The Department of Health Economics Wellbeing and Society (DHEWS) aims to promote equitable access to health care and improve the health and wellbeing of all Australians through excellence in research, implementation and education.

We do this through research, education and engagement in the areas of health economics, health services research, implementation science, and health and social policy, including research spanning aging and wellbeing, the social and cultural determinants of health, as well as how society produces health and the lived experience.

DHEWS brings together a multidisciplinary team. We apply a range of interdisciplinary methods and perspectives to tackle complex problems such as health inequity, to inform the effective implementation of health services and to evaluate their effectiveness and cost-effectiveness.

DHEWS was formed in 2022, bringing together four well-established research teams from the Department of Health Services Research and Policy, The Centre for Research on Ageing, Health and Wellbeing, Society Culture and Health, and Integration and Implementation Sciences. DHEWS retains the individual strengths of each of these research groups, and beyond this will develop new cross-cutting research themes and teams that focus on promoting health equity and developing policy relevant research, partnerships, and solutions.

DHEWS members contribute to population health education by convening the postgraduate Introduction to Health Services Research and Policy and Social and Cultural Determinants of Health courses, the undergraduate Introduction to Population Health course and through the delivery of short course education for a number of external agencies.