Faculty Guide

Title

Lecturer

The Heller School for Social Policy and Management

Expertise

Health economist with demonstrated experience in costing, cost-benefit and cost-effectiveness studies, health financing, modeling, and health policy research in the United States as well as in several developing countries. Recognized ability to work in foreign environments and building partnerships. Proven ability to work under pressure and time constraints. Strong analytical and leadership skills, and established strong management capacity. Proficiency in SPSS, STATA, SAS, and Epi-Info programs.

Profile

Yara Halasa, DDS, MS, has been working in health policy and economic analyses of health and health-related projects both in the United States and internationally for the last decade. She has a medical background as well as two master’s degrees, one in health economics and the other in health policy. Dr. Halasa is currently enrolled in the PhD program at the Heller School for Social Policy and Management. She started her career working on multiple US AID-funded projects in the Middle East. Her work involved implementing national household surveys, public facility surveys and interviews with public officials in both Jordan and Yemen. Additionally she worked as a consultant for both the League of Arab States and the Regional Office of the Eastern Mediterranean of the World Health Organization where she focused her research on equity and financing of health care services. Since 2007, she has been working as a research associate at the Schneider Institutes for Health Policy. A major component of her work involved developing, administrating and analyzing interviews with public officials and household surveys. Dr. Halasa is the co-investigator on several projects including a project funded by the USDA, which focus on the economic evaluation of an area-wide integrated pest management program in New Jersey. During this project, she conducted willingness-to-pay and quality-of-life interviews, in addition to four household attitude and behavior surveys. Additionally, she conducted on-site interviews with public officials to document their roles and level of effort, to estimate the cost associated with that project. Dr. Halasa is currently working on the following studies: The impact and value of Joint Commission International's hospital accreditation program; the cost of dengue in Puerto Rico; and the global burden of Dengue with the Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluation; and the economic burden of dengue in India and the Philippines

Courses Taught

HS	229f	International Health Financing
HS	234f	National Health Accounts: Applications to Low- and Middle-Income Countries

Scholarship

Shepard, D.S., Undurraga, E.A., Halasa, Y.A.. "Economic and disease burden of dengue in Southeast Asia.." PLoS NTD 7. 2 (2013): e2055.

Undurraga, E.A., Halasa, Y.A., Shepard, D.S.. "Use of expansion factors to estimate the burden of dengue in Southeast Asia: a systematic analysis.." PLoS NTD 7. 2 (2013): e2056.

Halasa, Y.A., Shepard, D.S., Wittenberg, E., Fonseca, D.M., Farajollahi, A., Heary, S., Bartlett-Healy, K., Gaugler, R., Bartlett-Healy, K., Strickman, D. Clark, G.G.. "Effectiveness of the area-wide pest management program to control the Asian tiger mosquito in New Jersey: evidence from household surveys.." American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene 61st Annual Meeting., Atlanta, Georgia.. November 11-15, 2012. Poster session 584..

Halasa, Y.A., Shepard, D.S., Wittenberg, E., Fonseca, D.M., Farajollahi, A., Heary, S., Gaugler, R., Strickman, D. Clark, G.G.. "Willingness to Pay for Area-wide Pest Management Program to Control the Asian Tiger Mosquito in New Jersey.." Journal of the American Mosquito Control Association 28. 3 (2012): 225-236.

Halasa, Y.A., Shepard, D.S., and Zung, W.. "Economic cost of dengue in Puerto Rico.." American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene 86. 5 (2012): 745-752.

Lozano, R., Naghavi, M., Foreman, K., Lim, …, Halasa, Y.A., …, Lopez, A.D. & Murray, C.J.L.. "Global and regional mortality from 235 causes of death for 20 age groups in 1990 and 2010: A systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2010.." The Lancet 380. 9859 (2012): 2095-2128.

