Call for papers - The ethics of the economics of healthcare

Guest Editors

Mathias Barra, PhD, Akershus University Hospital, Norway
Lars Sandman, PhD, Linköping university, Sweden
Iestyn Williams, PhD, University of Birmingham, UK

Submission Status: Open | Submission Deadline: 28 March 2025

BMC Medical Ethics is calling for submissions to our Collection on The ethics of the economics of healthcare, focusing on the intersection of financial considerations and ethical decision-making in healthcare. We aim to explore the integration of ethical principles in health economics through topics such as healthcare financing, resource allocation, priority setting, patient rights, and healthcare disparities.

New Content Item This Collection supports and amplifies research related to SDG 1: No Poverty, SDG 3: Good Health & Well-Being, and SDG 10: Reduced Inequalities.

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Meet the Guest Editors

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Mathias Barra, PhD, Akershus University Hospital, Norway

Dr Mathias Barra is a Senior Researcher at the Health Services Research Unit (HØKH) at Akershus Universitetssykehus and the Department of Health Services Research and Psychiatry at the University of Oslo. His research spans health economics, medical ethics, and distributive justice, with a focus on priority setting in healthcare. Barra holds a PhD in mathematical logic and a BSc in welfare economics. His work addresses the ethics of health economics, including the evaluation of quality of life and the ethical implications of priority setting in healthcare.

Lars Sandman, PhD, Linköping university, Sweden

Dr Lars Sandman is a Philosopher by training and a Professor of healthcare ethics and Director at the National Centre for Priorities in Health at Linköping university in Sweden. He wrote his doctoral thesis on a good death and has since then done research on palliative care ethics, ethics in other clinical settings (elderly care, prehospital care etc), shared decision making, ethics in health technology assessment. The last years, his research has been dedicated to ethics of healthcare priority setting, e.g. priority setting of orphan drugs, severity as a priority setting concept etc. He is also involved as an Ethics Consultant to Swedish healthcare authorities and healthcare providers and part of reimbursement boards for new medical interventions.

Iestyn Williams, PhD, University of Birmingham, UK

Dr Iestyn Williams specialises in social science approaches to Health Services Research, employing mixed methods study designs. For over 20 years, he has carried out research into priority setting, strategic planning, decision making and decommissioning in health care contexts. Dr Williams has led studies in the UK and participated in international comparative research including in lower resource settings. His work explores the interplay of evidence, ethics, economics and politics in the resource allocation process.

About the Collection

BMC Medical Ethics is calling for submissions to our Collection on The ethics of the economics of healthcare. In this interdisciplinary Collection, we aim to highlight how financial considerations intersect and influence ethical decision-making in healthcare, and how ethical concerns are embedded into health economic principles. From healthcare financing, resource allocation and priority setting, to patient rights and healthcare disparities, we seek to explore the intricate relationship between resources, ethics, and quality of care.

We welcome submissions examining the economic dynamics of medical care, exploring the impact of diverse financing models and economic variables on healthcare delivery. Additionally, we encourage studies focusing on ethical frameworks guiding decision-making in clinical practice and health policy, ethical issues related to priority setting and the allocation of scarce resources, studies addressing issues such as healthcare disparities, and strategies to balance equity against efficiency in health care. Submissions that analyze the association between socio-economic gradients and health outcomes, policy interventions designed to mitigate these, and studies focused on other undesirable variations in the delivery, uptake, and impact of health care will aid this issue’s mission of advancing our understanding of fair and equitable access to quality care.

This Collection supports and amplifies research related to SDG 1: No Poverty, SDG 3: Good Health & Well-Being and SDG 10: Reduced Inequalities.

Image credit: Monster Ztudio / stock.adobe.com

There are currently no articles in this collection.

Submission Guidelines

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This Collection welcomes submission of original Research Articles. Should you wish to submit a different article type, please read our submission guidelines to confirm that type is accepted by the journal. Articles for this Collection should be submitted via our submission system, Snapp. During the submission process you will be asked whether you are submitting to a Collection, please select "The ethics of the economics of healthcare" from the dropdown menu.

Articles will undergo the journal’s standard peer-review process and are subject to all of the journal’s standard policies. Articles will be added to the Collection as they are published.

The Editors have no competing interests with the submissions which they handle through the peer review process. The peer review of any submissions for which the Editors have competing interests is handled by another Editorial Board Member who has no competing interests.