Syreon Research Institute, Hungary

Institution: Syreon Research Institute (SRI) was established in 2008. It is an independent research institute classified as a small and medium-sized enterprise. SRI conducts research and modelling in the fields of health economics in order to improve the evidence base of resource allocation, policy, and pricing decisions. SRI focuses on the areas of transferability and economic evaluation in middle income countries, with solid experience and a well-established network in Central and Eastern Europe. Scientists of SRI are experts at the interface of clinical research and economic evaluation and have published widely in this area. The company has special expertise in developing economic models, and applying those models to substantiate policy decisions. The Institute partners with an elite portfolio of global pharmaceutical corporations, emerging biotechnology companies, public health institutes, and academic networks to identify methodological trends and streamline economic evaluation.

SRI is also specialized in tailor-made, exercise-oriented international trainings in the field of health technology assessment, market access, health economics, and strategic pricing. The Institute is well known for its economic evaluations of complex public health interventions. The combination of the public health and health economic expertise within SRI makes it an optimal partner in SELFIE to participate in the evaluation of transferability to CEE countries and as a key partner for coordinating capacity building in Eastern Europe.

Zoltán Kaló,
MD, PhD

Zoltán Kaló is the founder and CEO of SRI. He is also professor of Health Economics at the Department of Health Policy and Health Economics, Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest. He is the program director of postgraduate courses in Pharmaceutical Policy and Pharmacoeconomics and the co-director of the Health Policy, Planning and Financing MSc programme (in English). He was a member of International Society of Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research (ISPOR) Board of Directors from 2012 to 2014, and he is the Chair of ISPOR CEE Network Executive Committee. He is also a Board Member and Founding President of the Hungarian Health Economics Association, and Board Member of the Hungarian Society of Personalized Medicine, and Board Member of Health Economics and Management Division of the Hungarian Professional College of Health Care. He graduated from the Budapest University of Economics (Bachelor of Economics), the Semmelweis Medical University (Medical Doctor), and the University of York (MSc in Health Economics). Later he received scientific degrees from the Semmelweis University (PhD in Pharmaceutical Sciences) and Eötvös Loránd University (DrHabil in Sociology). He has more than 15 years of international experience in academia and industry, specializing in health systems design, health technology assessment, outcomes research, economic modelling, and pricing policies of healthcare technologies. Dr. Kaló serves as a policy advisor to public decision-makers and global health care corporations.

Zoltán Vokó,
MSc, MD, PhD, DSc

Professor Zoltán Vokó is a graduate of Semmelweis University of Medicine, Budapest (MD, 1994) and Erasmus University Rotterdam (MSc in epidemiology, 1996; PhD in epidemiology, 2000). In 2003 he got his license in preventive medicine and public health, and habilitated at the University of Debrecen in 2004. In 2014 he became a doctor of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (DSc). He started his career as a trainee in neurology in 1994-1997 at the National Stroke Centre in Budapest. He has been working as an academic researcher and as a government official in the field of epidemiology and public health since 1998 in different positions: head of department of information policy (2003), director for public health (2004) in the Ministry of Health, director of the National Institute for Health Development of Hungary (2012-2013), course director of the postgraduate course in epidemiology in 2000-2008, associate professor and head of Division of Biostatistics & Epidemiology at the University of Debrecen (2005-2008), associate professor (2009-2011), professor of epidemiology and head of department (since 2014) at the Department of Health Policy & Health Economics at the Eötvös Loránd University. Currently he also works as the medical director of Syreon Research Institute. Since 2011 he has been the chair of the Public Health Division of the Hungarian Professional College of Health Care. In 2015 he was elected as the chair of the Scientific Committee of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences on Preventive Medicine.

János G. Pitter,
MD, PhD

János G. Pitter graduated from the Semmelweis Medical University as a Medical Doctor (1999), and after 5 years in cellular physiology research he received a PhD (Semmelweis University, Theoretical Medical Sciences). He completed the 1-year Pharmacoeconomics and Pharmaceutical Policy postgraduate program at Eötvös Loránd University (ELTE) in 2012. He worked for 10 years in the pharmaceutical industry, with experience in clinical development, regulatory submissions, scientific advices and referral procedures. He was the head of a department responsible for project management and product differentiation for 3 years. As of March 2014 he works as a principal researcher at Syreon Research Institute, and he is the head of the European Projects and Strategic Development department.

Marcell Csanádi,
BSc, MSc

Marcell Csanádi received his BSc in Management from the Budapest University of Technology and Economics. He completed the Health Policy, Planning and Financing MSc program at Eötvös Loránd University in Budapest. He joined Syreon Research Institute (SRI) in 2013 as a trainee. After receiving his MSc degree he joined to SRI full time and since then mainly works on projects related to health policy and health care financing. He also work in the department of EU projects and strategic development at SRI. He was a board member of BME College for Advanced Management Studies and is currently a senior member.

Antal Zemplényi,
MSc

Antal Zemplényi (MSc) graduated from the University of Pécs Faculty of Economics (MSc, 2004), the Eötvös Loránd University (MSc in Health Economics, 2012). Since 2007 he has been working at the Medical Center of the University of Pecs as business controller and later as financial manager. He developed expertise in economic evaluations of medical devices and cost benefit analyses of hospital infrastructural development. He was also involved in two-year project at the National Healthcare Service Center aiming the development of patient level costing methods and improving healthcare financial methods. He has recently joined Syreon Research Institute as a senior health economist and project manager. His research interests are health technology assessment and modelling in health care, health care financing and DRG based reimbursement.

Kata Csetneki,
MSc

Kata Csetneki (MSc) graduated from the Semmelweis University of Budapest in 2013 as a Health Promotion Manager. She received her MSc degree in 2015 in Health Policy Planning and Financing at the Eötvös Loránd University in Budapest. She completed her internship at Pfizer Inc. at the Department of Market Access. Right after her graduation, she started working full time at Syreon Research Institute.

Józwiak-Hagymásy Judit,
MSc

Judit Józwiak-Hagymásy graduated from the Budapest University of Economic Sciences and Public Administration at Faculty of Economics, Specialisation in Economics, Special field of Public Policy and Management (now Corvinus University of Budapest) (MSc in Economics) (2003), and post-graduated from the University of Debrecen at Faculty of Public Health (in Epidemiology) (2009). Initially she worked at Hungarian National Health Insurance Fund participating in the development and implementation of drug reimbursement system in Hungary, then she took part in the setting-up of Health Technology Assessment Office. Since 2010 she is a senior health economist at the Syreon Research Institute. Her research fields are developing health economic analyses, collecting and calculating cost data of health economic models, preparing systematic literature reviews, developing questionnaires, conducting surveys and analyzing data.