Following academic positions in health economics research groups at Brunel University (1995 to 2001) and the University of Sheffield (2001 to 2007), I held a balanced teaching and research academic role at the University of Adelaide from 2007 to 2019. Since 2019 I have held the positions of Research Professor and a Deputy Director of the Flinders Health and Medical Research Institute (FHMRI) at Flinders University.

My Deputy Director role focuses on supporting FHMRI researchers undertaking public health and health services research, including a large cohort of FHMRI researchers based in the Northern Territory. 

In my Research Professor role, I lead a research group of eight health economists and health services researchers, with a focus on the use of health economics to improve health service delivery and organisation. 

Recent NHMRC and MRFF funding has supported deep engagement with local health services in SA, including an ‘embedded economist’ project involving the conduct of a wide range of economic evaluations to inform decision-making on interventions to prevent hospital acquired complications, and a range of ED, outpatient and out-of-hospital services, including virtual ED care. The learnings from this research have been synthesised in a submitted manuscript titled "Local level economic evaluation: What is it? What is its value and Is it sustainable?”.

A focus of my methods research is how to optimise the use of the data available to conduct local level economic evaluations, including the use of decision analytic models, counterfactual modelling and expert elicitation to address risk of bias and heterogeneity. The use of data extracted from eletronic medical records offers significant opportunities in this area.

Another key area of research interest is the estimation of opportunity costs as the foundation for cost-effectiveness thresholds and decision-making. This work is being led by my colleague Dr Laura Edney, alongisde an international network of researchers working on this topic.