the Italian Health Economics Association (AIES).

Helen holds a Bachelor of Arts in Communications and a Master in Education from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), United States, as well as a Master of Arts in Economics from the University of Maryland, College Park, United States.