The Performance Analysis for Transformation in Healthcare (PATH) Group is a part of the Accounting Department at UTS Business school.
Performance Analysis for Transformation in Healthcare Group
Get in touch
Contact us at PATH@uts.edu.au.
Who we are
Established in 2015, the PATH Group is committed to working collaboratively with partners in the healthcare industry to provide high-quality, evidence-based analysis and support.
Our multidisciplinary team is comprised of academic and industry experts with significant experience in the analysis of costing and resourcing practices. Combined with an extensive network of renowned experts from both Australia and globally, we seek to deliver insights that support organisational transformation in a manner that maintains or improves healthcare service delivery.
Costing, performance analysis and healthcare are friends, not foes! A well designed and used healthcare costing system offers information that helps clinicians make better healthcare resourcing decisions, ultimately delivering better care for all.
– Professor Prabhu Sivabalan
What we do
Cost modelling and analysis
We assist in the development and appraisal of cost models for various healthcare services.
Resource and activity planning
We assist in the delivery of high-quality care via predictive modelling and efficient resources planning.
Cost-benefit analysis
We conduct assessments of new healthcare services or changes in practices including digital health in all it forms.
Industry-focused research
We conduct research to provide evidence-based recommendations to address problems faced by our healthcare partners.
Research-driven capability-building workshops
The group specializes in delivering practical, hands-on capability-building courses and workshops. These workshops are tailored to the needs of our partners. They combine cutting-edge insights from both academia and practice across a wide range of areas, including costing, budgeting, performance measurement, activity analysis, data analytics and visualisation, business partnering, organisational transformation and change management.
Get in touch
Contact us at PATH@uts.edu.au.
Industry collaborators
NSW Health
The New South Wales Ministry of Health (NSW Health) supports the Minister for Health, the Minister for Medical Research, and the Minister for Mental Health. NSW Health monitors the performance of state-wide health organisations and is broadly responsible for the public health system in New South Wales as well as associated agencies and statutory authorities. (Ref. NSW Health)
Independent Hospital Pricing Authority
The Independent Hospital Pricing Authority (IHPA - the Pricing Authority) provides independent and transparent advice in relation to funding for public hospitals. The main functions of the Pricing Authority are to determine the National Efficient Price and National Efficient Cost each year for health care services provided by public hospitals to inform decision-makers in relation to funding of public hospitals. (Ref. IHPA website)
Western New South Wales Local Health District
The Western New South Wales Local Health District (WNSWLHD) is responsible for the governance and delivery of public health services in a large area spanning an area of 250,000 square kilometres in western New South Wales. (Ref. Western NSW Local Health District website)
Our team
Professor Prabhu Sivabalan (CA, PhD)
Associate Dean, External Engagement, UTS Business School
Head, Performance Analysis for Transformation in Healthcare (PATH) Group
Prabhu is a Professor of Management Accounting in the UTS Business School and leads the Financial and Performance Transformation in Healthcare Group, a collaboration between NSW Health and the UTS Business School. He has published research in costing, budgeting and financial controls globally in leading academic and practitioner journals, and also externally advised or trained organisations regarding their costing/budgeting processes, including NSW Health, Citigroup, 7Media and CSR. He was also the external independent reviewer of version 4 of the Australia Hospital Patient Costing Standards. Prabhu has worked extensively in the healthcare costing space over the past 5 years, conducting research and capability building in the space of healthcare costing, its design and use and performance relation.
Prabhu is a first-class honours graduate from the UTS Business School, a Chartered Accountant and he holds a doctorate in budgeting, strategy and management control systems.
Dr David Bedford
Associate Professor, Accounting Department
Member – PATH Group
David is an Associate Professor at UTS Business School in the Accounting Department. David is an internationally recognized academic with notable contributions to the areas of performance measurement and management control. He has been part of projects conducted with CPA Australia, NSW Health, the Independent Health Pricing Authority, and the Cleaning Accountability Framework. David is also a highly rated lecturer, specialising in cost management, management control and using data analytics for managerial decision-making.
