Fellows - Judith Healy

Dr Judith Healy
Senior Fellow, Regulatory Institutions Network (RegNet), Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, Australian National University
Diploma of Social Studies, BA, Master of Social Work, PhD

Contact Details:
Telephone: 612 56701
Email: Judith.Healy@anu.edu.au

Biography

Judith Healy has a degree in Arts from Adelaide University, a masters degree in social work from the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, USA, and a PhD in health sciences from La Trobe University in Melbourne. She has worked on social and health policy areas in Australia, the United States and Europe, and joined the Regulatory Institutions Network in September 2004.

Professional Activities

My current research focuses upon the regulation in the Australian health care system, particularly governance strategies to improve the safety and quality of health care for patients. Other research areas are the comparative analysis of health care systems, and policies for ageing populations. My varied experience apart from academia includes community work with Aboriginal communities in Australia, hospital social work, and road accident research. I taught social policy and administration at the Flinders University of South Australia, conducted health and social services research at Policy Studies Institute in London, and researched health systems and policies for the European Observatory on Health Care Systems and Policies, based at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, employed by the World Health Organization Regional Office for Europe. Upon returning to Australia I directed an Australian National University AusAID-funded program, in collaboration with Mahidol University in Thailand, running training courses for senior public servants in SE Asia. I have also worked as a consultant for the World Health Organization Geneva, the Western Pacific Office of the World Health Organization, the International Labour Organization (ILO) the World Bank, the British Council, and the Ford Foundation.

Current Student

No Current Students.

Publications

McKee M & Healy J eds (2002) Hospitals in a Changing Europe Open University Press, Buckingham & Philadelphia (also published in Russian translation).
McKee M, Healy J & Falkingham J eds (2002) Health Care in Central Asia Open University Press, Buckingham & Philadelphia (also published in Russian translation).
Healy J & McKee M eds. (2004) Accessing Health Care: Responding to Diversity Oxford University Press, Oxford.
Healy J (2004) ‘The benefits of an ageing population’ The Australia Institute Discussion Paper No 63. ISSN 1322-5421
Braithwaite J, Healy J & Dwan K (2005) The Governance of Safety and Quality: A Discussion Paper. Canberra: Commonwealth of Australia.
Healy J, Sharman E, Lokuge B (2006) ‘ Australia: health system review’ Health Systems in Transition 8 (5): 1-158 (Published by the World Health Organization on behalf of the European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies).
Healy J, Maxwell J, Phua KH, Lin V & collaborators (2007) Responding to Requests for Information on Health Systems from Policy Makers in Asian Countries. Alliance for Health Policy and Systems Research, World Health Organization, Geneva.
McKee M & Healy J (2000) ‘The role of the hospital in a changing environment’ Bulletin of the World Health Organization 2000, 78 (6): 803-810
Healy J & McKee M (2002) ‘Implementing change in hospital systems in central and eastern Europe’ Health Policy 61(1): 1-19.
Healy J (2002) ‘The care of older people: Australia and the United Kingdom’ Social Policy & Administration 36 (1): 1-19.
Healy J ‘(2003) Analysing health care systems performance: the story behind the statistics’ Australia and New Zealand Journal of Public Health 27(6): 642-644.
Healy J , Maffi C, Dugdale P (2008) ‘A national medical register: balancing public transparency and professional privacy’ Medical Journal of Australia 188(4): 247- 249

Projects

Governance of health safety and quality – an ideas paper

The Safety and Quality Branch, Australian Department of Health and Ageing, commissioned an ideas paper titled ‘The governance of health safety and quality’ (Braithwaite, Healy and Dwan November 2004). The paper discusses, among other ideas, networked governance, responsive regulation and restorative justice: theories that have been tested in other areas. The paper considers how these theories and associated mechanisms might improve safety and quality in the delivery of health care in Australia.

ARC Linkages Project: ‘Regulatory strategies for improving health sector performance’

A research partnership has begun between RegNet at the Australian National University and two industry partners: the Australian Council for Safety and Quality in Health Care, and the Australian Capital Territory - ACT Health.
This project, to run for three years from 2005-2007, is funded by the Australian Research Council (ARC) Linkages Program, and by cash and in-kind contributions from our two industry partners. The project will examine the mix of ‘hard’ and ‘soft’ regulation and propose productive pathways towards future ‘responsive regulation’ in the health sector.

Mapping the health sector: an expanding regulatory terrain.

The ‘mapping’ study of regulatory strategies across Australia will be undertaken in 2005. Despite the growing importance of health sector regulation, as yet we have no ‘map’ of the scope and scale of this expanding terrain, including the proliferation of regulatory bodies and activities at both national and state level and the assumptions/values underlying the various approaches. Nor do we know the precise impact of many of these strategies and whether they are successful in improving clinical performance.

Nursing homes study: the limits of stakeholder participation.

This work will build on ongoing regulatory work on the nursing home industry in Australia, the US and UK by John Braithwaite, Valerie Braithwaite and Toni Makkai.

Hospitals study: beyond compliance.

This case study will evaluate a range of regulatory strategies being implemented in Australian hospitals, particularly those designed to reduce the incidence of ‘adverse events’ and ‘near misses’

General Practice: professionalisation and accreditation.

General practice in Australia has undergone ‘a cultural revolution’ over the last decade, but little research has been undertaken so far on attempts to improve the quality and safety of clinical performance in general practice. Recent initiatives in Australia, such as the work of the Divisions of General Practice, offer promising opportunities to evaluate these efforts.

European Observatory on Health Care Systems: reporting on Australia

A profile of policies, funding, organisation and regulation of the Australian health care system was published in 2001: (Hilless & Healy, Health Care Systems in Transition: Australia (http://www.euro.who.int/observatory/Hits/TopPage). This report is part of a series on European and OECD countries published by the European Observatory on Health Care Systems, a research partnership that works out of the European Regional Office of the World Health Organization. The profile is being updated and developed by Dr Judith Healy in collaboration with Dr Evelyn Sharman of the Australian Department of Health and Aging and will be published in 2005.

NHMRC/ARC Research Network 'Ageing Well'

The NHMRC and ARC have jointly funded the 'Ageing Well' Network http://www.ageingwell.edu.au/ for five years from 2005-09 to support interdisciplinary, high quality research on the National Research Priority Goal of Ageing Well, Ageing Productively. The Network will link researchers from many disciplines, nurture developing researchers, strengthen international collaboration and involve end-point users. Administered by Sydney University (Professor Hal Kendig) and by four main university hubs, the Australian National University group (convened by Dr Judith Healy), will inform and support population research strategies across Australia in the area of 'ageing well, ageing productively'. The Network also sponsors the Archive on Ageing that is located in the Australian Social Science Data Archive at the Australian National University http://assda.anu.edu.au/. The data archivist is Stephen Gray http://acsr.anu.edu.au/staff/archive.html.

CV

CV Judith Healy