• Presenters: Ellen Rafferty, PhD, Health Economist, Institute of Health Economics & Adjunct Professor, School of Public Health, University of Alberta; Danica Wolitski, MA, Health Economist, Institute of Health Economics, Alberta.

• Abstract: The COVID-19 pandemic has caused significant shifts within health care systems worldwide. The consequences of these shifts in Canada will be felt both within the health sector and in the broader economy for years to come. A few common examples include health care worker labor shortages, delayed procedures, reallocation of health care funds (e.g., increase in ICU beds) and the switch to virtual care. In this seminar we will present the early results of a scoping review that seeks to map the links between the COVID-19 pandemic, economic outcomes within the health care sector, and the impact of those changes on the broader economy in Canada. We will outline how gaps in the literature, identified by the scoping review, are informing the design of the One Society Network Health Care team’s research linking epidemiologic and economic models from a health care perspective, to capture the wider impacts of pandemic control strategies.

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