Incentivising prevention in adolescent healthcare
- Research Opportunity
- PhD students
Primary Supervisor | Number | Webpage | |
---|---|---|---|
Dr Jemimah Ride | jemimah.ride@unimelb.edu.au | +61(3) 8344 5473 | Personal web page |
Co-supervisor | Number | Webpage | |
---|---|---|---|
Associate Professor Kim Dalziel | kim.dalziel@unimelb.edu.au | Personal web page | |
Professor Jane Hocking | j.hocking@unimelb.edu.au | Personal web page |
Summary An opportunity to conduct health economic research alongside a trial that tests incentives for preventive primary care for adolescents. Potential projects include decision analytic modelling, inequality analysis, and econometric analysis of primary care data linked to the trial data.
Project Details
Context: The Rebate for an Adolescent
Health Assessment Trial (RAd Health Trial) is an NHMRC-funded trial led by
Prof. Jane Hocking, examining the impact of offering GPs a rebate to conduct
adolescent health checks for preventive care. Adolescence is a key opportunity
for GPs to conduct preventive care and is a time when risky behaviours such as
substance use emerge, sexual activity commences, and many mental health
conditions arise. Interventions at this time can provide benefits for
adolescent health now, into future adult life, and potentially for the next
generation of children. Evidence-based clinical practice guidelines recommend
GPs to conduct a range of preventive healthcare activities for adolescents, but
few do. Consultation time is the key barrier, which could be overcome by a Medicare
rebate payment to fund longer consultations and allow a nurse to assist the GP.
Similar rebates for health checks in other population groups exist in the Medical
Benefits Schedule (MBS) but it is not known whether offering such a payment
would be cost-effective. This trial will determine whether a rebate payment for
an adolescent health check is effective and cost effective at increasing the
detection and management of risk behaviours and health conditions, providing
evidence to inform MBS policy.
Project outline: The trial offers an
opportunity to conduct research to inform priority setting for preventive
primary care for adolescents. There is capacity for the candidate to develop
their own ideas, but possible projects
linked to the trial include: 1) developing a decision analytic model of one (or
possibly more) adolescent health outcomes for use in modelling
cost-effectiveness beyond the trial period; 2) conducting inequality analysis
of adolescent health outcomes and/or healthcare costs, and/or distributional
cost-effectiveness analysis of the intervention; 3) examining how incentive
payments change primary care activities, distribution of care, and quality of
care; 4) identifying the optimal level for this type of incentive payment.
Research Opportunities
PhD students
Students who are interested in joining this project will need to consider their elegibility as well as other requirements before contacting the supervisor of this research
Key Contact
For further information about this research, please contact a supervisor.
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