alumni
Eye on Alumni Interview: Hyosung Jung '15
Hyosung Jung '15 is a research associate at Evidera, a health economics and outcomes research (HEOR) consulting firm in Boston (USA). The BSE connected him with experts in his area of interest and a career services team that helped him land a position in that field.
You graduated from the Economics of Public Policy Program in 2015 – how’s your career going?
I’m in Boston, working as a research associate for a health economics and outcomes research consulting company called Evidera. We generate economic evidence for affordability and cost effectiveness of new drugs or medical devices that are ultimately used by the health technology companies to communicate their value and obtain reimbursement for these innovative products.
Sounds really interesting! Is this what you had in mind when you did your master?
Absolutely! I knew going into my master program that this is what I wanted to do. I had a background in biomedical sciences and after graduating I worked with an amazing placement coordinator in the BSE Career Services office who helped me land an internship at a global pharmaceutical company. I ended up working for a few months with a health economics team at Novartis in Basel – where I got to learn about and contribute to economic analyses for a new product. I got to meet with many different people who are involved in the process; the researchers, clinical staff, marketing staff, the strategy side and other economists, and was able to confirm through this experience that this is the field that I want to pursue.
Did the master help to prepare you for this role?
Definitely. It helped me in two fundamental ways; it connected me with the knowledge and the people.
I found the cost benefit analysis course in the second term in particular to be very applicable to what I do now. It wasn’t just focused on healthcare – we covered decision analyses in transportation and other sectors, and we learned a lot about the history of the process and basic techniques. For example there is this concept of discounting: if you compare receiving 100 dollars today versus 100 dollars tomorrow, people tend to value receiving the money today more so we discount the future values. However, specific discount rates that we attach to expected benefits versus costs have changed over the time. Our professor, Pere Riera, went into some details on the history of these changes, and I found it to be quite fascinating.
Do you keep in touch with your classmates?
Yes – I’m actually presenting a research project with my thesis partner at an international health economics conference in Boston this summer!
I also I took the intensive course on competition in pharmaceuticals and healthcare services at the BSE recently and was able to catchup with a few other classmates.
Is there anything you miss about your life at BSE?
The people. As a school, BSE has quite a few people who are interested in health economics. The school helped me to continue developing my interests by connecting me to these experts and providing me the opportunities for extra instruction in this field.
Pau Olivella, Xavier Martinez-Giralt, Guillem López-Casasnovas; I really learned a lot from these guys and had a lot of fun exploring health economics with them. Professor Lopez Casasnovas in particular is a very well-known and respected academic in the field. There were also plenty of visiting scholars who gave lectures and I enjoyed attending these to learn about the new developments in the field. Through all these connections I was able to get in touch with some very interesting data for my research project later on in the program.
I also have fond memories of playing football with other students! A bunch of us rented a football field together nearby and played regularly, and afterwards we’d go to the beach to cool down. I think it’s essential to have that sort of down time, no matter how busy you are.
Finally, what are your plans for the future?
I got to experience the pharmaceutical side and the consulting side of this industry and I’m really happy where I am right now – I like the variety of projects that I’m exposed to and am still learning tons of new things.
About Hyosung Jung '15
Education and career path
- University of Guelph (Guelph, Canada) - Bachelor's in Bio-Medical Science
- Queen's University (Kingston, Canada) - Bachelor's in Economics
- Employment and Social Development Canada (Gatineau, Canada) - Data Analyst
- Barcelona School of Economics - Master's Degree in Specialized Economic Analysis (Economics of Public Policy Program)
Master Thesis Project on measuring overcrowdedness patterns and identifying policy levers in Catalan Public Emergency Departments using Electronic Health Records - Novartis (Basel, Switzerland) - HEOR Intern, Global Patient Access
- Evidera (Boston, USA) - Research Associate