I am a Reader in the Centre for Health Economics, conducting interdisciplinary research aimed at tackling healthcare challenges and improving decision-making and implementation in healthcare policy. My research is centred around using systems thinking and modelling approaches in health economics evaluation and draws on tools and methods from mathematical epidemiology, economics, management science, and computer science, among other fields.

My main body of work involves systems modelling and simulation, and it involves integrating disease and economic models for policy impact evaluation and prioritisation. I am interested in both infectious disease and non-communicable disease modelling. From a methodological standpoint, I am particularly interested in strengthening rigour in agent-based modelling and hybrid models, which integrate modelling methods when this simplifies analyses. I have applied my research to studying and conducting knowledge-exchange activities addressing global health challenges. This includes conducting healthcare intervention and policy evaluations, studying health systems strengthening in low- and middle-income countries, studying antimicrobial resistance policy globally and in the UK, evaluating COVID-19 policy and interventions, investigating how behaviour and social structure affect health and diseases, and exploring the role of incentives in healthcare policy design.

I hold a PhD in Management Science, specialising in modelling for healthcare policy, from the University of Strathclyde and an MA in economics and BA honours economics from McGill University, in Montreal.

Cristina Montañola Sales is an assistant professor at Institut Químic de Sarrià in Ramon Llull University, where she teaches subjects in ICT and statistics. She holds a PhD in Statistics and Operations Research and specializes in the investigation of novel quantitative methods for studying human behavior, such as agent-based models and spatio-temporal analysis. Her interdisciplinary research combines mathematics with social sciences, biomedicine and High-Performance Computing. She has studied various contexts, such as the dynamics of mobility of Gambian emigrants, demographic forecasting in South Korea, and ecological resilience of hunter-gatherers in India. Her research on tuberculosis transmissions and COVID-19 has advanced knowledge in epidemics, demographic dynamics and computational statistics. She has published articles and participated in international projects on simulation, parallel computing and global health.