Dr Sabrina Lenzen
About
I’m a Research Fellow and Health Economist at The University of Queensland’s Centre for the Business and Economics of Health (CBEH). My expertise is in applied economics, using econometric and discrete choice modelling techniques. I am particularly passionate about improving the lives of older people with a focus on cognitive decline, dementia, informal and formal aged care.
My research is funded through competitive grants from the Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF), Australian Research Council (ARC), and National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC). I am a Chief Investigator on two MRFF grants; one is evaluating the costs and benefits of a hearing and vision intervention in home care and another evaluating alcohol harm reduction interventions. I am a postdoc on an ARC grant that utilises economic methods to align population needs to health care and service provision, and on an NHMRC grant developing and testing new models for understanding and improving the treatment of youth substance use. I was recently awarded the Junior Research Fellowship at the University Duisburg-Essen in Germany that allowed me to visit the Health Economics group at CINCH for the winter semester 2024 who I continue to colloborate with.
Research interests
Applied Econometrics: Applying econometric techniques to large administrative and survey datasets, stuying the impact of health policies on health outcomes and complex real-world problems.
Discrete Choice Modelling (DCE): Utilising experimental designs, stated preference techniques, and choice experiments to estimate the value people place on alternative attributes of health and services in order to understand why people behave in a certain way and to predict future behaviour.
Health Economics: Studying issues related to efficiency, effectiveness, value and behaviour in the production and consumption of health and health care to determine how to improve health outcomes and lifestyle patterns.
Aged Care: Examining the significant reform agenda of the aged care sector in Australia, as well as considering broader policy issues, existing challenges and future implications.
Research impact and partnership
My work has been influential in informing and impacting health policy.
- I was recently involved in an evaluation of an increase in the midwife-to-mother ratio in Queensland hospitals. A cabinet-in-conference report was tabled by us and legislative changes in earli 2024 followed to increase nursing and midwifery ratios on a permanent basis on Queensland public hospitals.
- At the beginning of the year, I worked with the Department of Health and Aged Care and the UQ Centre for Health Services Research on developing risk adjustment models for aged care facilities in Australia. which are being implemented to improve the recently introduced Star Rating among residential aged care facilties.
- I am co-founder and convenor of the special interest group on Aged Care, Ageing and Dementia within the Australian Health Economics Association (AHES) and I work closely with aged care providers on several external grants.
Contact
To find out how we can collaborate and bring value to your organisation, I can be contacted via:
Email - s.lenzen@uq.edu.au
Connect with Sabrina on LinkedIn or
https://sites.google.com/view/sabrina-lenzen/