Stretching the health dollar

The challenges of allocating finite resources to health care brought world experts to Victoria recently for ‘Priorities 2014’ - the tenth conference of the International Society on Priorities in Health Care.

The three-day conference was held at the Melbourne Convention Centre and hosted by the Health Economics Unit from Deakin’s Population Health Strategic Research Centre.

It was attended by over 130 delegates, including 90 from overseas, who debated key issues around funding models and allocating resources across clinical care, public health and disability.

Academics, policy makers and clinicians with a broad range of interests presented on the challenges of new and emerging issues in health, and the ever-present dilemma of allocating resources to prevent disease, promote health and continue to manage health systems.

Professor Rob Carter, Director of Deakin Population Health, said that the conference delegates reflected on the evolution of priorities over the past 20 years and the challenges faced by health services development at global and national levels.

“The conference enabled key stakeholders in health and related sectors to explore decision making with experts in the fields of economics, policy, health care and evaluation,” said Professor Carter.

Disability was a new theme at this year’s conference and was introduced by Mr Bruce Bonyhady, Chairman of the National Disability Insurance Agency, and Professor Susan Balandin, Deakin’s new Chair in Disability, who joined the university in August this year.

The impact of priority setting on health care policy was discussed by another two keynote speakers: Mrs Anne Kolbe, Chair of the National Health Committee, New Zealand; and Ms Rosemary Calder, Director of Health Policy at the Mitchell Institute for Health and Education Policy.