Koen Pouwels
Phd
ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR
Koen joined Oxford Population Health's Health Economics Research Centre (HERC) as a senior researcher in January 2019.
His current work focuses on infectious disease and antimicrobial resistance modelling, randomised trial designs, economic evaluations alongside trials, incorporating long-term effects into economic evaluations, and statistical approaches to address time-dependent confounding in burden of illness studies.
His work has directly informed national COVID-19 mitigation and testing strategies, vaccination policies against various infectious diseases, as well as national targets for antibiotic prescribing in primary care.
Prior to joining HERC, Koen worked at Public Health England on projects using mathematical, statistical and machine learning approaches to understand and predict the development and health-economic impact of healthcare associated infections and antimicrobial resistance.
Before coming to the UK, he obtained his PhD in epidemiology at the University of Groningen where he was also involved in a number of economic evaluations of vaccinations against infectious diseases.
Recent publications
The epidemiological effect and cost-effectiveness of expanded age eligibility for recombinant zoster vaccination in England.
Journal article
Ku C-C. et al, (2026), Vaccine, 78
Health-economic impacts of age-targeted and sex-targeted Lassa fever vaccination in endemic regions of Nigeria, Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone: a modelling study.
Journal article
Smith DRM. et al, (2026), Lancet Glob Health, 14, e261 - e271
The cumulative incidence and infection hospitalization risk of SARS-CoV-2 by variant: a longitudinal study in England.
Journal article
Gaughan C. et al, (2026), Am J Epidemiol, 195, 188 - 197
Associations Between Trust in Healthcare Professionals and Perceptions of Modifiability of Dementia and Stroke Risks Through Maintaining or Changing Lifestyle Habits.
Journal article
Ng SCW. et al, (2026), Am J Health Promot, 40, 47 - 58