Architectural design to improve Indigenous health outcomes. The project seeks to develop evidence-based knowledge on what Indigenous clients find supportive or stressful in health care settings, to formulate recommendations for architectural design and service delivery. Many Indigenous people fail to present for health care until chronically ill, due to fear or dislike of health services and their settings. This project aims to understand how design in healthcare architecture across different bu ....Architectural design to improve Indigenous health outcomes. The project seeks to develop evidence-based knowledge on what Indigenous clients find supportive or stressful in health care settings, to formulate recommendations for architectural design and service delivery. Many Indigenous people fail to present for health care until chronically ill, due to fear or dislike of health services and their settings. This project aims to understand how design in healthcare architecture across different building scales and services (clinics, hospitals, waiting rooms, wards etc) affects Indigenous people’s use and perceptions of these environments and consequent motivation to access health care services. Developing innovative and adaptable research methods, the project seeks to identify the necessary architectural design changes for health settings to facilitate access for Indigenous people.Read moreRead less
Assessing the national productivity impacts of chronic ill health. The project aims to address one of the biggest gaps in health and productivity research by designing a novel composite national metric that will rank lost productivity due to chronic illness The project brings together tax/transfer modelling, health modelling and epidemiological modelling specialists to develop a highly innovative microsimulation model: Health&WorkMOD to then quantify the costs of health-related productivity loss ....Assessing the national productivity impacts of chronic ill health. The project aims to address one of the biggest gaps in health and productivity research by designing a novel composite national metric that will rank lost productivity due to chronic illness The project brings together tax/transfer modelling, health modelling and epidemiological modelling specialists to develop a highly innovative microsimulation model: Health&WorkMOD to then quantify the costs of health-related productivity loss. The proposed model, an international first, will be a powerful tool to comprehensively model the cost impacts of illness and simulate policy options related to health and productivity. This will provide answers to critical policy questions for government with potential significant economic benefits.Read moreRead less
Sparse grid approximations and fitting using generalised combination techniques. Sparse grid techniques provide an effective tool to deal with the
computational curse of dimensionality which is a constant challenge in
modelling complex data. The proposed research is aimed at the
development and analysis of algorithms for data fitting with sparse
grids using variants of the combination technique. The outcome of the
research is a theory which will provide insights in the applicability,
limit ....Sparse grid approximations and fitting using generalised combination techniques. Sparse grid techniques provide an effective tool to deal with the
computational curse of dimensionality which is a constant challenge in
modelling complex data. The proposed research is aimed at the
development and analysis of algorithms for data fitting with sparse
grids using variants of the combination technique. The outcome of the
research is a theory which will provide insights in the applicability,
limitations and the convergence properties of the proposed
algorithms. The outcomes will be widely applicable in modelling of
large scale and complex data as is encountered in areas of
bioinformatics, physics and experimental studies of complex systems.
Read moreRead less
The economics of mothers milk and the market for infant food. Breastfeeding is increasingly recognized as an important public health issue, but is rarely viewed from an economic perspective. However, feminist critiques of mainstream economics have helped draw attention to the value of breastmilk and the significance of economic and commercial factors in women's decisions about infant feeding. This project aims to provide the economic analysis and social research relevant to effective public heal ....The economics of mothers milk and the market for infant food. Breastfeeding is increasingly recognized as an important public health issue, but is rarely viewed from an economic perspective. However, feminist critiques of mainstream economics have helped draw attention to the value of breastmilk and the significance of economic and commercial factors in women's decisions about infant feeding. This project aims to provide the economic analysis and social research relevant to effective public health policies on breastfeeding. The primary output will be a book manuscript.Read moreRead less
Applying search theory for eradicating invasive species. Invasive species have major economic and environmental impacts in Australia and are a major cause of extinctions worldwide. Monitoring is crucial for the timely control of invasive species in sensitive environments. Early detection increases the probability of eradication and increased accuracy in detection reduces the impact of control programs on non-target species. Efficient monitoring also is crucial in determining whether eradication ....Applying search theory for eradicating invasive species. Invasive species have major economic and environmental impacts in Australia and are a major cause of extinctions worldwide. Monitoring is crucial for the timely control of invasive species in sensitive environments. Early detection increases the probability of eradication and increased accuracy in detection reduces the impact of control programs on non-target species. Efficient monitoring also is crucial in determining whether eradication has succeeded. Search Theory has been applied for over 60 years in a wide range of non-biological monitoring problems, resulting in large increases in target detection rates. Gains of a similar magnitude in invasive species detection would greatly enhance Australia's capacity to manage these threats.Read moreRead less
