We are a multidisciplinary and state-wide center for health economics and policy

About us

The Munich Center for Health Economics and Policy (M-CHEP) consists of fourteen chairs situated at the Technical University of Munich (TUM), the Ludwg-Maximilians-University of Munich (LMU), Augsburg University, the Friedrich-Alexander-University Erlangen-Nuremberg, and the University of Bayreuth.

First ideas of building a center were discussed among four researchers from the Technical University Munich in 2023, but it soon became clear that it makes sense to expand the center to further departments and universities. The center is still in a very early stage, but we plan to develop it to a relevant platform for health economics and policy in southern Germany. The center was founded in 2024.

From left to right: Sebastian Himmler, Helmut Farbmacher, Leonie Sundmacher, Janina Steinert, Harald Tauchmann, Robert Nuscheler, Antonius Schneider, Michael Laxy, Alexander Hapfelmeier, Nikkil Sudharsanan (top), Joachim Winter (bottom). Not in the picture: Andreas Landmann, Simon Reif, Rainer Kolisch, and Andreas Schmid.

Where we come from

Mission

We see it as our mission to conduct research to improve health care systems and population health on a national and international level. As a center, we combine expertise from Health Economics, Health Services Research, Public Health, Global Health, and Prevention. In our work, it is important to us to have both academic and policy impact, fruitful collaborations with policy makers, methodological rigor, interdisciplinary research, and a culture of mutual learning.

Activities

We organise internal PhD/Postdoc seminars, research seminars open to external researchers, and plan to contribute to policy discussions by writing policy briefs and organising policy symposia. For information on our research interests and publications, visit the repective pages.

Governance

The center is lead by Leonie Sundmacher as Scientifc Director and Sebastian Himmler as Managing Director in conjunction with the involved researchers.

Scientific Director

Managing director

A scientific board of international researchers advises M-CHEP in its strategic direction. Additionally, an expert committee, combining individuals from industry and policy, with a focus on the German health care system, counsel the center in its domestic activities.

    • DR. THOMAS CZYPIONKA, Head of the Health Economics and Health Policy research group, Institute for Advanced Studies (IHS) Vienna

    • PROF. JOB VAN EXEL, Professor of Health Economics and director of research of Erasmus School of Health Policy and Management, Erasmus Centre for Health Economics Rotterdam (EsCHER)

    • PROF. NILS GUTACKER, Professor of Health Economics and lead of the health and social care policy theme at the Center for Health Economics (CHE), York

    • PROF. FRANCO SASSI, Professor of International Health Policy and Economics and director of the Centre for Health Economics and Policy Innovation (CHEPI), Imperial College London

    • PROF. HARSHA THIRUMURTHY, Professor of Medical Ethics and Health Policy and associate director of the Center for Health Incentives and Behavioral Economics, University of Pennsylvania

    • THOMAS LEMKE, Chairman of the board of directors Sana Kliniken AG

    • URSULA MARSCHALL, Head of Research Department Medicine / Health Services Research at the Barmer Institute for Health Systems Research, Barmer GEK

    • CHRISTIAN PFEIFFER, Chairman of the board of directors of the Bavarian Statutory Health Insurance Physicians (KVB)

    • DAVID SCHELLER-KREINSEN, Deputy managing director of the scientific institute of the AOK (WidO)

    • IRMGARD STIPPLER, Chairwoman of the board of the AOK Bayern