About RegHealth

RegHealth is based in the Research School of Social Sciences as part of the Regulatory Institutions Network (RegNet), a network of University-wide regulatory researchers coordinated through the Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies in the Institute of Advanced Studies of the Australian National University in Canberra.

The RegHealth program was established in 2004 to contribute to Australian and international efforts to evaluate promising forms of regulatory governance that ensure that people receive good quality and safe health services. ‘Regulation’ refers to a continuum of approaches from persuasion upwards to ‘command and control’: although the health sector traditionally has relied upon ‘softer’ forms of professional self-regulation. Health care is increasingly regulated, however, given its large and diverse public sector and substantial private sector. There is also growing concern about health safety in Australia as in other OECD countries; for example, about 2% of patients experience a serious ‘medical error’ in hospital. Thus the volume and variety of regulatory efforts to improve performance have increased dramatically recently in response to calls for greater accountability. The health field in Australia, with its proliferation of regulatory bodies and mechanisms, offers rich scope for innovative research on the nature and impact of regulatory strategies. Does regulation result in better and safer health care? What regulatory mechanisms work well, in what combination, and is regulation a cost-effective way to improve performance?

RegNet has developed a framework of regulatory theory and evidence-based policy in different sectors of the economy in part by studying the behaviour of regulatory institutions. The international regulatory expertise within RegNet thus offers productive opportunities for two-way knowledge transfers between health and other sectors and between health care systems in Australia and overseas.