PhD Opportunity in Health Economics and Digital Health

PhD Opportunity in health economics and digital health

Expressions of Interest are being sought from potential PhD students to undertake research supporting a Digital Health CRC project to evaluate the health economic impact of increasing regional digital health ecosystem maturity in the Sydney Local Health District. The PhD project will develop methods to assign and forecast the value of increasing digital health system maturity amongst a variety of stakeholders.

What will your PhD involve?

This PhD student will be working with a team of economists, digital health experts and IT professionals to develop new methods of measuring and valuing the overall health economic impact of improvements in digital health at a health system level.  The PhD student will undertake systematic reviews, discrete choice experiments and will apply modelling methods to link improvements in digital maturity to health or other outcomes, including modelling future improvements.

Why are we undertaking this research?

Value for money is central to decision making for health programs, including investment in infrastructure such as digital health tools - we must use scarce resources wisely to provide the best outcomes for the population. To do this, we need tools to measure benefits across all interventions, from those that focus narrowly on extending life to those which aim to improve overall wellbeing of the system.

What will the research achieve?

The research project will evaluate currently available data sources within Sydney Local Health District and identify a defined set of outcomes of interest which can be used to track the impact of improvements in the digital ecosystem, as measured by the Digital Health Indicator. Appropriate modelling methodology will be used to link improvements in the digital health indicator to measured changes in the outcomes of interest.

Additional components of the PhD will include a systematic literature review as well as discrete choice experiment to determine likely outcomes of interest to various stakeholders.

Funding body	Digital Health CRC
Study level	PhD
Value	A full-time scholarship will carry a stipend of $40,000 per year, plus.
Duration	The scholarship is available from 1st April 2022 for 3 years (with an optional 6-month extension).
Requirements	Likely discipline backgrounds for applicants are health economics, health services research, digital health, econometrics and economics. Eligibility criteria An interest in digital health from a health system perspective, particularly in the area of health and value generation. High level quantitative skills. Good written and verbal professional communication skills. Ability to work as part of an interdisciplinary research team.
Apply by	21st March 2022
To apply	Interested candidates should submit A detailed CV An expression of interest (one A4 page maximum)   Please submit your application through: https://utsau.au1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_7OtX8zeYLuhO9Lg
Contact	Please direct any questions about this scholarship to Rosalie Viney (Rosalie.viney@uts.edu.au or phone 02 9514 4720)