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The Menzies Centre for Health Policy conducts health policy research, analysis, advice and education.
We focus on improving public health outcomes through policy innovation and practical implementation. With a program of community engagement, the Centre encourages informed debate about how Australians can influence health policy to ensure that it is consistent with their values and priorities; policies that are able to deliver safe, high-quality health care that is sustainable in the long term.
The Centre has a particular interest in the policy conundrums posed by the growing challenge of chronic illness. Our research has demonstrated a strong commitment to patient centred outcomes.
The Applied Policy Analysis team seeks to bridge the gap between academic research and policymakers' need for clear, non-partisan evidence. It translates quantitative and qualitative research into policy-relevant material for timely application by policymakers and stakeholders. Comparative effectiveness, quality measurement, health economics, and health services research require complex methodologies, but we communicate results in clear language with graphic presentations to facilitate evidence-based policymaking.
The Health Governance and Financing node, led by Associate Professor James Gillespie and Dr Carmen Huckel Schneider, aims to develop a richer understanding of how health systems and policy are governed and the interactions between politics, policy and evidence in health policy processes. Within this frame, the node undertakes research projects that are aimed at how policy is used to progress health systems and the social and political factors that feed into this process. We undertake research into:
The Preventive Health Policy team look at social, economic and environmental factors and how each of these interacts to achieve sustained prevention of complex chronic health problems. They work collaboratively with public health practice and practitioners to inform prevention research, policy and practice. A number of researchers in this team are working on projects with the Australian Prevention Partnership Centre, of which Professor Andrew Wilson is Director.
The Public Policy and Health theme is led by Dr Patrick Harris and Dr Anne Marie Thow. This research theme focusses on understanding:
Researchers in this theme prioritise active engagement with policymakers to promote policy supportive of population health and wellbeing, through collaborations in Australia and internationally.
Our ongoing programs of work include focus areas on urban planning, nutrition policy analysis and industry-oriented nutrition interventions.
The Value in Health Care Division directed by Professor Adam Elshaug aims to create a sustainable cross-disciplinary research and policy translation environment with the goals of delivering value-based healthcare solutions, underpinned by the analysis of health data.
It is a portal through which key questions of most relevance to end-user partners are asked of data, existing and new. Specifically, we address key issues related to the judicious use of healthcare services, the consequences of high and low-value care including resource use and costs and relative cost-effectiveness of health care services, and the development and testing of real-world remedies to the problem of low-value care. We centrally embed and integrate staff and students, ideas, analyses and data to participate in and influence the polity of healthcare.
The Value in Health Care Division’s approach holds dual strengths, first in answering the most pertinent clinical, economic, epidemiological or health service questions of existing data and the acquisition of new data stores. Second, by value adding through mapping where existing data infrastructure falls short of providing needed answers. This spurs a cyclical learning data environment, where program staff and students, our clinical, policy and industry partners, and data custodians work iteratively to fill data black holes, subsequently strengthening the infrastructure for more and more robust research and policy translation applications.
The study of health policy offers a critical perspective on how health systems operate and the forces that shape the health and society more broadly. It emphasises the importance of power and value choices, focusing on the interaction of governments with the private and community sectors in shaping policy.
Two scholarships are available for the Masters of Health Policy at the University of Sydney. The Stephen Leeder Health Policy Scholarship and the Ruth Colagiuri Health Policy Scholarship will be valued at $10,000 and will be tenable for one full-time semester only.
Visit our scholarships website to learn more.
For further information on these courses please contact:
Degrees by research are available across all the research areas of the Sydney School of Public Health and the Faculty of Medicine and Health.
Research options include:
Learn more current research opportunities or about postgraduate research in medicine and health.
The Menzies Centre for Health Policy and colleagues deliver regular seminars that address contemporary health policy issues.
Please join our mailing list to receive notifications when the next seminar is scheduled.
Visit the Sydney eScholarship Repository for recordings and resources from past seminars.
The Emerging Health Policy Research Conference showcases emerging health policy research of academic researchers, health policy professionals and higher degree research students. Participation in the Emerging Health Policy Research Conference provides an opportunity to:
Please join our mailing list to receive notifications when the next Conference is scheduled.
Visit the Sydney eScholarship Repository for recordings and resources from past conferences. https://ses.library.usyd.edu.au/handle/2123/8697
The University of Sydney, by way of a gift, established the S.T. Lee Lecture Fund in 2008 to invite a distinguished scholar and/or practitioner on the subject of contemporary health policy to deliver an annual lecture. The S.T. Lee Lecture is named for Seng Tee Lee, a business executive and noted philanthropist. Dr Lee is director of the Lee group of companies in Singapore and of the Lee Foundation.
Please join our mailing list to receive notifications when the next S T Lee Lecture is scheduled.
Visit the Sydney eScholarship Repository for recordings and resources from past conferences. https://ses.library.usyd.edu.au/handle/2123/8696
Join our mailing list to receive updates about upcoming events