Establishing a reference unit costs catalogue for the optimized evaluation and planning of mental healthcare in Vienna
Date: 2023-2026
Funding: WWTF (Wiener Wissenschafts-, Forschungs- und Technologiefonds)
Collaborator(s): Universidad Loyola Andaluciá, ES; Austrian Institute for Health Technology Assessment, AT; Gesundheit Österreich GmbH, AT
Advisory Board: Link zum Advisory Board (SAB)
Information: Judit Simon (PI), Michael Berger (Co-PI), Susanne Mayer (Co-PI), Lazo Ilic, Sophie Diexer
Around 18% of the Austrian population suffer from mental health problems, many with excess physical health burden. Covering their need for treatment has become a major public health challenge for the healthcare system. Recent demographic and societal developments further aggravate the access need to optimized, integrated mental healthcare services. The multi-disciplinary STREAMLINE project aims to map multi-sectoral mental health-related services and their activities in Vienna, and develop and make available their internationally comparable Reference Unit Costs (RUC) using state-of-the-art methods. Further, it will analyse policy relevant variations in their availability and costs including comparison to other Austrian regions. The project will serve as proof-of-concept and will be expendable in the future to other disease areas and jurisdictions to reduce wasteful medical expenditure through evidence-based value assessment.
The STREAMLINE-Symposium took place on the 23.01.2026 with a focus on presenting the key findings of the STREAMLINE project. Afterwards these findings were discussed in a panel discussion with experts.
Please find here selected photos from the event.
The following presentations were given:
Simon J., Diexer S., Simon J. for the STREAMLINE Consortium. The STREAMLINE project. Support optimised mental healthcare in Vienna. STREAMLINE Symposium; 2026 Jan 23; Vienna
Ilic L., Diexer S., Simon J. for the STREAMLINE Consortium. Mental health related service provision in Vienna: A multisectoral mapping study. STREAMLINE Symposium; 2026 Jan 23; Vienna
Mayer S., Diexer S., Simon J. for the STREAMLINE Consortium. Reference unit cost calculation. STREAMLINE Symposium; 2026 Jan 23; Vienna
Berger M., Boersig Mcphillips M., Simon J. for the STREAMLINE Consortium. Trends in mental healthcare use. STREAMLINE Symposium; 2026 Jan 23; Vienna
Diexer S, Ilic L, Simon J for the STREAMLINE-Konsortium. STREAMLINE Policy Brief 1 - Entwicklung eines Leistungskatalogs im Bereich der psychischen Erkrankungen für Wien. Zenodo. 2026 Jan. Available from: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.18342872
Diexer S, Simon J, Mayer S for the STREAMLINE-Konsortium. STREAMLINE Policy Brief 2 - Berechnung von Referenzkosten. Zenodo. 2026 Jan. Available from: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.18336975
Boersig McPhillips M, Berger M, Simon J for the STREAMLINE-Konsortium. STREAMLINE Policy Brief 3 - Entwicklung und Verteilung psychischer Gesundheitsversorgung 2018 bis 2023. Zenodo. 2026 Jan. Available from: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.18340595
Simon J. (presenter: Mayer S.) Health economics and services research in symbiosis: STREAMLINEing mental health services in Vienna. 8th ATHEA 2025 conference. Status quo and new directions for Austrian health economics; 2025 Mar 6-7; Vienna (oral)
Simon J. Health economics and services research in symbiosis: STREAMLINEing mental health services in Austria. 17th European Public Health Conference 2024. Sailing the waves of European public health: exploring a sea of innovation; 2024 Nov 15-17; Lisbon (poster)
Simon J. Assessing the value of mental health treatments for youth in Europe. 32nd European congress of Psychiatry (EPA 2024); 2024 Apr 6-9; Budapest (invited talk)
Simon J. Latest methodological developments in the value assessment of mental health care. 23rd WPA World Congress of Psychiatry; 2023 Sep 28-Oct 1; Vienna (invited talk)
STREAMLINE is one of eight WWTF-funded public health projects that runs between 01.04.2023 and 31.01.2026. The aim of the project is to facilitate future optimised and better integrated service provision, financing and evaluation for people with mental health diseases in Vienna.
A multi-disciplinary research team from the Department of Health Economics, Center for Public Health, Medical University of Vienna (lead), Austrian Public Health Institute, Austrian Institute for Health Technology Assessment and University of Loyola (Spain) will look at the availability, activity and affordability of existing treatment, care and support services for children, youth and adults in the health and social care sectors, in the education, employment and justice systems and those for patients and their carers locally.
Following standardised mapping and reference unit cost development for the identified services, evidence-informed policy recommendations for future planning and reimbursement will be drawn.
STREAMLINE is supported by a large multi-stakeholder Advisory Board including providers, payers, decision makers and persons with lived experiences either as patients or carers.
The SAB Kick-off meeting took place on the 13 June 2023 with a focus on presenting the background, aims and work plan of the project.