Improving Decision Making On Health Interventions: Factoring In The Long Term Economic Impacts Of Informal (unpaid) Care
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$628,963.00
Summary
This project looks at the future health of the Australian population that will keep more informal carers out of employment and diminish their own livings standards, thereby reducing funds available to government and the impact of interventions that could improve the health of the population and increase employment of carers.
Advanced Heart Failure Management With Ventricular Assist Therapy – Evaluating Australian Costs Of Care And Effectiveness From Implant To Transplant Or End Of Life
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$45,668.00
Summary
Ventricular Assist Devices (VADs) are implantable heart pumps that are increasingly being used to slow down the progression of end stage heart failure. This project assesses the costs and effectiveness of VAD therapy and advanced heart failure medical management in an Australian health care setting. The aim is to provide Australian clinicians and health decision makers access to current and relevant, clinical, cost and effectiveness data for advanced heart failure and VAD therapy.
REACH: Researching Effective Approaches To Cleaning In Hospitals
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$657,862.00
Summary
Healthcare associated infections are a major challenge for hospitals. Infections can spread via the patient environment, because colonized patients and staff can contaminate surfaces and equipment with micro-organisms. Cleaning is a vital component of patient care, but is a complex process with little real evidence to inform practice. This project will take a targeted approach to improving hospital cleaning to reduce infection rates; and examine the cost-effectiveness of this approach.
Evaluation Of A Financial Incentive To Improve The Use Of Preventive Medicines By People With Asthma
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$137,860.00
Summary
Rising costs are threatening the future viability of the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme. New approaches are needed to address this challenge, including developing financial incentives for consumers to use effective low cost medicines in preference to higher cost alternatives. This study will develop a consumer incentive for use of low cost asthma preventer medicines, model the economic effects of this and bring together stakeholders to examine the policy and practice changes needed to implement ....Rising costs are threatening the future viability of the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme. New approaches are needed to address this challenge, including developing financial incentives for consumers to use effective low cost medicines in preference to higher cost alternatives. This study will develop a consumer incentive for use of low cost asthma preventer medicines, model the economic effects of this and bring together stakeholders to examine the policy and practice changes needed to implement the incentive.Read moreRead less
Economic Evaluation Of Alternative Pneumococcal Vaccination Strategies
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$242,894.00
Summary
Pneumococcal vaccination is a readily available preventive strategy that can offer substantial protection to the elderly but it is important that we carefully evaluate the different potential strategies to ensure the most (cost-) effective approach to prevention is identified. This grant will explore alternative strategies to control pneumococcal-related disease in elderly Australians using the available vaccines.
Developing An Australian Valuation For The EQ-5D-5L Quality Of Life Instrument
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$348,357.00
Summary
In the assessment of gains resulting from a health technology, it is standard to consider both mortality and quality of life effects. This project explores how Australians value different components of quality of life. To do this, we are running an online survey called a discrete choice experiment, and analysing the data using a range of cutting-edge econometric techniques. This will allow policy-makers to better reflect people's preferences when making decisions about new technologies.
Pregabalin In Addition To Usual Care For Sciatica (PRECISE): A Randomised, Placebo-controlled Trial
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$638,663.00
Summary
Sciatica is a severe and disabling form of back pain that is characterised by radiating pain down the leg. However there is little evidence on how best to treat it conservatively. We propose to investigate the effectiveness of pregabalin, a medication that specifically targets sciatic pain, in addition to usual care in 204 patients with sciatica. We hypothesise that adding pregabalin will be more effective in reducing the severity of leg pain.
Group orbits in garmonic analysis and ergodic theory. Researchers from many areas need a type of mathematical analysis which involves the behaviour of a system - which may be a set of data points - under repeated application of some operation or group of operations. The structures arising from this kind of process are known as group orbits. The project gives information about their nature. Two major types of orbits are considered, coming from actions of discrete groups on measure spaces, and fro ....Group orbits in garmonic analysis and ergodic theory. Researchers from many areas need a type of mathematical analysis which involves the behaviour of a system - which may be a set of data points - under repeated application of some operation or group of operations. The structures arising from this kind of process are known as group orbits. The project gives information about their nature. Two major types of orbits are considered, coming from actions of discrete groups on measure spaces, and from smooth actions of Lie groups on manifolds, where powerful geometric methods are available. The project will yield new understandings of entropy, and new approaches to Fourier analysis.Read moreRead less
Ergodic theory and number theory. Recent advances in the theory of measured dynamical systems investigated by the proponents include new versions of entropy, and the study of spectral theory for non-singular systems. These will be further developed in this joint project with the French CNRS. The results are expected to have interesting applications in physics and number theory.
Entropy and maximal entropy in Markov systems. Entropy is a measure of how well-ordered a system is: chaotic systems have high entropy. Two approaches to entropy are available, via the limiting behaviour of the orbits of points, which yields topological entropy, and via the behaviour of the distributions of measures of partitions, yielding measure-theoretic entropy. The topological entropy is the least upper bound of entropies of all possible measures. We study when there is a measure which real ....Entropy and maximal entropy in Markov systems. Entropy is a measure of how well-ordered a system is: chaotic systems have high entropy. Two approaches to entropy are available, via the limiting behaviour of the orbits of points, which yields topological entropy, and via the behaviour of the distributions of measures of partitions, yielding measure-theoretic entropy. The topological entropy is the least upper bound of entropies of all possible measures. We study when there is a measure which realises this bound, describing the structure of such systems via Markov and Bratteli diagrams. Our methods will be applied to new versions of entropy for non-singular systems. This will assist in the description of chaotic behaviour.Read moreRead less