Health services & outcomes research

Our multidisciplinary applied research program is focused on informing what ultimately matters the most - the end results of health care that patients experience. These include outcomes such as safety, effectiveness, and costs of hospital care. Our ultimate goal is to generate research that informs practical clinical and policy strategies to improve cardiovascular health services and patient outcomes.

Leveraging Big Data to Inform Nationwide Cardiovascular Health Outcomes

Lead Investigator: Associate Professor Isuru Ranasinghe

A National Heart Foundation funded national data linkage study that brings together a decade of cardiovascular hospitalisation data from all Australian States and Territories and New Zealand. Encompassing millions of healthcare records from more than 1000 public and private facilities, this research allows population-wide assessment of outcomes of hospital-based cardiovascular care and understand how these vary among the many healthcare facilities and regions.

Safety, Effectiveness of care and Resource use among Australian Hospitals (SAFER Hospitals)

Lead Investigator: Associate Professor Isuru Ranasinghe

While modern hospital care has undoubtedly led to better treatments, there are global concerns about the safety and effectiveness of hospital care. SAFER Hospitals is a national study that seeks to address this limitation by bringing together linked hospitalisation and outcome data for all public and most private hospitals in Australia. Funded by a NHMRC Ideas Grant, SAFER Hospitals will estimate the hospital-wide incidence of serious adverse events, deaths and unplanned hospitalisations following hospital care and how these outcomes vary among hospitals and estimating the avoidable costs of these untoward outcomes.

Population-wide Outcomes of Catheter Ablation of Atrial Fibrillation

Lead Investigator: Dr Linh Ngo

Catheter ablation for the treatment of AF has witnessed rapid dissemination and significant advances in procedural technique. The benefit of this procedure in terms of restoring sinus rhythm has been well-established in RCTs, nevertheless it is important to evaluate whether procedural outcomes in real-world clinical practice are comparable to what is reported in clinical trials. This project uses population-wide hospitalisation data to evaluate the safety and outcomes of AF Ablation in Australia.

Burden and Outcomes of Stroke Hospitalisations

Lead Investigator: Dr Yang Peng

Stroke is a leading cause of mortality and morbidity in Australia and New Zealand. However, national studies on the burden and outcomes of stroke are very limited. The study uses national stroke hospitalisation data in Australia and New Zealand to evaluate outcomes of ischemic and haemorrhagic stroke. Besides stroke incidence, we also evaluate the risk of all-cause mortality, stroke recurrence, cardiovascular disease incidence and loss in life expectancy following a stroke hospitalisations.

Exploring Variation in Patient Outcomes and Hospital Performance Measures

Lead Investigator: Dr Karen Hay

For any healthcare system, it is important to be able to monitor and interpret differences in hospital-level outcomes. Research questions of interest are “How much variation is acceptable?” and “How should we decide if a particular hospital is an outlier” are the subject of ongoing research and debate in health services research. In this project, we investigate hospital-level variation in rates of 30-day outcomes and provision of angiography for patients with acute myocardial infarction and compare statistical approach to modelling performance, including Bayesian hierarchical modelling with direct and indirect standardisation.

Health Care Costs Associated with Avoidable Hospitalisations

Lead Investigator: Trang Dang

In Australia and globally, quality improvement initiatives and policy reforms have focused on reducing potentially preventable hospitalisations. However, cost of potentially preventable hospitalisations or the economic impact of this issue on the healthcare system is uncertain. We evaluate the cost of potentially preventable hospitalisations and readmissions to the health system. We will also model and examine the cost-effectiveness of interventions to reduce readmissions.

Contact for general and research enquires: