I’m a Professor of Health Economics at the Centre for the Business and Economics of Health at The University of Queensland. I am also (part-time) Professore Ordinario (Full Professor) at the University of Bologna and Honorary Professor at the University of Sydney. Most of my work is in the field of health economics and the economics of risk and insurance. I’ve also worked in other fields, including education economics and transport economics.

My current research focuses on a number of different health sector problems, including the effectiveness of chronic disease intervention programs to improve health behaviours and outcomes (in collaboration with colleagues at The University of Bologna and the Emilia-Romagna regional health authority, in Italy); the effect of health policy on child health in Australia (with partners at the UQ School of Dentistry and Telethon Kids Institute, UWA); and health outcomes for people with musculoskeletal injuries following motor vehicle crashes (with RECOVER UQ and university partners around Australia). We are also conducting work to plan for Australia’s future health care and health workforce needs under a new Australian Research Council Discovery Project award.

Research interests

Health economics: allocation and distribution of resources within healthcare systems.

Insurance economics: evaluating the health and economic impact of public and private insurance models.

Health services and health outcomes: determining the effectiveness of existing and proposed interventions and models of care on health outcomes and efficiency of the system.

Research impact

My research informs health sector policy and practice. I have also provided advice to industry and government on a range of health sector topics, including health technology assessment, screening, and screening follow-up. From 2011–2019, I was a member of the Medical Services Advisory Committee (MSAC) and its Evaluation Sub-Committee (MSAC ESC), as well as its Protocol Advisory Committee (PASC) over various periods. MSAC advises the Australian Minister for Health on proposed listings of medical services on the Medicare Benefits Schedule.

My research has influenced national health sector policy, including a revision to the (NHMRC) Guidelines on how women with cervical-screening-detected abnormalities are managed; the introduction of the world’s first human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination program for girls and young women, and the introduction of BRCA1/BRCA2 screening for women with breast or ovarian cancer, as well as their first-degree relatives when BRCA1/BRCA2 positive test results are obtained. My work on health technology has been cited by the Productivity Commission and my work on the costs of road traffic crashes (RTCs) was cited by the Northern Territory Taskforce on Road Safety in its recommendations to change traffic laws in that jurisdiction, which has Australia’s highest RTC fatality rate. I was called as an Expert Witness by the Victorian Parliament in its Inquiry Into Serious Injury, to provide testimony on valid ways to evaluate the benefits of savings to life and limb due to injury prevention initiatives.

My theoretical on the efficient conduct of cluster-randomised controlled trials (RCTs) has been cited in the CONSORT statement on cluster RCTs, in the Encyclopaedia of Statistics for Social Scientists, and in works published by the US Department of Agriculture.

Most recently, with colleagues from CBEH and the School of Nursing and Midwifery, we provided the Queensland Government with an evaluation of its trials of increased numbers of nurses and midwives to patients in several Queensland public hospitals.

Other achievements

I serve or have served on the Editorial boards of the European Journal of Health Economics and the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. I’ve also served as guest editor for special issues of several journals, the most recent being a special issue of the Geneva Papers on Risk and Insurance. I am also a member of the International Health Economics Association’s Arrow Award Committee, which awards the best paper award for papers published in health economics in honour of Nobel Laureate Professor Kenneth Arrow. I have been invited by the Swiss Society for Health Economics, on two occasions, to provide international summer schools for doctoral students enrolled in Swiss Universities, and have been invited to speak and deliver educational sessions on health economics at a number of international conferences.

Contact

If you’d like to discuss my research or opportunities to collaborate, please email me.