David is a graduate of the UTS Bachelor of Accounting scholarship program, completing his degree with first-class honours and the University Medal. David holds a PhD in management accounting and control. He has been a visiting scholar at Bocconi University, London School of Economics, Aalto University and the Turku School of Economics.
Dr Hannah Pham
Lecturer, Accounting Department
Member – PATH Group
Hannah Pham is a lecturer at UTS Business School in the Accounting Discipline, which she joined in 2016. Hannah coordinates and lectures in the subjects Cost Management and Analysis, one of the core Management Accounting subjects of the MPA degree. Hannah's research has been published in A-star and A-ranked journals.
Julia Heberle
Industry Expert
Member – PATH Group
Julia has extensive experience and knowledge in patient costing having worked in numerous costing roles and across multiple NSW Health sites since 1998. As Manager, Clinical Cost Data Collection and Standards, NSW Health between 2012 and 2017. During those years, Julia was an active participant on the National Hospital Cost Data Collection Advisory Committee and has a deep knowledge and understanding of the history of the NHCDC and the challenges associated with and opportunities available to the patient costing process.
Julia is currently undertaking a PhD through UTS Business School. Her thesis is examining the quality and use of patient cost data and the impact on hospital performance. This research is motivated by her commitment to ensure that the patient cost information provides the information necessary for system managers. Julia’s background is in Health Information Management and has a Master’s in Public Health.
Heran Darji
Research Analyst, Accounting Department
Member – PATH Group
Heran is an experienced Research Analyst at with the UTS Business School in the Accounting Department and a member of Performance Transformation in Healthcare Group. Heran has more than seven years of experience working with Academia, fortune 500 listed corporates and start-ups in Healthcare, Healthtech and Agetech. He has worked in research, analytics, stakeholder engagement and strategy roles. He has co-founded a traveltech start-up and works with start-ups in the healthtech space.
He has designed and delivered sessions on foundational financial management to graduates at UTS. Heran is a Master in Business Administration with a major in Professional Accounting from UTS and has a background in Biotechnology Engineering and Bio-therapeutics.
Xiaodong (Tony) Han
Research Analyst, Accounting Department
Member – PATH Group
Xiaodong is a Research Assistant at with the UTS Business School in the Accounting Discipline and a member of Performance Transformation in Healthcare Group. Xiaodong has nine years of experience working as a manager and a pharmacist in a number of community pharmacies in Australia.
Xiaodong has a Master of Professional Accounting from UTS and a Bachelor of Pharmacy from University of Sydney. He is also a registered pharmacist in Australia since 2012 and an active member of Pharmaceutical Society of Australia.
Maria Pontin
Lead for stakeholder engagement and corporate communications
Member – PATH Group
Maria is a highly experienced Personal Assistant with a significant background in providing business support, events management and executive support in the higher education, health, banking & finance, FMCG, tourism and telecommunication industries. Maria's focus is offering executive administration for the PATH group in the delivery of its projects.
Bridget McGinty
Member – PATH Group
Bridget is a Research Assistant at the UTS Business School and assists with the management of PATH Group projects, research ethics and governance applications, coordination of specialist training courses and facilitating research activities.
Bridget has a Bachelor of Applied Science majoring in Exercise and Sport Science and also works as an Exercise Scientist at a health clinic. She has previously completed a Performance Analysis Cadetship with Greater Western Sydney Giants, where her decision-making was informed by performance data in a sporting environment.
Thulaisi Sivapalan (CA)
Research Analyst, Accounting Department
Member - PATH Group
Thulaisi is a chartered accountant with prior experience with clients in industries outside healthcare (Retail, Finance, Hospitality and real estate). This combination of experience allows Thulaisi to translate best practice tools from other industries into healthcare, furthering our delivery of novel solutions to complex problems.
