Our projects
Translating applied research into actionable outcomes
We undertake research funded by competitive academic grants, and research funded by government and non-government organisations. Our purpose is to inform public debate, assist decision-making, and help formulate strategy and policy. Our research focus areas include:
- Integrated care
- Mental health care
- Health technology
- Aged care
- Health preference research
We are also concentrating our research efforts across system wide functions, such as competition, workforce, funding models, and performance frameworks within health and human services sectors.
Research with impact
The MUCHE team is proud of the work we do. Our research has a tangible impact on Australian health policy by enabling decision makers with independent and qualified information. To help you get a better understanding of our work, please follow the link below, where you will find some case studies of our recent work and how it translates into solving real world issues. Find out more.
Current and recent projects
Our team of researchers bring diverse health economic industry experience to any project undertaken. Please see below some of our current and recent projects. While MUCHE is relatively new, we have either already undertaken, or in the process of completing, a number of projects for government and non-government organisations.
Government projects
| Project Title | Inequities in access to medicines for people with mental ill health |
|---|---|
| Organisation | Mental Health Commission of NSW |
| Description | This study is using a large linked federal government administration dataset to analyse the variation in all medicine copayments across NSW for people experiencing mental ill health. Differences in prices and copayments are being analysed in relation to variation across socioeconomic characteristics, such as income and education, and variation across remoteness regions. |
| Progress | Ongoing |
Project Title | Embedding greater value into mental healthcare funding and investment |
| Organisation | National Mental Health Commission |
| Description | This study undertook a national consultation with state, territory and federal government representatives, providers, care recipients, carers and other stakeholders to explore the potential for introducing value based payments into the mental healthcare system, and for introducing a more systematic, transparent and evidence based approach for making government investment decisions in mental healthcare. |
| Progress | Completed |
| Project Title | The role of RADS in residential aged care |
| Organisation | Aged Care Financing Authority (ACFA) |
| Description | MUCHE was selected to explore the role of Refundable Accommodation Deposits (RADs) in the residential aged care sector. |
| Progress | Completed |
| Project Title | Medical Services Advisory Committee |
| Organisation | Federal Department of Health |
| Description | MUCHE was selected to evaluate medical services, technologies and procedures for the MSAC. MUCHE delivers appraisal services and advice on new medical services, technologies and procedures, and whether these should be publicly funded on an evidential assessment of safety, effectiveness and cost-effectiveness. |
| Progress | Ongoing |
| Project title | Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee (PBAC) |
| Organisation | Federal Department of Health |
| Description | MUCHE was selected to evaluate PBAC submissions made by pharmaceutical companies on behalf of the Commonwealth Government. This involves critiquing at least 6 economic evaluations of drugs and vaccines each year, and making recommendations to PBAC on whether the economic evaluation results stand up to scrutiny. |
| Progress | Ongoing |
| Project title | Economic evaluation of Outcomes Based Care for Vulnerable Older People |
| Organisation | Central Coast Local Health District |
| Description | MUCHE was selected to undertake an evaluation of an outcomes based care integrated program for vulnerable older people with chronic diseases aimed at reducing hospital readmission. This involves developing the methodology for the process and economic evaluation of the program and meeting with the relevant stakeholders to determine the factors that influence those commissioning and providing integrated care services that improve health outcomes for elderly patients. |
| Progress | Completed |
| Project title | An economic framework to evaluate the implementation of Sound Scouts |
| Organisation | NSW Health |
| Description | MUCHE was selected to evaluate the implementation of a game developed to test hearing loss in children prior to entering school. The project includes data capture, survey design, data analysis, modelling and sensitivity analysis. |
| Progress | Completed |
| Project title | Private purchasing for NSW Health: Analysis of Hospital in the Home (HITH) purchasing options |
| Organisation | NSW Ministry of Health |
| Description | MUCHE was selected to evaluate and make recommendations on the potential to expose NSW HITH services to commissioning and contestability. This included wide consultation with LHD executives, government organisations and PHN executives, and framing responses within an established commissioning and contestability
framework.
