Centre Profile
The Centre for Health Policy, Programs and Economics (CHPPE) sits within the School of Population Health at The University of Melbourne. It is a multidisciplinary organisation, the core business of which is health services and policy research, and health economics. Its staff have expertise in program evaluation, health economics, economic evaluation, health law, epidemiology, social sciences and research methodology, and many have clinical backgrounds.
Teaching
The CHPPE offers graduate health professionals the opportunity to pursue further study through both course work or research higher degrees, and professional short courses.
Many of these courses are now available in both on-campus and off-campus in distance mode, with students able to choose traditional semester length format or block mode as their preferred study mode.
These courses are suitable for health professionals working in government, health services and health support organisations who want to take a leadership role in the fields of economic evaluation, health economics, health program evaluation or health services research.
Comprehensive specialist training programs in economic evaluation, health economics, health program evaluation or health services research and their associated research methods provide opportunities for both local and overseas students to develop higher order skills and conceptual understanding in theses areas.
In addition to specialist teaching and research training opportunities within the Master of Public Health, the Doctor of Public Health and the Doctor of Philosophy degrees the CHPPE provides specialised training courses for clients outside the university.
Research
The CHPPE undertakes evaluations of health programs and policies at international, national, state and local levels. Since its establishment, the CHPPE has attracted over $31 million in funding from key granting bodies such as the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) and from organisations such as Commonwealth and state/territory health departments that fund contract research. Over half of this funding has come directly to the CHPPE and the remaining funding has been shared with collaborating agencies. Since 2007, the CHPPE has focussed its research around four work streams: Primary Care, Health Economics, Mental Health, and Health Policy.
See Research for more information.
Mission
The mission of the CHPPE is to contribute to the health of the community through research, teaching and service relevant to health programs and policy. It aims to do this by advancing relevant knowledge and addressing relevant issues productively and flexibly. It also includes methodological development, exemplary practice and a varied program of teaching and training. It aims to achieve this mission by improving the community’s ability to critically evaluate the performance and funding of health policy and health programs.
History
The CHPPE's origins date back to 1991, when, as the Program Evaluation Unit (PEU), it was co-located with the Health Economics Unit (HEU) of Monash University. The two units sat within what was originally known as the National Centre for Health Program Evaluation (NCHPE) and later became known as the Centre for Health Program Evaluation (CHPE). The CHPE was a research and teaching organisation established to undertake academic and applied evaluation of health programs, research into health systems and analysis of health policy. Its role also included the development of appropriate evaluation methodologies. In addition, it was responsible for promoting the teaching of health program evaluation and health economics, in order to increase the supply of trained specialists and improve the level of understanding in the health community.
The CHPE became a prolific contributor to the academic and policy debate on Australian health services, aiming to improve the effectiveness, efficiency and equity of these services. Together and independently, the PEU and the HEU attracted substantial funding for research and teaching, and produced high quality academic papers and technical reports.
Over time, the PEU and the HEU came to act as Centres in their own right. After 12 years together, the PEU and the HEU returned to their respective universities in 2003, and the CHPE ceased to exist as the overarching organisation. In 2006 the Program Evaluation Unit became the Centre for Health Policy, Programs and Economics.