Rajan Thangavelu (CA)
Research Analyst, Accounting Department
Member - PATH Group
Rajan is a former Deloitte Chartered Accountant who has contributed to the PATH group since 2018. Possessing a strong technical knowledge of management accounting concepts widely used in healthcare such as budgeting, performance management and activity-based costing. Rajan is broadly responsible for structuring the delivery of content in our research-driven capability-building programs.
International collaborators
Professor Al Bhimani
Dr Bhimani is a Professor of Management Accounting at the London School of Economics and Political Science. Professor Bhimani’s research interests include big data, financial controls in the digital economy and practical organisational innovations such as activity-based management, target costing, strategic management accounting and budgetary control systems. He has been widely published in prestigious accounting journals as well as co-authoring several books. Professor Bhimani is the founding director of LSE Entrepreneurship at the London School of Economics and Political Science. He obtained an MBA from Cornell University where he was a Fulbright Scholar.
Professor Christopher S. Chapman
Professor Chapman is recognised internationally as a leading healthcare costing advisor, researcher and thought leader. His current research focuses on the design of cost systems for healthcare providers. Professor Chapman’s work has profoundly influenced the development of the activity-based costing approach in UK healthcare. Previously Professor Chapman was involved in researching strategies enabling accounting to influence operational decision-making in a variety of non-health-related industries.
Professor Martin Messner
Professor Messner of Management Control at the University of Innsbruck is widely respected as a leading management accounting and control thought leader. His primary interest is in the phenomena of management accounting and control. He has worked on the use of performance measures for strategy implementation, the impact of greater transparency in decision-making in organisations, and the relationship between financial and strategic objectives in new product development.
Professor Teemu Malmi
Professor Malmi is a professor of management accounting and head of the Healthcare Productivity Group at Aalto University, Finland. Professor Malmi has worked extensively with industry, not only in Finland but internationally and has produced research in the area of healthcare performance management. He is a leading management accounting professor globally, advocating for the importance of financial numbers and performance measures to better manage resources in a variety of settings including healthcare.
Current projects
ABM Case Study Project
The PATH GROUP and NSW Health are working together to document the effective implementation and use of the Activity Based Management Portal (ABM Portal) by stakeholders in the NSW Health ecosystem. The project aims to identify and document examples of how costing data fulfilled tasks with greater efficiency, increased data-driven decision making and ultimately enhanced the delivery of better outcomes for patients. The project will create a portfolio of success stories, offering actionable insights that has contributed to transforming healthcare delivery and enhancing the patient experience.
Fixed and Variable Costing Analysis at WNSWLHD
The PATH Group will analyse and separate the fixed and variable cost components relating to the running of block-funded hospitals (or others, in place of block-funded hospitals if required) in Western NSW LHD to better inform the funding and budgeting of resources at these hospitals.
Out-of-Hospital Care (OHC) Costing & Business Case Analysis of Virtual Health
In this project the PATH group will document and account the value delivered by OHC services driven by Western NSW LHD to its resource utilisation across a period of 3 years. The OHC initiative aims to deliver an integrated, convenient and proactive healthcare service available around the clock in WNSW LHD in a manner that is less constrained by the limitations of geographic distance.
Completed projects
Surveying the Patient Costing Landscape in NSW Health - May 2020
The PATH GROUP and NSW Health collaborated to review the perceptions and use of patient-level costing information by the stakeholders of NSW Health. Patient costing data is a key dataset for the implementation of Activity Based Funding (ABF) in NSW. The purpose of this project was to identify and evaluate the value that costing information adds to strategic decision-making for Health Professionals across New South Wales (NSW).
Understanding the purpose, design, and use of costing data in Australian healthcare - April 2021
The Independent Hospital Pricing Authority (IHPA) had engaged PATH GROUP to undertake a review of Australian healthcare costing. The project sought to identify the purpose, opportunities, and challenges associated with the collation, analysis, and use of patient costing information for funding models in the healthcare system. The project undertook a review of the Australian healthcare costing to identify the strategic role and purpose of funding models across states and territories. Public hospital costing is used in a variety of ways by stakeholders around Australia, but trends concerning how such data is applied remain sparse. This report provides an analysis of the uses, challenges, and future opportunities of patient-level costing data as identified from interviews with 100 stakeholders.
