Deakin Health Economics (DHE)

DHE is led by Professor Rob Carter and undertakes internationally important research in economic evaluation and priority-setting.

DHE has three major streams of work, which interact and complement other research groups within Deakin Population Health.

• Economic evaluation
Economic evaluation underpins all of the work undertaken by DHE. The group undertakes economic evaluations as grants or commissioned work for a wide range of clients and disease areas, such as obesity prevention and management, child and maternal care, mental health and psychosocial care, HIV/AIDs, diabetes, stroke, cystic fibrosis, tobacco, and disability.

• Priority setting
Priority setting involves the evaluation of multiple interventions to inform a strategy for prevention or management. The Assessing Cost Effectiveness (ACE) methodology developed by Professor Rob Carter, in collaboration with Professor Theo Vos from the University of Queensland, has been a cornerstone of a very successful research program over the past 10 years. The methodology has been applied to obesity, cancer, mental health, heart disease and non communicable disease and has attracted several NHMRC grants and consultancies, both nationally and internationally.

• Health Technology Assessment
Health Technology Assessment is a specialised form of economic evaluation. DHE is an approved provider of evaluations for the Commonwealth Medical Services Advisory Committee (MSAC) and the Victorian Policy Advisory Committee on Technology (VPACT). The group is also active in pharmacoeconomics, nationally and internationally. This stream is central to government decision-making and constitutes a growth area for DHE.

For more information visit the Deakin Health Economics website.