João G. Q. Costa

Professional Activities

  • Health economist with diverse experience in several projects working as adviser, independent consultant and for the Swiss Center for International Health
  • Manager of Project Sino (family medicine and health reform project) - currently based in Dushanbe, Tajikistan
  • Teaching, research and supervision in the fields of Health Economics, Health Financing, Health Policy and Economic Evaluation of Health Interventions.

Higher Education & Qualifications

  • 2001: PhD, Health Economics, (Models and performance of private health insurance schemes in Salvador/Brazil), London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, University of London
  • 1988 BSc, Economics, (General Economics), Universidade Catolica, do Salvador (Salvador/ Brazil)
  • 1986 Specialization in Public Health, (Health Planning at District level), Escola Nacional de Saude Publica - Fundacao Oswaldo Cruz  (Rio / Brazil)
  • 1976 BSc, Psychology, (General Psychology and Psychotherapy), Universidade Federal do Bahia (Salvador/ Brazil)

Work Experience

  • 2003 to 2006 and 2009 to present: Senior Health Economics Expert and Project Manager, Swiss TPH, SCIH; currently SPMU, Tajikistan, Project Sino.
  • 2001 to 2003 and 2007 to 2009 – Independent consultant and senior adviser working in several countries for several international institutions.
  • 1999-2001: Research fellow at The London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine leading a DIFD funded project to assess the cost-effectiveness of the second dose of BCG vaccine alongside a clinical trial and to measure the costs of Tuberculoses and Leprosy treatment in Salvador/Brazil. This assignment involved research design, fieldwork co-ordination and data analysis using statistical and Decision Analysis tools. Four papers were presented at a conference on economics of infectious diseases in 2001 and a fifth one has been published in Brazil (see details below).
  • 1999-2000: Responsible for teaching and organizing courses on health economics for MsC and PhD students in the Institute of Collective Health of the University Federal of Bahia (Salvador/Brazil), a leading academic institution in the implementation of Brazilian health reform (April 1999 and Nov 2000).
  • 1994-1998: Full-time PhD student at The London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine carrying on a 4 years research project which consisted of comparing rates of hospital admissions and expenditures of four private health insurers. The comparison required the analysis of 11,000 admissions in a population of 90,000 people covered by private health insurers in Salvador/Brazil. The research generated valuable knowledge for the revision of the role of the private sector in the context of the Brazilian health reform.
  • 1988-1994: Involved in teaching activities in short courses of specialization on occupational health, hospital management and safety engineering. The subjects included bio-statistics, introduction to epidemiology and information system in public health. (Several State Capitals in Brazil).
    • Working as public health specialist at state level (State of Bahia/Brazil, Secretariat of Health) involved with activities related the implementation of the Brazilian health reform in what related to  Hospital planning, Hospital management and development of costing and information systems. During this period he was also appointed as Director of Planning of the largest General Hospital in the Sate.
    • Partner in a Limited Consultants Company which carried out several studies and projects which included: design of costing systems for hospitals, epidemiological researches in occupational health and studies of human health aspects of environmental impact of industrial sites in Brazil.
  • 1977-1988: Acting at local level as public health expert in planning and coordination of several public health programs and health information system in the context of the health reform in Brazil (Health Secretariat of the Camaçari Municipal Government, Camaçari/ Bahia/ Brazil).