Link to the report : Patient-level costing in Australia – Uses, challenges, and future opportunities (PDF)
Research-driven capability-building courses
The PATH GROUP and NSW Health are working together to enhance the skills of professionals employed by NSW Health towards a future-ready workforce. The courses are customized and tailor-made for the participants to enhance their knowledge, understanding and skills towards greater financial sustainability by efficient use of data and storytelling. It draws on both financial and non-financial information to provide the actionable insights necessary to transform healthcare and secure the financial benefits to meet NSW Health’s strategic deliverables at the service delivery level.
Specialist Certificate in Developing Business Cases in Healthcare
November 2021 – 2 days, online
The two-day course delved into the increasingly important role of business cases to further support the development of skills of professionals to drive better value decision-making in Western New South Wales Local Health District. The interactive course focused on various components while developing a business case via live exercises, case studies, and examples.
Specialist Certificate in Financial and Business Management in Healthcare
October 2019 – 3 days, UTS Business School
The three-day course was designed for business analysts and management accountants from NSW Health ecosystem. Sessions engaged participants on strategies to enhance stakeholder engagement and improve business partnering. The hands-on course focused on big data and Data analytics – its uses, benefits and learnings via case studies and examples.
Specialist Certificate in Financial and Business Management in Healthcare
August 2019 – 2 days, Dubbo Hospital, Dubbo NSW
The two-day short course was designed for business analysts and management accountants from Western NSW LHD. Sessions engaged participants on strategies to enhance stakeholder engagement and improve business partnering. The hands-on course focused on big data and Data analytics – its uses, benefits and learnings via case studies and examples.
Specialist Certificate of Financial and Business Management in Healthcare
February 2019 – 2 days, UTS Business School
The two-day short course was designed for cost practitioners from NSW Health. The sessions focused on the critical role of Business analysts as the source of information and the need to combine financial and non-financial information sources. Sessions Live cases and examples were utilised to enhance the learning experience.
Specialist Certificate in Financial and Business Management for Better Value Healthcare
November 2018 – 3 days, UTS Business School
The three-day intensive course was designed for business analysts and management accountants from NSW Health. The focus was to enhance the importance of business analysis and partnering and use of financial and non-financial information to engage stakeholders especially clinicians. Sessions Live cases and examples were utilised to enhance the learning experience.
Financial and Business Management for Better Value Healthcare
August 2018 – 1 day – 2 sessions, UTS Business School
The short one-day course was designed for professionals in the costing teams from NSW Health. The course was a tailor-made refresher on activity-based costing and use of rolling budgets in decision-making to enhance operational efficiency and financial sustainability.
Specialist Certificate of Financial and Business Management in Healthcare
February 2018 – 2 days, UTS Business School
The two-day hands-on course was attended by business analysts and management accountants from NSW Health. The short course was a deep dive on the importance of Business partnering and use of financial and non-financial information to engage stakeholders of the information especially clinicians. Live cases and examples were utilised to enhance the learning experience.
Specialist Certificate in Management Accounting and Business Partnering for Better Value Healthcare Program
September 2017 – 3 days, UTS Business School
The three-day course was attended by management accountants and analysts from NSW Health. The hands-on course concentrated on the role of management accounting in strategic decision-making and best practices in cost modelling. Strategies to enhance stakeholder engagement and improve business partnering were a core element of the course
Certificate course in understanding, applying and improving healthcare costing
February 2017 – 5 days, UTS Business School
The five-day course was attended by professionals from costing teams of hospitals across NSW Health. The hands-on course focused on Activity based costing – its uses, benefits and learnings via case studies and examples. Sessions engaged participants on strategies to enhance stakeholder engagement and improve business partnering.