Focal points of research

My main focus of research is health economics and the use of health care services in affiliation with the following institutions:

  • Centre for Age-related Medicine, Stavanger University Hospital, Stavanger, Norway.
  • Centre for Old Age Psychiatry, Innlandet Hospital Trust, Norway.
  • SAFER (Stavanger Acute medicine Foundation of Education and Research), Stavanger,Norway.
  • Alcoholand Drugs Research Western Norway, Stavanger University Hospital, Stavanger,Norway.
  • Norwegian Centre for Movement Disorders, Stavanger University Hospital, Stavanger,Norway.

Focal points of research are:

Dementia:

Since 2011 I have been working with theproject Resource Use and Disease Coursein Dementia (REDIC) that was performed according to a request by the Norwegian Directorate of Health. The aim was to evaluate the use of health andsocial services in primary and secondary health care and the extent of informalhelp that is provided to persons with dementia by family and friends. Based onthese findings, the project should provide an estimate of the costs ofdementia-related illness in Norway and identify factors predicting resource useand costs. In addition, the report should explore health related quality oflife and provide a projection of the future number of persons with dementia. A total of 5630 persons were included in the project. Of those, 2771 had dementia. Detailed data about resource use and costs were collected from 1940 participants.

As a follow-up of this work we followed one of the cohorts that consists of nearly 700 participants that were included at admission to nursing home. The aim of the REDIC-NursingHome project (REDIC-NH) was to analyse the use of direct care in nursinghome residents and to explore factors that are associated with increased use of direct care. Second, mortality at NH and factors predicting death should beexamined.

Besides a number ofscientific publications this work resulted in two reports to the NorwegianDirectorate of Health. Both reports provide a summary in English.

Helping Babies Breathe:

The Helping Babies Breathe (HBB) program is an evidence-based curriculum in basic neonatal care and resuscitation, utilizing simulation-based training to educate large numbers of birth attendants in low-resource countries. Besides an evaluation of the knowledge gain of a one-day simulation course, I contributed to a costs-effectiveness analysis of the HBB program at a rural hospital in Tanzania.

Cost-effectiveness of the „Helping BabiesBreathe“ program in a missionary hospital in rural Tanzania. Vossius C, Lotto E, Lyanga S, Mduma E, Msemo G, PermanJ, Ersdal HL. PLoS One. 2014 Jul 9;9(7):e102080. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0102080. eCollection 2014

Persons with long-term substance abuse:

As part of my clinical work at a so-called Addiction ward at one of the nursing homes in Stavanger we described the working mode of the addiction ward and the characteristics of the ward’s population from 2006 to 2009 regarding demographics, social background and substance abuse.

Further, we evaluated the costs of living at the ward as compared to the costs arising from the different health care and social services the ward’s residents received during the six months prior to admission.

The Stavanger Wet House. Vossius C, Testad I, Berge T, Nesvåg S. Nordic Studies on Alcohol and Drugs, 2011;28(3/2011):279-82

The use of healthand social services in patients with long standing substance abuse. Vossius C, TestadI, Rune Skjæveland, Nesvåg S. BMC Health Serv Res 2013 May 22;13(1):185. doi: 10.1186/1472-6963-13-185; URL: http://www.biomedcentral.com/1472-6963/13/185

Parkinson‘s disease:

My PhD thesis covers various health economic aspects of Parkinson’s disease as the costs of medical treatment, admission to nursing home, admission to hospital and quality of life.