Pixar Films and Drug Costs: What's the link? Ellen Telfer-Thomas, Luc Curtis-Gretton and Robert Malcolm

Ellen Telfer-Thomas has a BSc (Hons) in Chemistry with Biochemistry from Heriot-Watt University. Her undergraduate dissertation focused on the spectroscopic analysis of breath acetone concentration for the application of monitoring diabetic ketoacidosis. She is also currently studying for her MSc in Project Management from the University of Aberdeen. Ellen worked as a pre-clinical trial research scientist in safety assessment at Charles River Laboratories. She works in the digital health technologies sector and provides project support.

Luc Curtis-Gretton is a Research Consultant in the Digital Health Technology and Population Health Evaluation team at YHEC. He holds an integrated MEng in Bioengineering from the University of Sheffield, where he specialised in tissue science and medical device design. Luc has led the development of economic evaluations across a broad range of health technologies, including AI-driven diagnostics, medical devices, and pharmaceuticals. His work includes the design and implementation of decision tree, Markov, and patient-level simulation models using Excel, RStudio, and R Shiny. Through YHEC’s role as an External Assessment Group (EAG), Luc has supported NICE’s early and existing use HealthTech guidance programmes, contributing to evidence assessment and model critique. He also has experience delivering health economics training to digital health clients and has experience in academic writing and peer-reviewed publication.

Robert Malcolm is a Project Director at York Health Economics Consortium (YHEC). He has an MSc in Health Economics from the University of York. Robert has previous experience working as an Assistant Economist for the Government Economic Service. Since joining YHEC in 2020, Robert has worked on and managed various projects across different disease areas, for both private and public sector clients. This has included developing and critiquing economic models for pharmaceuticals, diagnostic tests, medical devices, digital health technologies and public health interventions. Robert has also been heavily involved in working as part of the external assessment group for NICE, where he has led the development, critique, and reconstruction of economic models. Robert has supervised multiple students completing their dissertations on the MSc health economics programme at the University of York, as well as teaching on the distance learning programme, and regularly leads external training on a range of economic concepts for public and private sector clients.