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Professor Tracy Comans, a UQ Amplify Fellow at the Centre for Health Services Research, University of Queensland, and an Adjunct Research Fellow at the Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital, is renowned for her innovative application of economics in multifaceted health services contexts. Her pioneering work involves the creation of comprehensive models that extend beyond traditional economic models, enabling a broader assessment of benefits and costs.

In addition to her model development, Professor Comans applies these economic models to explore the cost-effectiveness of various health care interventions. She spearheads and cultivates health services research with a particular focus on older individuals, allied health, and rehabilitation services.

With a solid academic foundation in both physiotherapy and economics (Hons), Professor Comans brings a unique perspective to her research. Her clinical background as a physiotherapist, specializing in aged care, dementia, and rehabilitation, further enriches her work. Her expertise was recognized with a NHMRC Boosting Dementia Fellowship, which she held from 2017 to 2021.

Currently, Professor Comans is making significant strides in measuring the quality of care for older individuals. This work holds substantial potential for impacting the health and aged care industry. As our population ages, the demand for high-quality health care services tailored to the needs of older individuals is escalating. Despite this, there is a lack of agreement on what constitutes quality care for this demographic, and existing measures may not fully capture the aspects of care most important to them. Professor Comans’ work is instrumental in addressing this critical issue.

Professor Brenda Gannon is an international interdisciplinary leader providing evidence and solutions for health and social care systems, spanning across economics, medicine and social science, in collaboration with academia and industry. She brings extensive experience and expertise in program and policy development related to health and ageing, social inclusion, and citizen science, fostering and advancing excellence at the intersection of many disciplines.

Working at the interface of health service delivery, strategic planning and practice influence, and health economics more broadly, across many sectors, enables her research to inform optimisation of health care and workforce organisation. The models are translatable and transferrable across many sectors, including ageing, mental health, child and the working populations.

She is a Professor in the School of Economics and an Affiliate Professor at the Mater Research Institute, The University of Queensland. She is also an affiliate member of CEPAR (ARC Centre for Research Excellence in Population Ageing Research). Since 2022, she is Honorary Adjunct Professor at University of Galway, Ireland. She was Director of Research in the School of Economics from 2018-2023. . She has developed a range of projects on topics of dementia, physical activity and cognition, health and health care utilization, and consumer directed care and home care. She has led and worked extensively on interdisciplinary research with gerontologists,several clinicians and methodologists. Her work has been influential in the development of programs for falls preventions and informing policy on disability and social inclusion, and has positively impacted on the health of many older people across the world. Her work also spans across the lifecyle from birth, and she has worked with clinicians on trials for newborns with breathing difficulities. She is the Health Economics and Epidemiology lead for the Queensland Family Cohort (QFC) Study, the pilot led by Mater Research, and is on the QFC Governance Committee, focusing on maternal mental health, inequalities of opportunity, alcohol use and related health care use and costs.

Professor Gannon’s research carries a dual role, (1) as an applied health economist using big and complex data, utilising health economics theory and concepts to test the validity of causal hypotheses, (2) collaborator across all Faculties leading critical economic evaluations. Her research is funded by her position as chief investigator on projects from the Australian Research Council, National Health and Medical Research Council, MRFF, EU H2020, Health Research Board, Ireland and the National Institute for Health Research, UK. She is the lead economist on projects in dementia, emergency care and paediatric care. All studies incorporate methodological innovations and applied research. She has provided advice to government at senior levels, and had a Ministerial appointment, on the Medical Services Advisory Committee Evaluation Sub-Committee 2017-2021. She sits regularly as a panel member of various NHMRC and MRFF grant review committees and has also previously appointed to the EU Commission grant panels. She has been invited to give several talks at international fora, including a key note talk on ageing and longevity at the National Academy of Medicine, Global Roadmap to Healthy Longevity, in Washington DC. Professor Gannon was an elected Professorial member of the Academic Board at UQ 2018-2022. In 2023, Professor Gannon was elected a Fellow of the Queensland Academy of Arts and Sciences. She has been elected as a Council Member of Queensland Academy of Arts and Sciences since 2024. In 2023, she led a symposium on Economics of Dementia Care, with international colleagues, in collaboration with Dementia Australia.

Professor Christian Gericke is a Neurologist and Public Health Physician. He directs the Canberra Specialist Epilepsy Centre at Deakin Private Hospital in Canberra and consults at Cadogan Medical in Brisbane.

He is Clinical Professor of Medicine at the Australian National University, Honorary Professor of Public Health at the University of Queensland, and Convener of the Specialist Medical Review Council (SMRC) for the Australian Government. He regularly acts as an Independent Medical Expert for the Supreme Courts and the Coroners Courts in all Australian jurisdictions and for the High Court of Justice in England (King's Bench).

Previously, he worked as an academic neurologist at Calvary Mater Newcastle, the Prince Charles Hospital in Brisbane, King’s College Hospital in London, and Sheffield Teaching Hospitals.

After graduating from medical school in Berlin, he trained in neurology at the Charité, followed by fellowships in adult and paediatric epilepsy in Strasbourg and Geneva. He holds two research doctorates and master's degrees from the University of Cambridge and the London School of Economics.

He chairs the Neuroepidemiology Section of the American Academy of Neurology (AAN) and serves on the International League against Epilepsy (ILAE) Standards and Best Practice Council.

