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
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE220100663
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$440,850.00
Summary
The Real Price of Health: Experiences of Out-of-Pocket Costs in Australia. This project aims to investigate the experiences and preferences of Australian families and individuals on low, middle, and high incomes in managing the out-of-pocket costs of chronic disease. This project aspires to ensure outcomes that are relevant to the public and patients through involving people living with chronic disease in the research team. The project expects to generate a discrete choice model that describes p ....The Real Price of Health: Experiences of Out-of-Pocket Costs in Australia. This project aims to investigate the experiences and preferences of Australian families and individuals on low, middle, and high incomes in managing the out-of-pocket costs of chronic disease. This project aspires to ensure outcomes that are relevant to the public and patients through involving people living with chronic disease in the research team. The project expects to generate a discrete choice model that describes people with chronic diseases’ preferences, and the trade-offs that they are faced with when deciding how to manage out-of-pocket health costs. The evidence arising from this innovative study will be used to directly inform Australian health policy, leading to wide-ranging health and economic benefits for the whole community.Read moreRead less
Priority Setting in Child Protection: developing an evidence-based strategy to reduce child abuse and neglect and associated harms. Persons who are potential, current or previous victims of child abuse and neglect are the primary beneficiaries of this research. The study will facilitate evidence-based funding decisions by government (and nongovernment organizations) integrating data on quality of life impacts (physical/mental health, educational, social etc), and the costs to society of dealing ....Priority Setting in Child Protection: developing an evidence-based strategy to reduce child abuse and neglect and associated harms. Persons who are potential, current or previous victims of child abuse and neglect are the primary beneficiaries of this research. The study will facilitate evidence-based funding decisions by government (and nongovernment organizations) integrating data on quality of life impacts (physical/mental health, educational, social etc), and the costs to society of dealing with the consequences of child abuse. The research has the potential to profoundly enhance the well-being of Australia's most vulnerable children, simultaneously addressing the large costs on agencies of dealing with child abuse. The methodology will be highly applicable to other complex social problems requiring whole of government strategies.Read moreRead less
Modelling the lifetime social and economic impacts of fragile x syndrome and the benefits of early diagnosis and intervention. This project falls within the National Research Priority, promoting and maintaining good health, through a healthy start to life and strengthening of social and economic outcomes over the course of life. Fragile X is a group of associated genetic disorders affecting individuals across generations. It is the most common identifiable cause of inherited intellectual disabil ....Modelling the lifetime social and economic impacts of fragile x syndrome and the benefits of early diagnosis and intervention. This project falls within the National Research Priority, promoting and maintaining good health, through a healthy start to life and strengthening of social and economic outcomes over the course of life. Fragile X is a group of associated genetic disorders affecting individuals across generations. It is the most common identifiable cause of inherited intellectual disability. About 1 in 4000 males and 1 in 8000 females have Fragile X, but up to 1 in 250 females are carriers. For the first time in Australia, this study will reveal the social and economic impacts on the individual, on their family members who are often the lifelong carers, and on the Australian community, and show how these impacts may be minimised through early intervention.Read moreRead less
Child Dental Benefit Policies and the Health of Australian Children. This project aims to examine the early effects of two recent initiatives by the Australian government to improve children’s dental health by providing funds to cover essential dental services for children from disadvantaged families. It explores the factors affecting eligible children’s access to benefits from these initiatives and identifies the causal impacts of these changed health care financing arrangements on children’s c ....Child Dental Benefit Policies and the Health of Australian Children. This project aims to examine the early effects of two recent initiatives by the Australian government to improve children’s dental health by providing funds to cover essential dental services for children from disadvantaged families. It explores the factors affecting eligible children’s access to benefits from these initiatives and identifies the causal impacts of these changed health care financing arrangements on children’s consumption of dental services, indicators of oral health and general health, and other indicators of cognitive and non-cognitive development. Using advanced econometric techniques and panel datasets, this project is expected to contribute to the development of effective policies for promoting health and wellbeing.Read moreRead less
Mis-reporting, adaptation and anchoring: the implications for self assessed health. In terms of targeting scarce public health resources, information concerning the true health status of different social groups is important. This project will provide more accurate information on the health of the Australian population using data already collected on a routine basis. Resources can then be targeted to reduce health inequalities.
Nanny state or good public policy: Do the benefits of mandatory health programs justify the loss of consumer choice? Governments are increasingly turning to mandatory programs to improve health. Such programs are appealing because there are high health benefits from universal participation and low costs for promotion and monitoring the program. However, this apparent benefit relies on restriction of personal choice, which may impose welfare losses on consumers. Evaluations generally ignore loss ....Nanny state or good public policy: Do the benefits of mandatory health programs justify the loss of consumer choice? Governments are increasingly turning to mandatory programs to improve health. Such programs are appealing because there are high health benefits from universal participation and low costs for promotion and monitoring the program. However, this apparent benefit relies on restriction of personal choice, which may impose welfare losses on consumers. Evaluations generally ignore loss of choice, despite evidence suggesting consumers value the ability to choose. This study will estimate the impact and value this loss of consumer choice, explore program specific factors and consumer characteristics influencing the valuation, and determine whether and how restricted choice should be explicitly considered when evaluating public health programs.Read moreRead less
Rural General Practitioners in Australia: Costs, Returns and Relative Work Value of Rural Compared with Urban Private General Practitioners. Aims:
* To conduct a rurally focused study of GPs in Australia, to address rural GPs' concerns about remuneration, and consumers' concerns about access to rural GPs.
* To examine costs, prices, returns and work value differentials between rural and urban GPs.
Significance:
* The first systematic economic evaluation of rural GP remuneration and work valu ....Rural General Practitioners in Australia: Costs, Returns and Relative Work Value of Rural Compared with Urban Private General Practitioners. Aims:
* To conduct a rurally focused study of GPs in Australia, to address rural GPs' concerns about remuneration, and consumers' concerns about access to rural GPs.
* To examine costs, prices, returns and work value differentials between rural and urban GPs.
Significance:
* The first systematic economic evaluation of rural GP remuneration and work value in Australia.
* Reflection of the profession's geographical heterogeneity in policy recommendations.
Expected outcomes:
* Improved measurements of effects of geographcial location on costs, remuneration and relative work value of rural GPs.
* Improved understanding of effects of differential rates of GP bulk-billing.Read moreRead less
Improving Patient Access To Novel Cancer Drugs In Australia: Striking The Balance
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$318,768.00
Summary
Cancer patients in Australia may experience delays before they can benefit from new expensive drugs because of the lengthy existing processes to evaluate new medicines by the Department of Health. I will study how to improve the existing drug evaluation processes to make timely but informed funding decisions. This work will improve patient outcomes from early access to effective new cancer drugs and help the government make a wiser spending of public funds.
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