Browsing by Author "Emery, J.C. Herbert"

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    Assessing Subjective Probabilities of Success in Autism Research
    (2013-09) Zwicker, Jennifer; Emery, J.C. Herbert
    Public investment in medical science and research is considered to be a legitimate and core role for government and charitable medical research foundations. It is not clear however, whether resource allocation in medical research has been cost-effective and equitable so that limited resources maximize the health benefits for the population served. Evidence based medicine relies on evaluation and comparative assessment of research findings. Accountability is a key aspect of this evaluation to ensure that taxpayers and charitable organizations are getting value for money in their investment and healthcare delivery benefits from the findings of medical research. In medical research there are informational asymmetries present between scientists, decision makers and the public. While research evaluation is based on a peer review process with scores given by a panel of expert reviewers, the current allocation ofresearch funding and determination of priorities is also affected by lobby efforts and public opinion. This means that the uneducated consumer demand from lobbyist groups could result in research with a greater probability of success or impact in the findings receiving less funding than the research that gets the greatest hype and publicity. Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) research is particularly lacking in this type of economic evaluation. This is of increasing importance, as over the past decade the reported prevalence of ASD has been increasing. The increase in prevalence is often cited as the primary justification for the large increase in research funding for ASD that has occurred in both the public and private sectors. What is not known, however, is whether enough funding is available for ASD research or whether the allocation of ASD research funding across various research areas is appropriate or efficient. Psychiatry
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    Paying for Outcomes
    (2013-09) Fritzke, Lynnette; Emery, J.C. Herbert
    This paper explores the feasibility of funding community rehabilitation services based on the outcomes that interventions produce. Community rehabilitation services are most often paid for by the number of client visits or the specific services delivered. Neither of these two methods incent interventions that help to keep patients from accessing more costly upstream acute services such as acute and emergency care. Preventing patients from unnecessarily accessing costly acute services and shortening the length of stay in care are of principal concern to Alberta Health Services (AHS) and the provincial government. As the cost of health services continues to rise, administrators and health policy planners need to look at alternative ways of funding services in order to gain efficiencies and invest in services that prevent a more costly alternative of care. The Social Impact Bond (SIB) is a promising newly piloted type of funding contract that is based on payment for specific outcomes that negate the utilization of more costly care. One of the main benefits of the SIB is that the capital needed for funding services is provided by private investors who have an interest in the population that the program is targeting. However, like any type of funding mechanism that is contingent on outcomes, paying for outcomes in health is challenging due to the complexity of identifying clear performance measures, accessing proper data, and meaningfully measuring change.