Our research
Transformative research and evaluation to improve health outcomes for all
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Our high-quality research aims to support and enhance health policy, health economics, big data analysis, and health services.
We take a population approach to investigate burden of disease, sociodemographic and clinical risk factors and the impact of treatment and interventions on health outcomes, wellbeing, development and health service use and costs.
This involves the analysis of linked clinical, cohort and administrative health datasets to establish population-based ‘data cohorts’ that enable longitudinal follow-up of individuals’ over time.
Specific datasets used include state and Commonwealth administrative perinatal (maternal and infant health), hospital admission, emergency department, Medicare, PBS medication and deaths data collections; as well as novel linkage of pathology, NAPLAN education, clinical trials and registries; and analysis of established linked cohort studies (e.g. 45 and Up study, UK Biobank).
This co-designed project with the Juvenile Arthritis Foundation Australia, and in collaboration with the Australian Paediatric Rheumatology Group, will establish systems to provide ongoing national data on juvenile arthritis for the first time in Australia, to improve early diagnosis and clinical pathways.
Funding: Medical Research Future Fund
This study uses survey data from the 45 and Up Study which is linked to routinely collected health data (such as hospitalisations and Medicare claims) to examine the scale of the diabetes epidemic and the impact of this on rates of CVD and other diabetes-related complications.
It investigates whether existing government funded Medicare resources available to prevent diabetes and CVD and other diabetes-related complications are being used effectively. Finally, it determines whether people who use these services have better long-term health outcome
Funding: NSW Health Cardiovascular Early-Mid Career Researcher grant
This project will develop a transition support package, combining 1) insights from lived experience, 2) a model of care which has been proven to be effective and 3) technology. We will assess the impact of this approach in terms of post-transition medical contacts and participant experience, aiming to embed the initiative in clinical practice if effective.
Funding: National Health and Medical Research Council Early to Mid-Career Researchers grant
Health economics
We analyse how value, and values are determined and integrated into decision making. We answer questions around the efficient provision of health services in different contexts, explore the application of distributional efficiency approaches, and answer broader questions around the notion of ‘value’ from a decision maker, community, and patient perspective.
We apply quantitative economic methods to understand community preferences for how health services and systems are delivered and how health outcomes are valued. Our aim is to achieve sustainable health care systems and delivery that prioritise outcomes of value for the community.
Health funding and financing
Health systems are complex, and funded by many different actors including Federal and state governments, private insurers and from out-of-pocket expenses from individuals. There is a similar complexity for how providers are financed. We analyse and describe how health systems are funded and health service providers are paid. We also investigate how these functions of the health system impact patients welfare.
We apply both quantitative and qualitative methods to understand who pays, who benefits and what might be done to improve the outcomes for patients and society. Our aim is to produce evidence that aids the health system to produce high-quality integrated care and avoid funding and financing policies that result in fragmented low-quality care.
Gene therapies promise benefits for many diseases previously considered incurable. However, the true impacts of gene therapies are highly uncertain and extremely high cost (>$1M/course of therapy). These factors lead to significant uncertainty for decision-makers and payers.
This project will address these challenges by developing a generalisable economic model to facilitate evaluation of gene therapies within and across indications, directly informed by stakeholder preferences and ethical and equity considerations.
We will use robust qualitative, quantitative, and social research to:
Funding: Medical Research Future Fund
The TORCH project seeks to identify appropriate ways to understand, measure and value changes in health-related quality of life of children including the commonly used metric of ‘Quality Adjusted Life Years’ (QALYs).
Our study involves meaningful collaborations between researchers, policymakers, clinicians, child health organisations, and importantly, young people, to co-design the research, and to ensure the outcomes are fit-for-purpose.
Funding: Medical Research Future Fund
This project is supporting a comprehensive evaluation of new models of care by undertaking a detailed health economic evaluation. This evaluation will help inform future funding arrangements for virtual hospital care and demonstrate the impact of a virtual hospital on system capacity.
Funding: Sydney Local Health District
In this work we investigate how payments are made to providers of cancer care and who they could be altered to improve patient outcomes, experiences and exposure to financial risk.
Payment reform is routinely advocated to overcome the siloing of healthcare system sectors, improve care integration, and encourage models of care that deliver benefits. One proposed method of doing this is via bundled payments, a single payment for the treatment of an episode of care, rather than paying for each service individually.
We are investigating whether this can be done in Australia and what will be required. The introduction of payment reform is a critical requirement to improve integration of care in Australia but increased evidence on design and implementation is required as well as changes in the institutional structure.
