Improving access to evidence-based acute stroke services: development and evaluation of a health systems model to address equity of access issues

Level 1 evidence for management of patients with stroke in a dedicated Stroke Care Unit (SCU) demonstrates improved outcomes by about 20%. It has been estimated that 21% of Australian hospitals provide an SCU and that these SCUs are mainly located in either metropolitan sites and/or in hospitals with more than 300 beds. To address equity issues related to access to SCUs, the National Stroke Foundation and the Australian Government undertook the National Stroke Units Program. One program outcome was the development of a conceptual model of acute stroke service delivery. The development process and initial evaluation of the model are described. Use of the model to increase capacity within the health care system to treat stroke is discussed.

A winner determination algorithm for multi-unit combinatorial auctions with reserve prices

Combinatorial auction mechanisms have been used in many applications such as resource and task allocation, planning and time scheduling in multi-agent systems, in which the items to be allocated are complementary or substitutable. The winner determination in combinatorial auction itself is a NP-complete problem, and has attracted many attentions of researchers world wide. Some outstanding achievements have been made including CPLEX and CABOB algorithms on this topic. To our knowledge, the research into multi-unit combinatorial auctions with reserve prices considered is more or less ignored. To this end, we present a new algorithm for multi-unit combinatorial auctions with reserve prices, which is based on Sandholm's work. An efficient heuristic function is developed for the new algorithm. Experiments have been conducted. The experimental results show that auctioneer agent can find the optimal solution efficiently for a reasonable problem scale with our algorithm.

Equity-focused health impact assessment framework

Background to the Development of the Equity-Focused HIA Framework
The equity focused health impact assessment (EFHIA) framework arises out of a two year research project funded for the most part by the Australian Government’s Public Health Education Research Program (PHERP) Innovations Grants (Round 2) scheme. This project had as its primary objective the development of a framework for health inequalities impact assessment, subsequently renamed equity focused health impact assessment. A partnership between the University of Newcastle, Deakin University and the University of New South Wales (the Project Management Steering Committee) received the funding and the Australasian Collaboration for Health Equity Impact Assessment (ACHEIA) was formed to undertake appropriate background research and to develop, pilot test, modify and disseminate the framework. The work commenced in September 2002 and concluded in October 2004. Part of the funding included a capacity building workshop in August 2004. ACT Health and the Division of Medicine at the John Hunter Hospital, Newcastle, also provided financial support for the project. The August 2004 Workshop was supported by NSW Health. All participants and organisations involved in the project gave extensive in-kind support.
The aims of the workshop were to bring together an international collaboration of multidisciplinary investigators, public health experts, and key senior health managers working in national, state and local settings, to inform the further development of the framework and to provide training in its application. The initial goals of the project were to work collaboratively to develop a strategic framework to assess the health inequalities of public health-related policies, plans, strategies, decisions, programs and services. The EFHIA framework as presented at the August workshop was developed through:
1. an extensive review of the relevant literature
2. formal and informal consultation with members of ACHEIA (the international
reference group), members of the Project Management Steering Committee and
other relevant experts; and
3. testing of the draft EFHIA framework with the 5 case study partners – who applied the draft framework in a range of health settings (see
Acknowledgements).
The result of this work has been the development of an equity focused health impact assessment framework that can be used to determine the unanticipated and systemic health inequities that may exist within the decision making processes or activities of a range of organisations and sectors. The EFHIA framework provides one approach that can be used to assist decision makers to put equity and health on their agenda in a more obvious and systematic way. The framework represents a ‘moment in time’ rather than a definitive statement or ‘toolkit’ on the best way to proceed. Further practice, refinement and adjustment will be needed over many years to consolidate both HIA and EFHIA. As well as this guide to the framework, additional outputs from the project team include:
- A literature review
- A position paper
- A report on the five case studies
- An evaluation report.
With the consent of the Australian Government, a monograph will be made available to workshop participants at the end of October which contains the framework and the appropriate background papers.

Principles of equity and trusts

The Principles of Equity and Trusts 3rd edition provides a comprehensive summation of the principles of equity, the law of trusts and equitable remedies. The book is designed to meet the needs of both students and practitioners.

It includes developments in areas such as the relationship between common law and equity, undue influence, tracing, interim injunctions, and resulting trusts. Covering the general principles associated with the equity and trusts jurisprudence, this textbook is useful for undergraduate study of the subject.

Using choice modelling to investigate equity preferences

Benefit cost analysis (BCA) is a widely used method of assessing environmental policies. One of the limitations of BCA is the incorporation of equity considerations into an analysis. While this is theoretically possible through the application of distributional weights, this practice has not been generally adopted due to difficulties in determining appropriate weights. This paper suggests that one way of addressing the equity issue is through the application of a staged preference technique to the estimation of equity preferences. It is demonstrated that using choice modelling enables respondents' equity preferences to be elicited and distributional weights suitable for application in BCA to be estimated.

Assessing perceived destination image and brand equity through web 2.0

Social media technologies of Web 2.0 play an increasingly important role in destination brand management practice and the consumer selection of destinations. Consumers freely discuss their travel stories, travel recommendations, travel experiences and attitudes through blogs, forums and social media. This material is read and added to by millions of people and the content has a role in determining the image of a travel destination. Therefore it is critical that destination brand managers understand what is being discussed and written about their destination. What is the content of the Web 2.0 discussions? What are the attributes, associations, experiences, connotations, connections, contexts and ramifications?

Costs of raising equity capital by renounceable rights issues in Australia

Rights issues remain a common method for raising equity capital in Australia for companies listed on me Australian Stock Exchange. This study investigates the capital raising costs of Anstralian renounceable equity rights issues from 2001 to 2006. Both direct and indirect costs are investigated and the explanatory power of potential influencing factors is analyzed. The total direct costs averaged nearly 4% of gross proceeds raised and the mean offer price was discounted around 17% from the current market price. Issue size, percentage underwritten, concentration of ownership and issuer risk significantly influence the percentage direct costs of the rights issue. The age of the issuer, the average historical volume of shares traded and the offer price appear to influence the percentage discount.