Targeting Out-of-Pocket Healthcare Expenditure through Citizen Sciences
Partners: Flinders University, Far West Community Partnerships, Health Translation SA, The George Institute Guunu-maana (Heal) Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Program, Country SA Primary Health Network
Pictured: The OOPHE project team in Ceduna, SA.
Out-of-Pocket Healthcare Expenditure (OOPHE) are additional expenses (i.e. travel, medication, equipment, time off work) not covered by Medicare or Private Health Insurance. It is estimated the economic burden of OOPHE from 2019- 2020 was $30 billion, including costs associated with delaying treatment or not filling prescriptions.
This project aims to build and implement a social prescribing digital platform for Out-of-Pocket Healthcare Expenditure (OOPHE), underpinned by citizen science approaches to harness the wealth of knowledge amongst consumers in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities with lived experience and passion for creating and determining solutions.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander citizens (rural and remote community, researchers, and academics), in collaboration with experts in social prescribing, health economics, data science, digital technology, and implementation sciences across South Australia (SA) and the Northern Territory (NT), will co-develop and implement an OOPHE social prescribing Web App.
The Web App will bring together: co-created OOPHE health knowledge through videos; a co-created culturally and psychometrically assessed OOPHE tool; promotion of OOPHE self-efficacy; and a mechanism for connecting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander citizens with culturally safe community and health services.
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