2026 ISPOR Conference Presentations

SPHIS students presented a wide range of research addressing critical public health challenges, from healthcare costs and access to maternal health and vaccination outcomes at the 2026 International Society for Health Economics and Outcomes Research (ISPOR) Conference in Philadelphia in May.

Research topics reflected pressing issues in health policy and population health, including cost-effectiveness of treatments, healthcare utilization and disparities in access to care.

Dept. of Health Management and Systems Sciences doctoral candidate presentations included:

• Mohadese Alizadeh presented, “Regional Disparities in Opioid Use Disorder and Treatment Access During Pregnancy Among Kentucky Medicaid Beneficiaries.”
• Nawaf Albaqami presented, "Emergency General Surgery Outcomes at Critical Access Hospitals Compared with Rural Non-Critical Access and Urban Hospitals in Kentucky (2016–2024)."
• Chandrima Chatterjee, MPH, BDS, presented a poster titled "Cost-effectiveness of Postpartum Depression Screening in the United States."
• Anika Mehta presented “Analysing the Impact of Shared Decision Making amongst Cancer Patients on Total Medical Expenditure by Payer Type and Number of Emergency Visits.”
• Yathreb Bayan Mohamed, PharmD, MBA, presented: “Cost-Effectiveness of GLP-1 Receptor Agonists Versus SGLT2 Inhibitors for Cardiovascular Protection Among U.S. Adults with Diabetes: A MEPS-Based Economic Evaluation 2022.”
• Mana Moghadami presented, “Demographic Disparities in HPV Vaccine Initiation Among Kentucky Medicaid Beneficiaries.”
• Melody Ucho, M.Sc., presented, “Cost-Effectiveness of WIC Eligibility Extension in Preventing Maternal Postpartum Depression from US Payers’ Perspective.”
• Hamid Zarei presented, "The non-linear drivers behind HPV vaccine completion among Medicaid children in Kentucky."

Dept. of Bioinformatics and Biostatistics doctoral candidate presentations included:

• Sepideh Poursafargholi, presented, "Demographic Disparities in Opioid Use Disorder and Treatment Access During Pregnancy Among Kentucky Medicaid Beneficiaries."