The best medicine: Lessons from health for policy randomistas
| Published date | 01 March 2024 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/1035719X231226437 |
| Author | Andrew Leigh |
| Date | 01 March 2024 |
| Subject Matter | Special Feature |
Special Feature
Evaluation Journal of Australasia
2024, Vol. 24(1) 6–13
© The Author(s) 2024
Article reuse guidelines:
sagepub.com/journals-permissions
DOI: 10.1177/1035719X231226437
journals.sagepub.com/home/evj
The best medicine: Lessons
from health for policy
randomistas
Andrew Leigh
Parliament of Australia, Australia
Abstract
The Australian Government has established the Australian Centre for Evaluation, with
a mandate to conduct rigorous evaluations, including randomised trials. This approach
draws heavily on the transformation of medicine. During the 20th century, medicine
evolved into a discipline that is largely driven by evidence from clinical trials. Drawing
appropriate lessons from health has the potential to substantially improve the equity
and effectiveness of policymaking in Australia.
Keywords
randomised trials, randomised controlled trials, impact evaluation, health policy, health
evaluation
Introduction
The creation of the Australian Centre for Evaluation marks a substantial milestone in
how the Australian Government regards policy evaluation. The Centre’s focus will be
on conducting rigorous evaluations, including randomised trials.
The aim of this article is to provide readers with a sense of the philosophy un-
derpinning the Australian Centre for Evaluation, how the Australian Government
intends it to operate and collaborate, and our hope for how it will contribute to the
evaluation landscape in Australia. To date, randomised trials have been very rare in
Australia, constituting a tiny fraction of all evaluations. The Australian Centre for
Corresponding author:
Andrew Leigh, Parliament of Australia, Parliament House, Canberra, ACT 2600, Australia.
Email: andrew.leigh.mp@aph.gov.au
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