Healing Health

Imagine our health systems were people. Right now, they’d probably be feeling sick, overwhelmed and stressed.

Presented by Deakin University’s Institute for Health Transformation, Healing Health explores some of the biggest issues facing our health systems and the best ways to deliver care. Join some of Australia’s leading health researchers as they explore various cures for the ills of healthcare and discover that recovery is not just possible – it’s already happening.

  • The philosophy of health economics

    with Amber Petty and Emeritus Professor Rob Carter

    Delivering healthcare and prevention interventions is an expensive business. How do we help decision-makers with limited budgets decide whether they’re doing the best they can with the resources they have? How do we decide what ‘doing the best you can’ looks like? And just what does philosophy have to do with economics?

    Listen to "The philosophy of health economics" on Spreaker.

    Health economics, at least the model that Professor Rob Carter talks about, isn’t only about  money. It’s also about the kind of communities we want to live in and what we decide to prioritise. Do we want everyone to access to a certain level of healthcare based on need, or on what they can afford? And how do we make those decisions?

    “I was a bureaucrat before I was an academic, and what I thought was missing was economic advice provided in a way that was useful,” Rob says. “There are all sorts of ways in which governments make decisions, but how do we decide which are the best ways and the best decisions?

    “We try to help decision makers work out how they can improve the relationship between costs and outcomes.”

    Join Rob and Amber for a wide-ranging discussion that’s not all about economics, but takes a deeper look at how what our society values affects what role the government plays in healthcare and how we decide what health prevention interventions are important and who should pay for them.

    Emeritus Professor Rob Carter is widely recognised for his expertise in the economic appraisal of health care services and priority setting, particularly in the area of health promotion, health technology assessment and pharmacoeconomics. Much of his evaluation work over the years has encouraged clinicians to work with policy-makers and academics to tackle important public health issues. In recent years, he has developed and implemented an innovative approach to priority setting that is bridging the gap between academic rigour and applied policy-making in major areas of public health, with a strong focus on knowledge transfer. His evaluation work on the initial Assessing Cost Effectiveness (ACE) study in cancer, for example, impacted on Australia’s national cancer strategy and contributed to the funding of subsequent ACE studies in heart disease, mental health, obesity prevention and the prevention of non-communicable disease.

  • Is there safety in numbers? Barriers to COVID-19 app adoption in Australia

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  • The need for self-awareness in times of social distancing and isolation

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  • Honouring our nurses on the frontline

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  • The lifesaving dollar — how will COVID-19 impact our mental health from a health economics perspective?

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  • How do we make hospitals safer places for patients?

    with Amber Petty and Alfred Deakin Professor Tracey Bucknall

    One in every ten of the 11 million Australians admitted to hospital each year suffers some kind of harm – from falls to infection – that’s unrelated to their reason for being in hospital in the first place. What’s behind these incidents and how can they be prevented?

    Listen to "How do we make hospitals safer places for patients?" on Spreaker.

    “People go to hospital to be cared for and improve their health. Preventable adverse events, medical errors or harm unrelated to their illness is not expected, nor acceptable,” Tracey says.

    A landmark Australian study revealed that 25 per cent of patients who were harmed in hospital were permanently disabled and the main cause of those events was a failure by health professionals to recognise and act on available information.

    Join Tracey and Amber as they examine the complex decision making that takes place in busy hospital environments and discuss how understanding how health professionals and patients make decisions may lead to improving the decision-making process and reduce the risk of harm to patients.

    Alfred Deakin Professor Tracey Bucknall is Chair in Nursing at Alfred Health, Melbourne. Her research concentrates on understanding how individuals make decisions routinely and in uncertainty and on understanding the environmental and social influences in healthcare. She focusses especially on patient safety, symptom management across clinical settings, and the implementation of research evidence into practice to improve patient outcomes.

  • Dads’ sleep deprivation and fatigue at ‘pathological’ levels

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  • Healthy breakfast of fruit, chia displayed on attractive board

    Global Obesity Centre now longest serving WHOCC for obesity prevention

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  • Boost for healthy food retail research

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  • COVID-19 mobile health apps update

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  • A blurred male customer with basket in an Australian supermarket aisle

    Supermarkets urged to end heavy promotion of unhealthy foods

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  • Smokestack with a hospital cross and background of clouds and blue sky

    Wasteful health care: double burden on patients and environment

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