Thursday 14 June 2007

Kiwi economist invited to US to study health policy

An economist from the Business School at The University of Auckland has received a prestigious fellowship to study US health policy at Harvard Medical School.

Dr Rhema Vaithianathan of the Department of Economics has been awarded a Harkness Fellowship from the Commonwealth Fund of New York.

She will spend 10 months working on a major piece of health policy research at the Boston-based university.

New Zealanders receive only one or two of these scholarships each year. Dr Vaithianathan is the first New Zealand economist to receive one.

Dr Vaithianathan will work on a project analysing US health insurance. She will look at how health insurance can be made more affordable while delivering maximum health benefits.

“Many people in the US are not insured, which means they are denied access to a great deal of medical care. There are multiple insurers operating in a complex system in the US, which leaves scope to find better ways of delivering insurance that brings the most benefit for the least amount of money,” she says.

Dr Vaithianathan will also impart lessons to the US on New Zealand’s approach to health policy.

Dr Vaithianathan has a research background in health economics, health policy and the economics of the pharmaceutical industry.

ENDS

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