The Productivity Commission’s inquiry report into the ‘Review of the National Competition Policy Reforms’ was released in April 2005. In 2004 the Australian Government asked the Productivity Commission to look at the impact on the economy and the community of NCP and related reforms and...

The average efficiency of public and private hospitals is about 20 per cent below best practice after adjusting for differences in what hospitals do and who they treat, according to the ‘Public and Private Hospitals’ Research Report released by the Productivity Commission. However, the...

The Productivity Commission research report, ‘Australia's Health Workforce’, was released on 19 January 2006. The Commission was asked to undertake a research study to examine issues impacting on the health workforce over the next 10 years. The main finding of the commissioned study’s...

The Productivity Commission's report on ‘Annual Review of Regulatory Burdens on Business: Manufacturing and Distributive Trades’, identifies a number of ways the Australian Government can strip out unnecessary regulatory burdens on manufacturing, wholesaling and retailing businesses. A...

the Productivity Commission research report into the ‘Impacts of Advances in Medical Technology in Australia’ was released on 20 September 2005. The report responds to a request from the Australian Government to examine the impact of advances in medical technology on public and private...

The Productivity Commission's latest report, Annual Review of Regulatory Burdens on Business: Social and Economic Infrastructure Services Sector – identifies ways to reduce the regulatory burdens on businesses in aged care, health, child care, education, information media and...

Background: A recent study found fewer hospitalizations for congestive heart failure (CHF) patients receiving high-dose versus low-dose statin therapy. Objective: To examine the cost effectiveness of high-dose versus low-dose statin therapy in CHF patients. Methods: Two scenarios...

Strategies to change the existing mix of innovative and 'me-too' drugs are intended to increase societal value of a given investment in R&D by providing an incentive for firms to invest in drugs that are more likely to be clinically innovative. How can financial incentives be used to change this...

Background: Rituximab maintenance therapy was shown to significantly extend overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS) in relapsed/refractory follicular lymphoma (FL) in the pivotal EORTC 20981 trial. Objective: To assess the long-term costs and cost effectiveness of rituximab...