HERC: Consulting Service
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Consulting Service

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Are you a VA researcher and have a question or need help from HERC? HERC provides consultation services regarding:

  • Design of experimental and observational studies
  • Methods for economic evaluations, including cost-effectiveness analysis and budget impact analysis
  • Sources of data on the cost of VA sponsored care
  • Methods to micro-cost (direct measure) the resources used to provide innovative health care services
  • Econometric analysis of health care costs and observational data
  • Measurement of preference-based health utilities, the measurement needed to express outcomes in terms of Quality Adjusted Life Years (QALYs)
  • Other questions for which an economist's input might be helpful

The service is staffed by a PhD economist. It is our goal to respond to requests within 2 business days. Because of time constraints, the HERC consulting service is not able to analyze economic data.

Please email herchelp@va.gov and include the following information:

  • Please insert #herchelp into your email's subject line
  • Name
  • Phone
  • Email
  • Detailed request, including a relatively complete description of the context of the question

You may also call us at (650) 617-2630. Be sure to ask for the on-call consultant.

Visit the Data FAQs page for answers to some of HERC's most common consulting service questions.

Those seeking a health economist to be involved in their study will want to look at the HERC listing of VA economists and researchers with health economic interests. Most health economists at the VA are not affiliated with HERC, but may be available for collaboration.