The Global Center for Health Economics and Policy Research (GCHEPR) was created to promote action-oriented international dialog on the financial, cultural, and infrastructure issues that constrain the equitable delivery of quality health services. Its programs engage in research, training, and collaboration across nations and continents to promote vital policy and system improvements.

Current international research focuses on:

• Health insurance, financing, and health care labor markets
• The correlation between social capital and health
• Mental health care reforms in Central and Eastern Europe
• The global market for Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder medications
• The global health workforce

For the past three years, the Global Center's Mental Health and Policy Research Training Program has brought young scholars and clinicians from Central Europe to Berkeley for intensive training in health care finance, market, delivery, and policy issues. Funded by the Fogarty International Center/NIH, this highly successful program is now being expanded to other countries in Eastern and Central Europe.

The inspiration behind the Global Center came from the International Health Economics Association Fourth World Congress, which was held in San Francisco in June of 2003 under the leadership of Richard Scheffler, Distinguished Professor of Health Economics and Public Policy, School of Public Health, University of California, Berkeley. Scheffler is also Director of the Nicholas C. Petris Center on Health Care Markets & Consumer Welfare.