Applicants will be invited to propose topics of interest to them that they believe will advance the policy agendas of the two countries.

Below are examples of suggested topics around which applicants are encouraged to structure a project proposal. Reflecting the Australian Government Department of Health and Ageing's priorities, they offer opportunities to examine critical Australian health care issues, assess new approaches or innovative models, or compare aspects of Australian health care practice and experience with those of the United States.

Quality of Care:

• What strategies have been successful in changing physician and organizational behavior to improve quality of care in Australia?
• What strategies have been successful in changing physician and organizational behavior to improve patient safety and reduce medical errors?
• What strategies have been successful in involving consumers in decision-making at a national level and to ensure that consumer feedback is used in improving quality at the service delivery level?
• Why has information technology not been more widely adopted for quality improvement? What are the barriers and policy issues?
• What innovative models have been developed for providing or coordinating acute and long-term care services for the elderly to increase service responsiveness? How effective have they been?
• How effectively have initiatives promoted reliable care pathways between primary, acute, and long term care services?

Fiscal Sustainability of the Health Care System:

• What are the key cost drivers in the Australian health system?
• What are the main determinants of demand in the Australian system?
• How can Australia improve the use of evidence derived from assessments of new and emerging technologies (including pharmaceuticals) to improve cost efficiency?
• Do provider payment arrangements help or hinder the development of new approaches to care delivery in line with changing patient needs?
• Is it feasible to expect medical practitioners to play a more active role in cost-containment and, if so, what approaches are likely to prove effective?
• What are the key cost drivers influencing pharmaceutical prices? What strategies might be applied to contain growth in outlays on pharmaceuticals?
• What are the implications of population aging for health care costs in Australia?
• Are there better ways for the government to achieve the aims of the Life Saving Drugs program? (The program was created to allow some medicines to be subsidized that would not normally qualify for listing on the Australian Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme).

Health Care Workforce:

• How are demographic considerations affecting the supply of nurses, physicians and other health professionals (e.g., the aging workforce, changing workforce participation patterns, and technology)? What are the implications for recruitment and retention?
• How effective are existing policy tools, financial incentives, and organizational arrangements for promoting the most efficient use of the physician and nursing workforces?
• How can education and training programs be better aligned with workforce needs to ensure not only adequacy of supply but the right mix of skills?
• How has workforce planning contributed to the development of an appropriate health workforce?
• Are current regulatory and financing mechanisms appropriate in the context of growing workforce pressures?
• What approaches could be adopted to align the distribution of medical practitioners more closely with patterns of need, especially in rural and remote communities?
• What has been the impact of recent changes to allow patients of professionals other than doctors to access Medicare benefits? What are the longer term implications for the cost and quality of health services of such steps towards workforce "substitution"?

Investing in Preventive Care Strategies:

• What organizational arrangements can be made for physician services to better integrate prevention with curative care services? How could financial incentives be used to support such developments?
• What is Australia doing to collect and analyze evidence of the impact of preventive health programs on health and health sector costs?
• How is innovation in preventive care encouraged? What steps can be taken to develop and test new approaches to prevention?
• What innovative prevention programs have targeted teenagers? How effective have they been?

Indigenous/Minority Health:

• How effective are mainstream versus targeted services at addressing indigenous/minority health needs?
• How can differential funding (level and approaches) for under-serviced population groups contribute to these populations' access to and quality of health care services?
• How effective are existing policy tools, financial incentives, and organizational arrangements for promoting the development of health professionals from indigenous and non-English speaking backgrounds?
• Health Care Service Delivery: Performance and Efficiency
• What steps are state and territory governments taking to improve the efficiency of their public hospital services; and how successful are they proving to be?
• What is the nature and cause of variations in performance (quality, efficiency etc) among public hospitals within and between state and territory Governments?
• Is there scope to build aspects of "pay-for-performance" into current fuding arrangements for primary and/or secondary health care in Australia?
• How can the performance of primary care practices be assessed; and what approaches might be adopted to encourage widespread adoption of 'best practice'?
• What are the barriers to further uptake of contemporary information and telecommunications technologies among health care providers in Australia; and how might they be overcome?
• What lessons might Australia learn from recent successes (and failures) experienced in the United States with regard to managed care?

Interested applicants are encouraged to check the Australian Government Department of Health and Ageing Web site (http://www.health.gov.au/internet/wcms/publishing.nsf/Content/health-pubs-hfsocc-occpdf.htm
Health Care Systems in Transition Australia http://www.euro.who.int/observatory/Hits/TopPage.