Using Economic Evidence to Inform Cancer Care Decisions.
A CHERE research collaboration that will use clinical and economic evidence to inform local decision making in cancer care, has been awarded a $1.5 million Program Grant over 5 years by the NH&MRC Health Services Research Committee. The project, led by Chief Investigator Prof Robyn Ward, School of Medical Sciences, University of New South Wales, will commence in 2007. Assoc Prof Marion Haas, Mr Kees van Gool and Prof Jane Hall from CHERE are Chief Investigators on the project while CHERE staff Assoc Prof Rosalie Viney and Dr Gisselle Gallego are Associate Investigators.
The first aim of the project is to build on the strong clinical evidence available in the Cancer Institute NSW Standard Treatment (CI-SCaT) program, an online resource of more than 200 peer-reviewed cancer treatment guidelines. Researchers will produce and disseminate evidence about the cost effective use of cancer medicines in clinical practice. The systematic approach to development and dissemination of economic models is a world first. The models developed will be similar to those produced by pharmaceutical companies for PBS funding but will be developed transparently and reported with end-users in mind.
The second aim of the research is to work with local decision makers to adapt the decision analytic models to the particular context of their locality. Researchers will work with local staff to modify the decision analytic models by combining evidence of effectiveness with local information about prices and costs. Guidelines will be developed to accompany the economic models to support the use of the resource allocation tool in local settings. Factors which influence the cost effectiveness (or cost-ineffectiveness) of cancer medications in different types of treatment settings will be identified.
National Health & Medical Research Council (NHMRC)
Dr Rosalie Viney and Dr Madeleine King were successful in attracting research funding in the latest round of grants awarded by the National Health and Medical Research Council.
Dr Viney is the Chief Investigator of a study titled "New methods to measure and value health states". The other Chief Investigators on the study are Professor John Brazier and Dr Julie Ratcliffe from Sheffield University, UK and Associate Professor Debbie Street and Dr Madeleine King from UTS.
The funding amount of $440,625 is for 3 years.
Dr King is also a Chief Investigator on the "Prostate Cancer Outcomes Study". She will work with Professor Bruce Armstrong from the University of Sydney, Mr David Smith from the NSW Cancer Council, Associate Professor Martin Berry from the Liverpool Health Service, Associate Professor Phillip Stricker from St vincent's Hospital and Dr John Rogers from Royal Prince Alfred Hospital.
The NH&MRC is providing $300,475 in funding for this project over 3 years.
Australian Research Council (ARC) Linkage Grant 2006 – 2007
CHERE and its research partners have secured an ARC Linkage grant ($84,000) to investigate the factors which influence the preferences of GPs and women for contraceptive products.
Investigators: Rosalie Viney*, Edith Weisberg (FPA Health), Denzil Fiebig* and Marion Haas*. * CHERE research staff
Industry partners: FPA Health, Organon P/L, Janssen-Cilag P/L and Schering AG.
The aim of this research is to evaluate consumers’ and providers’ preferences for both well-established and newly developed contraceptive products. The outcomes will provide unique information about:
• the relative importance of different attributes of contraceptives in determining women’s decisions about which particular method/s to choose and
• the factors that influence providers’ recommendations about contraceptive methods.
This information will assist in the education of consumers and health care providers, as well as providing vital marketing information for the manufacturers that will assist in the development of product materials that will assist clinician communication with consumers.
The project commencing in 2006 will run for 2 years.
Department of Community Services Commissioned Research
CHERE is part of a consortium developing the analytical framework to evaluate the DoCS Early Intervention Program.
This is a $150 million initiative to provide targeted support to vulnerable children and families to prevent them from entering or escalating in the child protection system. It is a voluntary program and is designed to support families who face specific problems such as domestic violence, drug or alcohol abuse, mental health issues, lack of family or social support, parental learning difficulties or intellectual disabilities. The Early Intervention Program aims to:
• promote healthy childhood development
• promote strong, functional and well-supported families, and
• reduce and prevent child-abuse and neglect in participating families.
The Program is being progressively introduced across New South Wales and by 2008, it will be available across NSW.
The program’s evaluation will focus on the effectiveness as well as the costs of early intervention over the next four years. The consortium consists:
• CHERE (UTS)
• the Social Policy Research Centre (UNSW)
• the School of Education and Early Childhood Studies (UWS)
• Gnibi College of Indigenous Australian Peoples (SCU).
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