12 June 2025
PriMHE - Programme in the Methods of Health Economics
"Real-word data and evidence in regulatory decision-making"
Associate Professor Joshua D. Wallach
(Department of Epidemiology at Emory University’s Rollins School of Public Health)
Almost one in five people in Austria suffers from mental health problems, many with additional physical health problems. The tangible consequences of social and demographic developments further aggravate the need for access to optimized, integrated mental healthcare services. For this reason, the Department of Health Economics at the Medical University of Vienna is conducting a primary data collection survey in Vienna as part of the multidisciplinary research project STREAMLINE, funded by the Viennese Science and Technology Fund. The aim of the project is to create an atlas of available services for people with mental illness and a catalog with relevant aggregated cost information for future research and care planning.
Relevant Viennese service providers were identified based on publicly available information. These providers will be approached by email to take part in the data collection from 22nd of April to 23rd of May (for individual service providers) and 30th of May, 2025 (for organisations). For each completed survey, € 10 will be donated to a charity organization on behalf of the STREAMLINE project.
In recognition of the recent World Bipolar Day, the BBC has revealed new figures for the cost of bipolar disorder which is now estimated at £9.6 billion in the UK. This is an updated estimate based on the earlier study about the cost of bipolar disorder in the UK led by Professor Judit Simon from the Department of Health Economics, Medical University of Vienna and Department of Psychiatry, University of Oxford.
Estimates show that bipolar disorder poses major mental and non-mental healthcare costs, but more than twice as much burden falls on patients and their families in the form of sick leave and informal care. The study also found that costs are closely linked to the severity of depressive and manic symptoms. Therefore, better integrated mental and physical healthcare and improved long-term symptom management could substantially reduce societal costs. This is a conservative estimate, since the total health and economic burden of bipolar disorder is likely to be even bigger when considering under- and misdiagnosed cases, or the additional costs of unemployment and the justice sector.
A new paper on progress of gender equality and the emerging visibility and reputation of women in UK academic health economics has been recently published in the top journal Social Science & Medicine. The publication has direct links to the Department of Health Economics at the Center for Public Health of the Medical University of Vienna, which was established in 2013: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277953625001236
- Berger M. Urban–Rural Disparities in Hospital Admissions for Depression in Austria: A Spatial Panel Data Analysis.
- Gamillscheg P. Public Gaps and Private Bridges: Healthcare Access Barriers and Facilitators to Long COVID-19 Patients in Austria.
- Heilig D. Homelessness and Health: Survival Analysis and Health Care Cost Comparison between Homeless and Non-Homeless Lung Cancer Patients.
- Mayer S. Unearthing the divide: Historical development of socioeconomic inequalities in lifespan in Vorarlberg/Austria (1946 – 1981).
- Simon J. (presenter: Mayer S.) Health Economics and Services Research in Symbiosis: STREAMLINEing Mental Health Services in Vienna.
- Wienand D. Lost Productivity Associated with the Excess Physical Disease Burden of Severe Mental Health Disorders in 32 European Countries.