Funding: National Health and Medical Research Council
Health technologies
We're developing and analysing how information is gathered and flows throughout health systems and in health policy making processes. We incorporate novel methods for data collection and analysis, and the development of new systems to hold, regulate and govern health knowledge. We also investigate how knowledge is found, interpreted and utilised in health systems and policy.
Our aim is to achieve intelligent systems of knowledge generation and utilisation in health policy that incorporate the complex mix of factors that need to be understood to make wise decisions.
Health services and systems
We use qualitative and quantitive tools to help health services achieve their goals, improving patient and societal outcomes. This can involve helping design and plan services, or aiding the evaluation and monitoring of service delivery. We work with patients, providers and payers to ensure that the planning for services is evidence-based and the results are relevant to those who use and deliver services.
We also analyse how health services are constructed and delivered within broader health and social systems. We explore how health goals can be achieved by analysing models of care at a system level, and investigating how their success or failure can be explained. Our aim is to develop comprehensive system-level models of health care that increase access, equity and quality.
The gEnomics4newborns research project aims to develop health technology assessment tools, informed by a diverse range of community and stakeholder views, to assist government to streamline assessments of genomics in newborn screening, enabling faster public access to screening that is equitable, effective, cost-effective and ethically-informed. The research is being guided by a Consumer Advisory Group of members of the rare disease community.
Funding: Medical Research Future Fund
Since 2018, the Western Australia Country Health Service’s Command Centre (WACHS CC), a virtual clinical hub, has provided more than 160,000 video consultations to 88 emergency sites state-wide and have avoided hospital transfers for 74% of patients seen by their service.
This project looks to understand the economic costs, and service access benefits, of embedding the service into additional regional communities.
Funding: Digital Health Cooperative Research Centre
This partnership project involves working with multiple stakeholders to codesign and implement heart health literacy solutions. It aims to reduce access barriers to preventive Heart Health Checks in primary care and close equity gaps in cardiovascular disease outcomes.
This includes evidence-based decision support for GPs and patients, behaviour change tools for people with lower health literacy, conversation guides to facilitate culturally appropriate shared decision making with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, integration with GP and Primary Health Network programs and software systems, and testing new models of care for targeted risk screening in general practice.
The interventions have improved both GP and patient knowledge of CVD risk; increased healthy lifestyle behaviours, risk factor assessment and MBS billing for Heart Health Checks; reached over 100,000 people in the research phase and over 500,000 since being integrated into new guidelines and clinical risk assessment tools.
Funding: National Health and Medical Research Council, Heart Foundation, Royal Australian College of General Practitioners, Medical Research Future Fund via Prevention Centre, Department of Health and Aged Care.
Work within this theme includes the analysis of how health services are constructed and delivered within the broader health and social systems. We analyse how and why key health goals such as access, equity, and experience can be achieved by analysing models of care at a system level.
This theme includes evaluative research of novel models of care and new health technologies, and how their success, or failure, can be explained. Our aim is to develop comprehensive system-level models of health care that increase access, equity and quality.
This evaluation project is being conducted in collaboration with the University of Sydney’s Poche Centre for Indigenous Health. The evaluation will address all aspects of the Central West NSW Mental Health and Wellbeing Program, which was established in response to a significant identified service gap in Aboriginal mental health services in Forbes, Condobolin, Orange, Cowra and surrounding areas.
This includes co-designing metrics of monitoring and success; developing partnerships and processes; assessing models of care, referral pathways to relevant services, and met needs; an economic evaluation; assessment of scalability; and development of recommendations for the future.
Funding: NSW Health
This international comparative project identifies high-promise strategic reform opportunities for improved governance of primary care by exploring the drivers, dimensions and outcomes of reform through intensive country case studies and cross-state comparisons.
Funding: University of Toronto, Northwest Properties
This Centre of Research Excellence focuses on advancing knowledge and policy translation to facilitate and enhance integrated health and social care. The mission is to mission is to improve the health of vulnerable people in the community, and to advance the translation of health, economic and social systems research into policy and practice.
Funding: National Health and Medical Research Council
International Investment Agreements (IIAs) form part of efforts by governments to attract foreign investment, but industry actors have used them to dispute health policy measures in critical areas, including tobacco control and access to medicines.
Recognising these risks, the World Health Organization (WHO) has recommended that health safeguards be built into IIAs, but their adoption has been limited and inconsistent.
This project aims to identify:
Funding: National Health and Medical Research Council Ideas Grant
This project brings together government Partners in Australia and the World Health Organization European Region with leading Australian nutrition policy researchers. It is supporting better policy making on food systems and nutrition by studying specific instances where recommended policies have been successfully adopted and implemented.
The research will identify strategies to improve food policies across government sectors, to improve outcomes for nutrition and environmental sustainability.
Funding: National Health and Medical Research Council
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