Health economics bolsters AITHM research
AITHM’s research capacity has recently been bolstered, with the recruitment of Dr Emily Callander, a Health Economist.
Health economics is a new and much needed capacity in AITHM. When introducing new treatments or changes in health systems, health economics assists in demonstrating a good investment, along with a positive patient, hospital, individual or health system outcomes.
AITHM researchers can now engage and benefit from Dr Callander’s skills in this area and boost the level of economic analysis into their studies.
“AITHM is now building economic analysis into their research design, recommended public health interventions and is being used in examination of policy effectiveness.
“With the pressure of budgets and targets, health care systems are looking for sound economic arguments prior to implementing new practices to demonstrate a good investment.
“Health economics evaluation measures are a perfect complement to the great research being undertaken at AITHM and further enhancing the research translation to public health practice,” Dr Callander said.
In demonstrating the benefit of Health economics, Dr Callander, recently reviewed a RCT and used health economics to determine that while an initial study indicated no difference in quality-adjusted life year outcomes, a re-framing of the research question, using the same data, resulted in findings that demonstrated significant cost savings to the public health system.
“It’s important for researchers to remain flexible when designing evaluations, and to tailor health economic evaluations to the needs of each individual research project.
“To get the best out of health economics, I’d recommend researchers engage with a health economist early in the project design stages, and incorporate economic evaluation into the design. I look forward to working closely with researchers and establishing sound economic analysis into newly emerging project ideas,” Dr Callander said.
To discuss upcoming research and how to best incorporate health economics, researchers can contact Dr Emily Callander on the details below:
Dr Emily Callander
(07) 478 16106
