Dr. Emily Callander has recently joined the team at AITHM and has commenced in the role of Research Fellow - Health Economics.
Health economics is all about finding an efficient and also equitable means of distributing scarce healthcare resources – generally dollars.
Every healthcare professional naturally believes that their area of service is of vital importance, and requires more resources. But the reality is that our healthcare system operates within a finite environment, so for every new intervention or treatment that receives additional funding, another area will miss out.
The role of health economists then, is to try to quantify the costs and benefits of different of different treatments, interventions or services, to allow decision makers to make an informed decision about what areas to fund.
Dr Emily Callander, Senior Research Fellow at the Australian Institute of Tropical Health and Medicine is conducting research that quantifies the full costs of different chronic health conditions, so when new treatments become available decision makers have a good idea about the cost savings they will be making by better treating or preventing certain conditions.
“The costs of different chronic conditions extend well beyond the healthcare sector – effecting patent’s and their family’s participation in the workforce and also their income and overall living standards.” Dr Callander explains.
“One of the most sobering figures from my research is that the average male aged 45 to 64 who is employed full time will reach retirement with around $282,000 in savings, but the average male who retires early due to cardiovascular disease (CDV) will reach the traditional retirement age of 65 with $1,800 in savings.”
Figures like this show that chronic health conditions have costs that stretch across government portfolios, also costs $85 million in additional government welfare payments, $225 million in lost income tax per year and $748 million in GDP from lost employment productivity for the 45 to 64 year age group). Figures like this can help make the economic argument for more investment in healthcare treatment and prevention activities.
Dr. Emily Callander has recently joined the team at AITHM and is looking forward to bringing a health economics perspective to tropical health and medicine.