Jean Spinks

Dr Jean Spinks is a Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for the Business and Economics of Health, the University of Queensland. She is trained as a health economist, pharmacist and a health systems researcher and has extensive experience across the three disciplines. Her main research focus is applying economic principles to achieve better population health outcomes from medicines use in primary care. She is currently co-leading an MRFF funded project “Activating pharmacists to reduce medication related problems: The ACTMed stepped wedge randomised controlled trial” which is being undertaken with partner organisations including the Pharmaceutical Society of Australia, Brisbane South PHN, NACCHO, the Australian Digital Health Agency, The Pharmacy Guild of Australia and MedAdvisor. Other projects include the development, implementation and evaluation of an Indigenous Medication Review Service (IMeRSe, with partners NACCHO and Pharmacy Guild of Australia), the Urinary Tract Infection Pharmacy Pilot – Queensland (UTIPP-Q), innovative pharmacist workforce models of care, and consumer preferences for medication services. She has also published in the areas of medicines pricing, complementary medicine use and the disposal of unwanted medicines. Prior to beginning her PhD, Jean evaluated submissions from pharmaceutical companies seeking PBS listing of their medicines, under a research contract between Monash University and the Australian Department of Health and Ageing.

Jean has worked in community and hospital pharmacy in Australia and internationally in the Asia-Pacific region, including in Papua New Guinea, Indonesia and Tonga. She has post-graduate qualifications in public health, has undertaken the two-year Victorian Public Health Training Scheme, and has a PhD in Health Economics from Monash University.