Health Impact Assessment (HIA) is a systematic process that uses several data sources and analytic methods to determine the effects of a policy, program, or project on the health of a population. Despite recent improvements in data availability and in methods for quasi-experimental and mathematical modelling, quantitative HIA is still underused for evidence-based policy-making.

The overarching aim of the HIA group at ISGlobal is to develop quantitative HIA as a cross-disciplinary activity, working with the three internationally recognized areas of the institute: 1) malaria and other infectious diseases, 2) maternal and child health, and 3) urban health, climate and non-communicable diseases.

The HIA group is part of the ISGlobal Severo Ochoa (SO) programme which supports interdisciplinary science to improve the understanding of complex health problems. The group is set to work in an integrated way with other programmes to evaluate and model more effective interventions for the Sustainable Development Goals agenda. It also aims to maximize its research impact through advocacy activities and dynamic dialogue with policy makers and programme managers.

The group is currently leading studies on the effectiveness of conditional cash transfers and primary health care (PHC) on Tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS in Brazil, integrating retrospective impact evaluations of large longitudinal datasets with microsimulation modelling. It is also developing a comparative and comprehensive evaluation of the PHC impact in Mexico, Ecuador, Brazil and Colombia, forecasting PHC implementation strategies to attain SDGs.

Highlighted Projects

• Two decades of primary health care expansion in Latin America: a multi-country evaluation and forecasting study for health-related SDGs.
• The Impact of social determinants, conditional cash transfers and primary health care on HIV/AIDS: an integrated retrospective and forecasting approach based on a cohort of 100 million Brazilians.
• The Impact of primary health care on Tuberculosis incidence, cure rate and mortality: an integrated retrospective and forecasting study based on a cohort of 100 million Brazilians.