Note: This project was completed in collaboration with the Centre for International Economics. |
| Progress | Completed |
| Project title | Assessing choice for public hospital patients |
| Organisation | Commonwealth Bank of Australia and Macquarie University |
| Description | MUCHE has partnered with the Commonwealth Bank of Australia to evaluate whether public patients would choose an alternative public hospital (compared to their local hospital) based on quality if they were given the choice. A choice modelling experiment was employed, providing an indication of the relative value of hospital quality metrics compared to GP and patient opinion and convenience. |
| Progress | Completed |
Non-Government projects
| Project title | EQ-5D with the hearing “bolt-on” items: developing a new quality of life measure for hearing impairment |
|---|---|
| Organisation | Cochlear & Macquarie University Joint Research Fund |
| Description | The EQ-5D is one of the most popular instruments to measure health-related quality of life (HRQoL), but it has been criticised for failing to capture important aspects of health, including hearing capability. This project aims to investigate what constructs the HRQoL of adults with hearing impairment and develops the hearing “bolt-on” items to the EQ-5D-5L instrument. |
| Progress | Ongoing |
| Project title | Health Services Implementation and Economics Enabling Platform (HSIE): Providing Enhanced Access to Child Health Services Evaluation (PEACH-E) |
| Organisation | Luminesce Alliance |
| Description | The project will assess the potential and feasibility of the PEACH novel strategies to address inequity in child health outcomes. The project will evaluate the impact of PEACH on reducing child health inequities, its implementation barriers and facilitators at SCHN, the financial implications at various levels, and co-design a sustainability framework for broader rollout. |
| Progress | Ongoing |
| Project title | Work in heat and health - a toolbox for occupational studies in manual workers in LMIC countries |
| Organisation | Swedish Research Council |
| Description | Heat impacts mortality among migrant workers and thousands have been reported dying in Qatar alone while working on the World C up construction sites. Nepalese clinicians have identified C KDnT as an emerging problem among young men returning from work in the Gulf States, India and Malaysia. Without documentation of the disease and its relation to work abroad, there is no basis with which to address the needs of those affected. The project aims to compare determinants of CKD and CKDnT among migrants and non-migrants |
| Progress | Ongoing |
| Project title | Dynamics and inequality in mental health care use and expenditures after income shocks |
| Organisation | e61 and Macquarie Business School Partnerships Scheme |
| Description | This causal research project will utilise the richness and interconnectedness of recently linked administrative and survey datasets in Australia to explore whether and how Australians with mental ill health adjust their health care use in response to income ‘shocks’, and whether impacts vary across population groups including by gender, socioeconomic group and remoteness region. |
| Progress | Ongoing |
| Project title | Longitudinal outcomes of children with hearing impairment |
| Organisation | U.S. National Institute of Health |
| Description | In collaboration with the National Acoustics Laboratory we are evaluating the cost effectiveness of universal newborn hearing screening (UNHS) and early intervention compared to no screening in Australia. The project includes estimating the impact of hearing loss on educational outcomes, predicting the impact of UNHS on improving employment outcomes, and analysing the drivers of utilities and the total cost of hearing loss per year in adolescents. |
| Progress | Ongoing |
| Project title | Is reclassification of the Oral Contraceptive Pill (OCP) from prescription to pharmacist-only cost-effective? |
| Organisation | Australian Self Medication Industry |
| Description | MUCHE incorporated a case study on the reclassification of the oral contraceptive pill utilising the economic evaluation framework it developed for the Australian Self Medication Industry to demonstrate its use in practice. |
| Progress | Completed |
| Project title | Cost-effectiveness of reclassifying triptans in Australia |
| Organisation | Australian Self Medication Industry |
| Description | MUCHE incorporated a case study on the reclassification of triptans utilising the economic evaluation framework it developed for the Australian Self Medication Industry to demonstrate its use in practice. |
| Progress | Completed |
| Project title | Economic evaluation of LifeSpan, a suicide prevention program |
| Organisation | Black Dog Institute |
| Description | MUCHE was selected to undertake a multi year, multi-site economic evaluation of LifeSpan, a $15 million suicide prevention program being implemented in NSW by the Black Dog Institute. This includes developing the economic evaluation methodology, constructing data collection questionnaires, undertaking analysis of large linked government datasets and reporting. |
| Progress | Ongoing |
| Project title | Cost effectiveness analysis of SoundScouts |
| Organisation | CMee4 Productions and Ministry of Health |
