Research Spotlight

Dr Maddalena Ferranna is an Assistant Professor of Pharmaceutical and Health Economics at University of Southern California. She is also part of the Centre of Excellence, Health Economics Team. Her research focuses on the value of health and longevity. 

We had a quick chat with Maddalena to find out why she got involved in diabetes research and what she thinks will be the biggest T1D research breakthroughs in the next 10 years.

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Why did you get into T1D research?

A central focus of my work is developing and applying methods to assess the full health, social, and economic value of health technologies (e.g., drugs, therapies, devices). Traditional economic evaluations tend to focus on a relatively narrow set of outcomes, such as mortality, quality-adjusted life years, and healthcare costs. While these measures are important, they do not capture the full range of benefits that health technologies can generate. These broader benefits include, for example, improvements in labor force participation and productivity, enhanced cognitive development in children, reductions in family burden, and potentially greater social equity. Failing to consider these broader benefits may lead to socially inefficient investment in research and development, manufacturing, delivery, and reimbursement.

T1D is a particularly important area for this work because it imposes a lifelong burden that extends well beyond clinical outcomes alone. The way we evaluate T1D-related technologies can therefore have major implications for innovation, access, and policy.  

What are the current research projects you are working on?

I am currently working on two main projects. The first looks at the full global burden of T1D, how that burden is distributed across countries, and the key factors driving those differences. Our preliminary results suggest that the burden is substantial and that it would support greater investment in T1D-related research and development. The second project focuses on the real-world effectiveness of glucose monitoring and management technologies and on whether the benefits of adopting these technologies differ by socioeconomic groups. I am also very interested in understanding the cognitive burden of T1D for people living with the condition and their families. I think this is an important but often overlooked component of the overall burden of T1D, especially in economic evaluation.

What do you think will be the biggest T1D research breakthroughs in the next 10 years?

I think some of the most promising breakthroughs will come from therapies that can delay the onset of T1D. Progress in that area will also depend on better screening and earlier identification of people at risk, so advances in screening will be an important part of the picture.