Promotions
First and foremost, congratulations to both A/Prof. Lan Gao and A/Prof. Jaithri Ananthapavan on receiving their promotion to Associate Professor. As valuable members of the Deakin Health Economics team, we’re excited to see what’s in store for their future careers.
Research Australia Data Innovation Award Finalist
Dr. Sean Randall
Congratulations to Dr. Sean Randall and the LinXmart Team for their nomination for Research Australia’s Data Innovation Award sponsored by the Digital Health CRC. This award recognises a project that has demonstrated the importance of community understanding as a pivotal role in the collection and use of big data.
What is the innovation?
The team has developed innovative privacy preserving methods that allow linkage to occur without the release of personally identifying information, improving privacy for patients, and enabling access to hard-to-get datasets for government and research. This novel methodology has been encapsulated with in their LinXmart software, now widely used across Australia.
How is it used?
The team has had significant success in enabling the linkage of general practice and private pathology data for the first time. The LinXmart software is utilised to enable the NSW Ministry of Health’s flagship LUMOS program along with a number of other key projects across the country. Users include state linkage units in New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania and Western Australia. Internationally the software forms part of the SeRP platform, deployed widely across the UK.
Research Australia Health Services Research Award Finalist
Honorary Prof. Hanny Calache
Congratulations to Prof. Hanny Calache on his Research Australian nomination for Health Services Research Award. This award is intended for an individual or a group that has demonstrated exemplary leadership and delivered a remarkable impact on healthcare services. They have achieved this by spearheading research that has resulted in substantial enhancements in healthcare or by actively promoting the advancement of the field of health services research.
Hanny is a registered specialist in the field of paediatric dentistry. He has been instrumental in pushing the boundaries of clinical dentistry by introducing and promoting innovative methods, clinical protocols, and policies.
2022 Premier’s Award for Health and Medical Research in Public Health and
Deakin University Vice Chancellor Award
Dr. Jaithri Ananthapavan
Dr. Jaithri Ananthapavan is a shining star at Deakin Health Economics, we want to congratulate her on receiving the 2022 Premier’s Award for Health and Medical Research in Public Health and the 2023 Deakin University Vice Chancellor Early Career Research Award for Career Excellence.
Jaithri is an Alfred Deakin Postdoctoral Research Fellow and leads the economics of obesity research stream across the Institute for Health Transformation (IHT)’s Deakin Health Economics (DHE) and Global Centre for Preventive Health and Nutrition (GLOBE) research domains. Dr Ananthapavan’s research is primarily focused on economic evaluation of preventative health programs and policies, economic modelling, priority-setting and methods to better assist decision-makers use economic evidence in resource allocation decisions. Her work delves into how economic evidence can be harnessed to better inform government decision-making on preventive health programs, ultimately guiding the creation of effective and efficient policies.
These discoveries offer valuable insights that can shape the delivery of both the National Obesity and the National Preventive Health strategies. Her research contributes to evidence-based decision making that could help improve the lives of all Australians.
Victorian 2023 Young Tall Poppy, Australian Institute of Policy and Science
Dr. Victoria Brown
Congratulations to Dr. Victoria Brown on becoming a Victorian 2023 Young Tall Poppy awarded by the Australian Institute of Policy and Science. Vicki is one of a select few health economists who offer decision-makers and governments crucial evidence regarding the cost-effectiveness of various interventions for preventing obesity. Her research findings have been cited in policy documents on a global scale, with mentions in publications by esteemed organizations such as the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, the World Health Organization (WHO), and the World Bank. Furthermore, she took charge of a submission to the Senate Select Committee addressing the obesity epidemic and presented the economic evidence during Senate hearings. Her research was also incorporated into Australia’s National Obesity Strategy for the period 2022-2032.
Preventative and Community Dentistry Award 2023, Investigator Award
Dr. Tan Nguyen
Tan Nguyen from the Oral Health Economics Research Stream received the Investigator Award in Preventive and Community Dentistry 2023 awarded by the International Association for Dental Research Australia and New Zealand Division. The award aims to promote the interest of researchers at an early stage of their career and reward excellence in the field of Preventive and Community Dentistry, based on one published work or accepted for publication. Tan led the health equity impact on dental caries from a hypothetical the 20% sugar sweetened beverages health levy in Australia, which was a collaboration between Monash University’s School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, Deakin Health Economics and the Melbourne Dental School. The project was initially conceptualised at Deakin Health Economics between the Obesity Stream and Oral Health Economics Research at Deakin Health Economics in 2018.
PhD Graduation
Dr. Phuong (Pam) Nguyen
Congratulations to Pam Nguyen who has had her PhD conferral. Pam’s PhD is about the economic credentials of sedentary behaviour interventions. The core component of her project was to build Australia’s first economic model that uses excessive sitting time as a risk factor for chronic disease in modelling. Pam’s work has demonstrated that a small reduction of around 36 minutes per person per day across the Australian adult population would result in a substantial health care cost saving of $39 million a year.