Improving external validity of stated choice experiments. This project aims to deliver more accurate estimates of choice behaviour by reducing biases due to choice task complexity in surveys as well as design artefacts. Extracting 'true' preferences is challenging, not only due to possible hypothetical bias, but also due to increasingly complex choice tasks and the existence of design artefacts. This project will investigate the latter two in the context of marketing, transport, health, and envi ....Improving external validity of stated choice experiments. This project aims to deliver more accurate estimates of choice behaviour by reducing biases due to choice task complexity in surveys as well as design artefacts. Extracting 'true' preferences is challenging, not only due to possible hypothetical bias, but also due to increasingly complex choice tasks and the existence of design artefacts. This project will investigate the latter two in the context of marketing, transport, health, and environmental economics, and proposes new methodologies to extract preferences that more closely reflect true behaviour in real markets.Read moreRead less
Resolving patients' complaints about hospitals: Responsive regulation by health ombudsmen. Ombudsmen help ensure integrity and accountability in societal institutions. This study of patients' complaints about hospitals to health ombudsmen in two states, and the responses of hospitals, will produce evidence on strategies for making hospitals more responsive to the public and more accountable for the quality of their care. Australia was a world leader in establishing health ombudsmen and this stud ....Resolving patients' complaints about hospitals: Responsive regulation by health ombudsmen. Ombudsmen help ensure integrity and accountability in societal institutions. This study of patients' complaints about hospitals to health ombudsmen in two states, and the responses of hospitals, will produce evidence on strategies for making hospitals more responsive to the public and more accountable for the quality of their care. Australia was a world leader in establishing health ombudsmen and this study will explore their impact upon the hospital system. Evidence-based strategies are needed to improve the accountability of service providers and regulators. Social and economic benefits flow from empowering patients and from improving hospital performance.Read moreRead less
Improving Government Policy Making and Needs-Based Delivery of Services: Innovative Techniques to Enhance Administrative Data by Adding Socioeconomic Status. This project will create major national benefits by illuminating whether there are significant differences in access to or usage of such key government services as health and education by socio-economic status. Currently, most departments do not fully exploit their administrative data to answer such questions, because of the difficulty of ....Improving Government Policy Making and Needs-Based Delivery of Services: Innovative Techniques to Enhance Administrative Data by Adding Socioeconomic Status. This project will create major national benefits by illuminating whether there are significant differences in access to or usage of such key government services as health and education by socio-economic status. Currently, most departments do not fully exploit their administrative data to answer such questions, because of the difficulty of identifying the socio-economic status of users. This project will help Australia in its on-going but recently intensified efforts to make better use of its administrative data, resulting in a more efficient use of our data resources; better targeting of scare government resources; and improved identification of those in greatest need. Read moreRead less
Problems of identification and inference for 'non-standard' models in complex systems with special reference to finance and teletraffic. The project is concerned with 'non-standard' models needed to deal with complex systems, such as those exhibiting scaling and fractal properties. There is a focus on methods for dealing with heavy tailed distributions and long range dependent observations, for which most standard statistical methods break down, and on applications in finance and telecommunicati ....Problems of identification and inference for 'non-standard' models in complex systems with special reference to finance and teletraffic. The project is concerned with 'non-standard' models needed to deal with complex systems, such as those exhibiting scaling and fractal properties. There is a focus on methods for dealing with heavy tailed distributions and long range dependent observations, for which most standard statistical methods break down, and on applications in finance and telecommunications. An important part of the project concerns model validation for Heyde's fractal activity time geometric Brownian motion model, a candidate minimal description risky asset model to replace the geometric Brownian motion paradigm.Read moreRead less
Chronic Disease Prevention and Treatment - Cost-Benefit Model Systems to Assist with Priority Setting. The key benefit of the proposal to develop linked chronic disease models that are able to account for comorbidities will be that a much more accurate picture of the health and financial implications of chronic diseases will be obtainable than with the traditional 'disease-by-disease' based studies. Such a global approach is particularly relevant to analysis of chronic disease prevention and/or ....Chronic Disease Prevention and Treatment - Cost-Benefit Model Systems to Assist with Priority Setting. The key benefit of the proposal to develop linked chronic disease models that are able to account for comorbidities will be that a much more accurate picture of the health and financial implications of chronic diseases will be obtainable than with the traditional 'disease-by-disease' based studies. Such a global approach is particularly relevant to analysis of chronic disease prevention and/or treatment, because the lifestyle related risk factors are common to many such diseases. Overall, the linked models will be able to improve on current decision making processes, providing a more complete view of chronic disease costs and benefits - either today, or in future - under different prevention or treatment scenarios.Read moreRead less