13th Health Services Research Conference

The AusHSI team at HSR24

Hosted by the Health Services Research Association of Australia and New Zealand (HSRAANZ), the 13th Health Services Research Conference (HSR24) was held from 4 to 6 December 2024 at the Royal International Convention Centre in Brisbane.

The Australian Centre for Health Services Innovation and the UQ Centre for Health Services Research were proud sponsors of the event and ran the scientific and organising committees to develop the program and event schedule. AusHSI sponsored the plenary sessions featuring invited speakers Prof Mike Drummond (University of York), Prof Melissa Baysari (University of Sydney) and Prof Sarah Larkins (James Cook University).

This year’s conference theme Health Services Research in the Digital Age highlighted the complexity of integrating digital innovations within health systems. AusHSI’s digital health research featured strongly throughout the HSR24 program and the Centre’s implementation science, health economics and statistics & data analysis teams showcased diverse research across several talks over the 3 days of the conference.

Scroll down to read our conference recap and presentation highlights from the AusHSI Research Team.

Day 1

HSR24 was officially opened by Her Excellency the Honourable Dr Jeannette Young AC PSM, Governor of Queensland, and included a Welcome to Country by Uncle Billy Cummings.

This was followed by a Plenary Session by Prof Julia Adler-Milstein (University of California, San Francisco), chaired by AusHSI Centre Director, Prof Steven McPhail. Titled Looking Back and Looking Forward: HSR in the Rapidly-Evolving Technology Ecosystem, Prof Adler Milstein warned against the allure of magical thinking and the notion that technology will transform broken health systems, and highlighted the opportunities offered by AI tools.

Wednesday’s program also included a symposium on using consumer and community engagement to maximise the value and uptake of research, featuring presentations by A/Prof Zephanie Tyack, Dr Bridget Abell and Pakhi Sharma. Dr Sunny Naicker also presented on adapting implementation theory for the co-design of informatics demand management processes in a large metropolitan health service.

Dr Hannah Carter presented the effectiveness and cost-consequences of EDDIE+, with Dr Michelle Allen presenting the insights and lessons from the project.

The Welcome Reception, hosted by the University of Queensland, provided an opportunity to network and catch up with colleagues and peers while enjoying the ‘Ekka’ theme – a nod to the Royal International Convention Centre’s role in the annual Royal Queensland Show.

Day 2

Welcomed by UQ Centre for Health Services Research Director, Prof Jason Pole, Day 2 opened with a brilliant plenary on meaningful and authentic lived experience and community involvement, sponsored by AusHSI.

The session featured presentations by Prof Melissa Baysari (University of Sydney), Prof Sarah Larkins (James Cook University) and Dr Fiona Russo (University of Southern Queensland). Dr Adrienne Young then joined the invited speakers for a panel discussion lead by A/Prof Zephanie Tyack responding to thought-provoking audience questions on challenges faced by health services researchers in this complex space.

During the concurrent sessions, A/Prof Nicole White presented her findings on Non-publication bias in clinical prediction modelling and the role of health services research, while Thomasina Donovan showcased the Cost-IS (costing implementation strategies) instrument. A/Prof Susanna Cramb presented on visualising the patient journey using the Queensland Injury Atlas beta and Dr Sundresan Naicker, Dr Clifford Afoakwah and Megumi Lim presented quick-fire research in the Lightning Talks.

Day 3

Day 3 opened with a plenary on the current state of decision making in health care by international keynote speaker, Prof Michael Drummond (University of York), sponsored by AusHSI. This was followed by a panel discussion on health economics in the digital era, facilitated by Prof Steven McPhail and including Prof Mike Drummond, Prof Jason Pole and Prof Tracy Comans (UQ Centre for Health Services Research) and Prof Julie Ratcliffe (Flinders University).

Chaired by HSRAANZ President, Dr Alison Pearce, the final plenary featured a panel of funder and policy makers on the future landscape for health services research with Dr Catherine de Fontenay (Commissioner, Productivity Commission), Dr Raelene Donovan (eHealth Queensland), Julie Andrews (HCF Australia) and A/Prof Philip Haywood (University of Sydney). While there are still many cautions and considerations for health services research in the digital age, there are also many opportunities!

Posters

In addition to the range of oral presentations delivered by AusHSI academics and students, a number of posters were available for viewing and discussion throughout the conference. PhD student Nirmali Sivapragasam received a Highly Commended award for her poster Health-related quality of life among adults with and without key behavioural risk factors for chronic disease: A systematic review and meta-analysis, which aims to estimate differences in health-related quality of life utitility scores by type of instrument used in population-based studies.

Piloting a value-based care toolkit in an online community of practice platform by Dr Eloise Hummell presented a pilot study embedding a high value care toolkit within a community of practice hub-and-spoke telementoring model.

PhD student Chaminda Patabendige presented his poster titled Health system interventions for the cost containment of drugs used for cardiovascular diseases: A systematic review and exploration of how the results could be adapted to the Sri Lankan context, where he explored the adaptability to Sri Lanka of interventions for the cost containment of drugs used for cardiovascular diseases.

Prof Adrian Barnett‘s poster Research containers are a potential silver bullet to data access issues outlined a solution that combines dummy data and research containers to allow researchers to safely analyse data.

Growth and Changing Landscape of the Cost-Utility Literature: An Australian Perspective, 1992-2022 by Dr Qing Xia presented a comprehensive overview of the growth and changing landscape of cost utility analysis in Australia over the past three decades.