Dr Kim Edmunds

I’m a senior research fellow in health economics at The University of Queensland’s Centre for the Business and Economics of Health (CBEH) with over ten years’ experience in applied health economics. My research centres on the economic evaluation of healthcare for chronic disease, with specific interests in cancer and exercise oncology, as well as methods for broader economic evaluation of wellbeing impacts on carers and families. I have a strong background in the social sciences where my past work involved numerous multidisciplinary, cross-institutional and cross-cultural collaborations, both within Australia and internationally.

I’m passionate about promoting collaboration between all stakeholders – clinicians, researchers, patients, community members, industry, policy makers and health economists – to ensure evidence-based decisions are made about healthcare provision that result in equitable delivery of an efficient and effective healthcare system.

Research interests

The economics of exercise oncology: Measuring the economic impact of exercise medicine for patients with cancer and chronic disease.

Supportive care in cancer: Value-based assessment and implementation.

Value of Implementation: Effectively translating research evidence into practice.

Health economics broader impact: Methods for broader economic evaluation that incorporate implementation, equity, wellbeing and impacts on carers and families.

Research impact

My research enables researchers and clinicians to determine the costs and consequences of their research, intervention or model of care; what it costs to implement an intervention; whether it is cost-effective compared to an existing model of care; the value of the information or whether it is likely to be cost-effective to conduct research; and the return on investment of a new therapy, or implementation of a new intervention or model of care. This information can then be used by policy makers to improve the provision of healthcare.

I conducted a social return on investment (SROI) analysis of the Prostate Cancer Specialist Nursing program delivered by the Prostate Cancer Foundation of Australia (PCFA). Our analysis showed that the program generated a $1.65 return on investment and contributed to the government’s decision in late 2023 to commit $35.4 million in funding to the PCSN program for a further four years.

I am also collaborating with the Moving Through Cancer taskforce (an international group headed by Professor Kathryn Schmitz) to improve exercise oncology implementation by incorporating health economics into practice and policy. The aim is to capture costs and data efficiently and uniformly as part of routine service delivery. This will enable comparison across exercise centres, encourage shared learning and facilitate future economic evaluation to determine value for money of services provided.

Contact

To find out how we can collaborate and bring value to your organisation, I can be contacted via:
 Email - k.edmunds@uq.edu.au
Connect with Kim on LinkedIn