| Description | MUCHE was selected to evaluate SoundScouts, a game developed by the National Acoustics Laboratory and CMee4 productions to test hearing loss in children prior to entering school. This includes a program and process evaluation and developing detailed Marcov modelling to estimate the potential economic benefit from picking up and managing hearing loss in children from an early age. |
| Progress | Completed |
| Project title | An economic framework to inform drug scheduling |
| Organisation | Australian Self Medication Industry |
| Description | MUCHE was selected to develop an economic evaluation framework that can be applied to decisions regarding the scheduling of drugs from prescription only (Schedule 4) to behind the counter pharmacy only (Schedule 3). The economic evaluation has been applied to two case studies, including the potential rescheduling of triptanes (a drug for migraines) and oral contraception. |
| Progress | Completed |
| Project title | Consumer behaviour fact book |
| Organisation | Australian Self Medication Industry |
| Description | In conjunction with the industry body for over-the-counter-medicines, MUCHE undertook a study to better understand consumers’ use and attitudes towards OTC medicines, vitamins, minerals & supplements, and the down scheduling of certain prescription medications. |
| Progress | Completed |
| Project title | The value study |
| Organisation | Australian Self Medication Industry |
| Description | MUCHE undertook a study to quantify the savings made to the Australian healthcare system from the use of over-the-counter-medicines (OTC). The study surveyed 1,146 Australians over the age of 18 years regarding their attitudes towards OTC and prescribed medications within eight common categories and calculated the cost should respondents have to visit the doctor to obtain a script. |
| Progress | Completed |
| Project title | Economic evaluation of Cochlear implants in people 65 years and older |
| Organisation | Cochlear |
| Description | A systematic literature review on economic evaluations of cochlear implants in adults, and a detailed research protocol presenting a pathway to undertaking an economic evaluation of cochlear implants in Australians aged 65 years and over |
| Progress | Completed |
Competitive grants
- ARC - Supporting dynamic multidimensional entrepreneurial resilience in Australia
- MRFF - A comparative effectivness trial of digital mental health care models for adults with epilepsy
- MRFF - Building on newborn hearing screening success: towards national standards and data management
- MRFF - Clinically validating scalable approaches to medication and therapeutic adherence among people with COPD
- MRFF - Developing a Comprehensive Care Pathway for those at Risk of Suicide But Not in Care: The Under the Radar Project
- MRFF - Embedding genomics in primary care: using implementation science to design a robust national approach
- MRFF - Harnessing implementation science, complexity science and evidence-based care to Keep Australians Out of Hospital: leveraging seven natural experiments in New South Wales (completed)
- MRFF - Hearing and vision support to improve quality of life for people receiving home care services
- MRFF - Implementation and scale-up of a consumer co-designed physical activity promotion program for people with moderate-to-profound disabilities (OMNI)
- MRFF -Leveraging informatics to optimise pharmacist-led medication reviews in residential aged care to improve outcomes and cost-effectiveness: a pragmatic cluster randomised controlled trial
- MRFF - Optimising treatments in mental health using AI (completed)
- MRFF - P-OMICs-flow: Integrating precision oncology into clinical programs
- MRFF - SENSECog aged care: Hearing and vision support to improve quality of life for people living with dementia in residential aged care
- MRFF - Scaling and piloting a genomic platform for population newborn screening
- MRFF - Targeted, Adaptive Genomics for ethical, evidence-based expansion of newborn screening
- NHMRC - BUBs Quit Study: clinical Midwife Specialist to assist pregnant women to quit smoking using counselling and embedded technology
- NHMRC - Centre for Research Excellence Precision diagnosis for anxiety and depression
- NHMRC - Efficacy and economic benefits of a psychosocial intervention to improve quality of life in an anxious and/or depressed older adult population
- NHMRC - Healthcare service utilisation and cost of people with mild cognitive impairment and dementia
- NHMRC - Improving Mental Health and Social Participation Outcomes in Older Adults with Depression and Anxiety
- NHMRC - Translating Evidence-Based Psychological Interventions for Older Adults with Depression and Anxiety into Public and Private Mental Health Settings Using a Stepped Care Framework
- NHMRC - Understanding intergenerational change in the health and well-being of older adults and its effects: The Sydney Memory and Ageing Study 2
- NHMRC - Working together: Innovation to improve Emergency Department (ED) performance, and patient outcomes and experience for five complex cohorts
Expert panels
MUCHE is a member of a number of expert reference panels for government and NGOs:
- Health Data Analytics - Commonwealth Department of Health
- Health Economic Services - Commonwealth Department of Health
- Management Advisory Services - Commonwealth Department of Finance
- IEP Academic Advisory Panel - National Disability Insurance Agency