Murray, C.J.L., Vos, T., Lozano, R., ..., Halasa, Y.A., ..., Zonies, D. & Lopez, A.D.. "Disability-adjusted life years (DALYS) for 291 diseases and injuries in 21 regions, 1990-2010: A systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2010.." The Lancet 380. 9859 (2012): 2197-2223.

Shepard, D.S., Halasa, Y.A., Wittenberg, E., Fonseca, D.M., Farajollahi, A., Heary, S., Bartlett-Healy, K., Gaugler, R., Bartlett-Healy, K., Strickman, D. Clark, G.G.. "Economic evaluation of Area-wide pest management program to control the Asian tiger mosquito in New Jersey.." American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene 61st Annual Meeting., Atlanta, Georgia.. November 11-15, 2012. Poster session 583..

Shepard, D.S., Undurraga, E.A., Lees, R.S., Halasa, Y.A., Lum, L.C., Ng, C.W.. "Use of multiple data sources to estimate the economic cost of dengue illness in Malaysia.." American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene 87. 5 (2012): 796-805.

Vos, T., Flaxman, A.D., Naghavi, M., … Halasa, Y.A., …, Lopez, A.D. & Murray, C.J.L.. "Years lived with disability (YLDS) for 1160 sequelae of 289 diseases and injuries 1990-2010: A systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2010.." The Lancet 380. 9859 (2012): 2163–2196.

Halasa, Y.A., Dogra, V., Arora, N., Tyagi, B.K., Nanda, D., and Shepard, D.S.. "Overcoming data limitations: design of a multi-component study for estimating the economic burden of dengue in India.." Dengue Bulletin 35. (2011): 1-14.

Hill, A.G., Douptcheva, N., and Halasa, Y.A.. Review of Studies, Surveys and Evaluations Supported by UNICEF in MENA Region during Biennium 2008-2009: Key Findings and Recommendations from the Perspective of the Medium-Term Strategic Plan.. Amman, Jordan UNICEF Regional Office of the Middle East and North Africa: 2011.

Shepard D.S., Coudeville L., Halasa Y.A., Zambrano B. and Dayan G.H.. "Economic impact of dengue illness in the Americas.." American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene 84. 2 (2011): 200-207.

Halasa Y., Nassar H., and Zaky H.. "Benefit Incidence Analysis of the Government Spending on Ministry of Health Outpatient Services in Jordan.." Eastern Mediterranean Health Journal 16. 5 (2010): 259-265.

Pérez-Guerra, C.L.; Halasa, Y.A.; Rivera, R.; Peña, M.; Ramírez, V.; Patricia Cano, M.; Shepard, D.S.. "Economic cost of dengue public prevention activities in Puerto Rico.." Dengue Bulletin 34(supplement). (2010): 13-23.

Shepard, D.S., Halasa, Y.A., VanOstenberg P. and Timmons KH.. "The value and impact of implementing selected Joint Commission International hospital accreditation standards: A pilot study.." ISQua conference, Paris, France. October 13, 2010..

Halasa Y., and Nandakumar A.K.. "Factors Determining Choice of Healthcare Providers in Jordan.." Eastern Mediterranean Health Journal 15. 4 (2009): 959-968.

Halasa, Y.A., Shepard, D.S., Fonseca, D.M., Farajollahi, A., Heary, S., Gaugler, R., Bartlett-Healy, K., Strickman, D. Clark, G.G.. "Willingness to Pay for Area-wide Pest Management of Asian Tiger Mosquito in New Jersey.." The American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene 58th Annual Meeting., Washington, D.C. November 18-22, 2009. Scientific session 1093.

Halasa, Yara. Mapping Health Care Financing in Jordan.. Cairo, Egypt World Health Organization Regional Office of the Middle East and North Africa: 2008.

Banks D., and Halasa Y. Patient Satisfaction and Pain Management in Ministry of Health Hospitals in Jordan.. Bethesda, MD The Partners for Health Reformplus Project, Abt Associates Inc.: 2005.