WEEK 3 HEALTH ECONOMICS Flashcards
What are the three main sources of funding in the health services for Australia?
- Australian government
- State and territory governments
- Private
What are two key challenges for healthcare in Australia?
- Expense and affordability
2. Rising costs, driven by both volume (ageing population) and expensive technology
What are the three future goals for Australian based healthcare?
- Increased safety, quality and efficacy
- Patient-centred healthcare
- Value based healthcare
What is an example of how patient centered healthcare could improve?
- Cutting wait times at a GP
What are three questions asked when it comes to evidence based practice?
- Can it work? (the theory- even if it works in a lab doesn’t mean it works in the real world)
- Does it work (effectiveness in the real world)
- It is worth it? (Cost effectiveness)
What is the evidence application if something can work (efficacy)?
- Usually goes through regulatory approval based on evidence from clinical trials and systematic reviews
What is the evidence application if something actually DOES work (effectiveness)?
- Goes into the clinical practice as it is based on clinical guidelines from systematic reviews (including CTs)
What is the evidence application if something is worth it? (cost effectiveness)
- Goes into health policy and is formed from various methods including pragmatic trials ans systematic reviews
- Looks at the cost utility and data, and a health technology assessment.
What do pragmatic trials do?
- They evaluate the effectiveness of interventions in real life situations
What was the purpose and outcome of the ASPREE trial?
Aim was to determine whether low dose asprin can make a difference in terms of health versus adverse events (cardiovascular events)
- Outcome was that Asprin was not different between placebo and intervention groups
- Resulted in increased risk of bleeding. The benefits did not outweigh the risks.
What are the two types of efficiency in healthcare?
- Alloative effciency
2. Technical efficiency
What is allocative efficiency?
- Efficient distribution of available resources
- Considers opportunity costs
Does alocative efficiency consider opportunity costs?
- YES
What is technical efficiency?
- Efficient management of single condition
- Considers cost effectiveness (narrow set of conditions)
Does technical efficiency consider cost effectiveness?
- YES