What do healthcare consumers want?
A leading Griffith University researcher is working on a better understanding of what Australians really want from healthcare and how it impacts on key decisions across the sector. Dr Jennifer Whitty, from the Griffith Health Institute has spent the past six years measuring consumer preferences in the health sector.
A leading Griffith University researcher is working on a better understanding of what Australians really want from healthcare and how it impacts on key decisions across the sector.
Recently awarded in the Early Researcher Category of the Vice Chancellor’s annual Research Excellence Awards, Dr Jennifer Whitty, from the Griffith Health Institute has spent the past six years measuring consumer preferences in the health sector.
“My research centres on questions such as how the public wants healthcare to be delivered, what people specifically value about it and how they believe they could get the best value for money out of it,” Dr Whitty said.
“It’s very important for us to consider how patients and the general public think healthcare should be delivered in a way that provides maximum benefit.
“For example, where healthcare interventions are involved, we need to know what patients want from a particular service or treatment.”
According to Dr Whitty, the team recently investigated opinions from patients with chronic heart failure and this has entailed looking at healthcare delivery in terms of the continuity of staff and its delivery in either a home or clinic setting.
“We have found that the delivery is very important to the patients but there is a lot of variability around this according to patients’ individual needs. We are able to report this back to healthcare providers so that they can spend their money on the delivery accordingly.”
Most recently, Dr Whitty has been at the centre of a research program looking at how the Queensland public view the implementation of new health technologies in their state.
As part of a three year research fellowship received from Queensland government funding, Dr Whitty has been aiming to understand the public’s opinions on whether these technologies provide value for money.
“Overall, I would like to see people really considering what they want out of their healthcare services and be able to provide them with a genuine platform to have input to this and be heard,” she said.
