Cardiovascular Disease

Staff of the Economics of cardiovascular disease research stream include:

Stream Lead:
A/Prof Lan Gao

Research Fellows:
Dr Peter Lee
Dr Phuong (Pam) Nguyen
Dieu Nguyen

PhD Students:
Sangita Shakya
Neha Das

Emeritus Professor:
Emeritus Professor Marj Moodie

We collaborate with a range of clinicians and researchers to ensure that clinical trials have robust and practical economic evaluations well planned in advance of trial commencement. Our evaluations include within-trial cost-efficacy analyses of CVD prevention interventions (medications, lifestyle interventions, rehabilitation, etc.), treatments (medications and health technologies), and health services. We also conduct economic evaluations of interventions not related to clinical trials to estimate the cost-effectiveness of real-world programs.

Contact: Dr Lan Gao
Email: lan.gao@deakin.edu.au

We conduct priority-setting studies where multiple policy relevant CVD prevention/treatment interventions are evaluated using consistent methodology in order to inform decision-makers on the economic credentials of various interventions in order to set priorities. We use the “Assessing Cost-Effectiveness” (ACE) methodology which explicitly incorporates not only the cost-effectiveness of the intervention but also other considerations of importance to decision-makers (strength of evidence, equity, acceptability to various stakeholders, feasibility and sustainability) into the evaluation framework.

The team is experienced in the application of modelling technique to simulate the long-term health and economic outcomes with the application of new or existing CVD prevention/treatment interventions from different perspectives to assist reimbursement decision-making.

Contact: Alfred Deakin Professor Marj Moodie

Email: marj.moodie@deakin.edu.au

The economics of CVD team has conducted studies to quantify the economic/psychological burden of disease due to CVD for various populations. Burden of disease studies inform the policy formulation and priority setting.

Contact: Dr Lan Gao
Email: lan.gao@deakin.edu.au

Brief examples of our work spanning these areas of research include:

Trial-based economic evaluations:

Gao L, Sheppard L, Wu O, et al. Economic evaluation of a phase III international randomised controlled trial of very early mobilisation after stroke (AVERT). BMJ Open. 2019 9(5), e026230. 

Gao L, Flego A, Dunstan DW, Winkler EA, Healy GN, Eakin EG, Willenberg L, Owen N, La Montagne AD, Lal A, Wiesner GH, Hadgraft NT, Moodie ML. Economic evaluation of a randomized controlled trial of an intervention to reduce office workers’ sitting time: the “Stand Up Victoria” trial. Scand J Work Environ Health. 2018;44(5):503-511.

Modelled/priority setting studies:

Dieleman J, Myles P, Bulfone L, Younie S, van Zaane B, McGiffen D, Moodie M, Gao L. The cost-effectiveness of routine transesophageal echocardiography during cardiac surgery: a discrete-event simulation study. British Journal of Anaesthesia. 2020 Feb;124(2):136-145.

Gao L, Nguyen P, Dunstan D, Moodie M. Are office-based workplace interventions designed to reduce sitting time cost-effective primary prevention measures for cardiovascular disease? A systematic review and modelled economic evaluation. Int J Environ Res Public Health 2019, 16(5), 834 

Burden of disease studies/reviews:

Gao L, et al. How does preterm delivery contribute to the increased burden of cardiovascular disease?—Quantifying the economic impact of CVD in women with a history of preterm delivery. Journal of Women’s Health. 2020 Mar 4. doi: 10.1089/jwh.2019.7995. [Epub ahead of print]