About the Centre for Applied Health Economics

The CAHE is led by Professor Paul Scuffham and currently employs several full-time health economists.  In addition, associated with the Centre are Post-doctoral Fellows, PhD students, and an Associate Professor in Biostatistics. The Centre is funded through nationally competitive grants (eg NHMRC, ARC) and contract research for government, non-government organizations and industry. Consequently, the Centre has a direct impact on health policy in Australia and internationally.

The CAHE is undertaking nationally significant research in the areas of:

• Economic evaluation of healthcare interventions and programs
  To investigate value for money, we undertake cost-effectiveness, cost-utility and cost-benefit analyses to compare the health benefits and resources between competing services, devices, programs and models of care.
• Measuring consumer preferences for healthcare interventions and services
  Understanding consumer preferences for health care is integral for service planning and ongoing success by eliciting what is important for patients and end-users within our health system. The consumer voice is integral to a well-functioning and responsive health system and these inputs are studied through discrete choice experiments and citizens jury research methods.
• Health Technology Assessment
  Members of CAHE form the Griffith Evaluation Group responsible for the task of evaluating pharmaceutical industry submissions to the Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee by reporting to the Economics Sub-Committee three times per year. This work directly contributes to Government decisions about whether to list new therapies on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme at a subsidy to Australian consumers.

The CAHE also provides education and training, including higher degree research opportunities, in these areas. Please contact us for further details on our research, current projects, and future opportunities.

The CAHE was instrumental in establishing an Australian Chapter of the International Society of Pharmacoeconomics and Outcome Research (ISPOR).