Evidence, Economics, and Politics:
Australia’s Experiment in Evidence-Based Medicine

Friday, December 15, 2006
7:30 a.m. - 10:30 a.m
St. Regis Hotel
125 3rd Street (near Mission)
San Francisco, CA 94103

Registration and Continental Breakfast: 7:30 a.m.
Panel Discussion: 8:00 a.m.

Australia’s National Health Systems (NHS) provides universal, tax-financed coverage to all citizens. To control the cost of medicines, NHS created a Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee (PBAC) to advise whether and, if so, how government should subsidize drugs. A central feature of PBAC is cost-effectiveness research. With U.S. policymakers searching for ways to rein in Medicare and Medicaid drug spending, the Australian experience assumes special relevance.

Join CHI - California Healthcare Institute, Pacific Research Institute, and policy experts from Australia and the U.S. for a discussion of the promise and pitfalls of cost-effectiveness analysis, a subject already of intense interest to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).

Moderator:

• John R. Graham
  Director, Health Care Studies, Pacific Research Institute, and former Director of Health & Pharmaceutical Policy Research at Canada’s Fraser Institute  
  
  

Panelists:

• Kwabena O.M. Adubofour, MD
  Medical Director, Fifth Street Medical Center - South Stockton, CA
  View Powerpoint Presentation
  
  
  
• Meryl Comer
  Journalist and Caregiver
  
  
• Randolph Frankel
  Vice President, Public Affairs & Government Relations, IMS Health
  
  
• Marjorie Ginsburg
  Executive Director, Sacramento Healthcare Decisions
  View PowerPoint Presentation
  
  
  
• Ruth Lopert
  Harkness Fellow in Health Care Policy, George Washington University and Principal Advisor, Pharmaceutical Policy Taskforce, Commonwealth Department of Health and Ageing, Canberra, Australia
  View Powerpoint Presentation
  
  
  
• Peter J. Pitts
  Co-Founder and President, Center for Medicines in the Public Interest, and former FDA Associate Commissioner for External Relations
  
  

PRI's John R. Graham moderating panel discussion

PRI Board Member, Mike Carpenter and guest

Mike Carpenter, John R. Graham, Meryl Comer, and Governor Pete Wilson

Questions?
Contact Shawn Bonsack (bonsack@chi.org or 858-551-6677).
Cindy Chin (cchin@pacificresearch.org or 415-955-6110).

Sponsors:
California Healthcare Institute
Pacific Research Institute