Behaviour, decision making and evaluation
The researchers at VheP are experts when it comes to understanding the preferences and behaviours of health consumers and the decisions they make about their health. Previous work by the team has focused on the interaction between health economic assessments, health behaviour, and individual’s preferences, and willingness to pay, for treatment types. >
Overview
Health systems at a national, state and local level are constantly evolving to meet the ever-growing needs of Australia’s increasing population. A key change alongside this recent growth has been the refocusing of healthcare reform to focus on consumer lead initiatives within the health sector, and beyond.
Research Focus
Most of the behavioural research into health and healthcare systems in Australia has been disciplinary bound. Rather than combining consumer theories and psychological components with the quantitative analysis of economics, each of these disciplines has focused on individual components of a healthcare system. Instead, we take a multidisciplinary approach to research on health, healthcare practices and health systems. In doing so, we deliver research that targets the provision of value-based healthcare through the following themes:
Behaviour
Individual health is heavily influenced by the behaviour of the person. Our research examines the individual differences and underlying mechanisms that influence decision making and health behaviour. We examine how people behave when making decisions that influence their own health and the health of others. We can use this information to inform interventions that will improve health outcomes and ‘nudge’ individuals into choosing the best outcomes for themselves.
Decision-making and preferences
Our research will not just focus on the decisions of policy makers and medical practitioners, but on the individual consumer in the healthcare system – the patient. We will investigate how the preferences of those involved in any stage of a health related decision proces can change healthcare outcomes, with an emphasis on research that answers how choices affect the quality and value associated with health and health care.
Economic evaluation
Healthcare systems are expensive to operate and require many different inputs and outputs that vary in difficulties to quantify. Traditionally focused on the cost efficiencies of respective health policies or medical technologies, our research will adapt health economic evaluations to include inputs and outputs for behaviour and preferences of individuals.
Australian and New Zealand Standard Fields of Research (FoR) Classifications
150501 (Consumer-Oriented Product or Service Development) - 150502 (Marketing Communications) - 150503 (Marketing Management) - 150507 (Pricing) - 380102 (Behavioural Economics) - 380108 (Health Economics) - 380113 (Public Economics: Public Choice) - 380114 (Public Economics: Public Provided Goods) - 380119 (Welfare Economics) - 380199 (Applied Economics) - 380204 (Panel Data Analysis) - 440499 (Development Studies) - 520402 (Decision Making) - 520105 (Psychological Methodology, Design, and Analysis)