I am an academic and consultant working in global health with a focus on health technology assessment (HTA), health systems and services research, and the use of medicines in populations. I have a particular interest in the use of data and research for evidence-informed decision making and implementation science in the context of low and middle income countries, especially in sub-Saharan Africa. I have worked on international health projects in Indonesia and am currently working on several projects in HTA and medicines use in Ghana and sub-Saharan Africa. I work with an extensive network of clinicians and health professionals to investigate the use of medicines and adverse effects in general practice, cancer, psychiatry, neurology, and internal medicine. I have honorary or visiting appointments at the University of Queensland (UQ, Brisbane, Australia), Imperial College London (UK, International Decision Support Initiative) and Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST, Kumasi, Ghana). I have a BSc(Hons) and MPH from UQ and a PhD from Monash University. I have lived or worked in Australia (Brisbane, Melbourne), Canada (Toronto), Indonesia (Yogyakarta), UK (London), and Ghana (Accra, Kumasi). I worked as a consultant in HTA in Australia for many years evaluating submissions to subsidise medicines on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS). I am an experienced teacher having coordinated courses, lectured, and tutored in undergraduate and postgraduate programs. I was a Foundation Coordinator in the UQ Master of Pharmaceutical Industry Practice (from 2019). I am an advisor on diverse PhD and student research projects.

Julie joined the University of Queensland as an Associate Professor in May 2023. Julie participated in designing the Journeys Home Survey, a longitudinal study of Australians who are homeless or at-risk of homelessness. Her current research revolves around a number of issues related to disadvantage in education, housing, health and labour economics. Specifically, she works on homelessness & precarious housing, substance use, incarceration, gender gaps in education, peer effects and female's labour market participation. Julie is developing a research agenda aiming to support the development of better opportunities for Indigenous Australians. This includes a project to evaluate the impact of Indigenous preferential procurement programs and a project on “Historical frontier violence: drivers, legacy and the role of truth-telling”, both supported by ARC funding.

Dr Kim-Huong Nguyen is a Senior Lecturer in Health Economics at the University of Queensland. Her research centres on the efficient and equitable allocation of resources to support brain health in disadvantaged populations. She applies economic methods and theories to evaluate interventions, programmes and public policies for neurodegenerative diseases, brain injuries, and mental disorders. As a Global Atlantic Fellow for Equity in Brain Health with the Global Brain Health Institute (Trinity College Dublin and University of California, San Francisco), she collaborates closely with multidisciplinary teams—including artists, medical professionals, engineers, industry partners, advocates, and health and social care consumers—to advance knowledge and transform practices for brain health.

Dr Anton Pak is a Senior Research Fellow in the Centre for the Business and Economics of Health, The University of Queensland. Anton is an applied economist by training and his research interests focus on the behaviour of patients and their choices, utilisation of emergency department services, waiting time modelling, and the economics of digital health. Anton examines empirical questions by utilising health economics theory and concepts and by analysing large panel and cross-sectional datasets (including linked data) using classical econometrics techniques, as well as machine learning methods.

Anton is currently co-leading an Emergency Medicine Foundation funded project “ED waiting time predictions in real-time: development of data acquisition system and performance evaluation of advanced statistical models.”, which is being undertaken in partnership with Princess Alexandra Hospital. Anton has worked extensively on interdisciplinary research with statisticians, mathematical modellers, clinicians, epidemiologists, and public health experts.

Prior to joining the Centre, Anton worked as a Research Fellow in Applied Economics and Data Scientist at James Cook University. His previous experience also includes working as a management consultant and university lecturer.

Anton has a PhD (Economics) from The University of Queensland.

I am a senior researcher with cross-disciplinary expertise in health economics, pharmacy practice, and virtual health solutions. I am passionate about optimising healthcare outcomes by developing economically sustainable services that use technology and artificial intelligence to empower patients. My work explores the economic efficiency of implementing either virtual health or advanced-scope clinician initiatives within the Australian health system to improve patient care.

I am also a clinical pharmacist with more than a decade of experience in patient care and clinician training. I am a health economist at the UQ School of Pharmacy and Phamaceutical Sciences, and I lead the research work in the Pharmacy Department at the Princess Alexandra Hospital in Brisbane.

Main research interests include development and health economics. Current research topics include mental health, health inequality, income insecurity, inequality in opportunity, mortality uncertainty.

I am the lead of the Effective and Efficient Healthcare program at the Centre for the Business and Economics of Health at The University of Queensland. I also lead Health Technology Assessment for the Centre, which involves evaluating submissions made to the Australian Government to reimburse new medicines and medical devices through the Pharmaceutical benefits Scheme (PBS) and the Medicare Benefits Schedule (MBS). My research is focused on the economic evaluation of health interventions to inform decision making and promote value-based health care. I have pioneered the application of Value of Information (Research) analysis to enhance the efficiency of clinical trials and maximise the return on investment from medical research.

I have extensive experience working with key stakeholders including consumers, clinicians, decision makers and researchers. I am chief investigator on over $45 million Category 1 grants from the NHMRC, MRFF and ARC. In addition, I lead several projects for the Department of Health and other peak organisations.

I chair the International Society for Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research (ISPOR)-Oncology GroupI, and I am the past chair of the Clinical Oncology Society of Australia's (COSA)-Epidemiology Group and the Australian Clinical Trials Alliance (ACTA)-Research Prioritisation Group. I am an Associate Editor for Value in Health, and an Editorial Board Member for Medical Decision Making and PharmacoEconomics-open journals.