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Auckland health economist and university lecturer Dr Rhema
Vaithianathan will report back on her research in the US as a Harkness
Fellow in Health Care Policy and Practice at public seminars in Auckland,
Wellington and Christchurch over coming weeks.
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| Dr Rhema Vaithianathan |
One of a dozen 2007-2008 Harkness Fellows from New Zealand, Australia,
the UK, Germany and Canada, Dr Vaithianathan researched value-based insurance
design during a twelve month placement at Harvard University in Cambridge,
Massachusetts.
Instead of simply encouraging patients to minimise expenditure at the
expense of value of care, customised value-based insurance design directs
insurance payouts towards services expected to produce superior clinical
outcomes for the same expenditure. Dr Vaithianathan's research explored
how the principles of value-based insurance design could be used to craft
a health plan which is affordable but maximises health outcomes. Her research
will contribute to understanding of how health plan design can improve
the benefit-to-cost ratio of health expenditure, an issue of importance
to both New Zealand and the United States of America.
Harkness Fellowships in Health Care Policy and Practice are offered by
private American foundation The Commonwealth Fund to stimulate innovative
health care policies and practices in the United States and other industrialised
countries. Valued at over US$100,000, the Fellowships allow mid-career
health professionals from New Zealand, Australia, the United Kingdom,
Germany, the Netherlands, Norway and Switzerland to spend up to 12 months
in the US conducting original research and working with leading American
health policy experts.
Applications for 2010-2011 Fellowships are open now and close on 15 September
2009. See www.commonwealthfund.org
for further details.
ENDS
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