CONTACT US
RESEARCH AND ENGAGEMENT
Professor Julie
Ratcliffe
Lead Investigator
Julie Ratcliffe is Mathew Flinders Fellow and Professor of Health Economics in the College of Nursing and Health Sciences, Flinders University. She also holds Honorary Professorial positions in the Institute of Health and Wellbeing at the University of Glasgow and the School of Health and Related Research at the University of Sheffield. Julie has published over 200 papers in peer reviewed journals and has been a chief investigator on over 50 multi-disciplinary research grants. Her research interests include the measurement and valuation of health and quality of life outcomes, patient and consumer preferences and the economic evaluation of interventions across health and social care sectors.
Dr Claire Hutchinson
Project Manager
Dr Claire Hutchinson is a Senior Research Fellow in the Health and Social Care Economics Group, College of Nursing and Health Sciences, Flinders University. She has a PhD in Psychology from UniSA and is a mixed methods social scientist conducting research in ageing, disability and health. She is the inaugural winner of the Hal Kendig Early Career Researcher Research Development Award from the Australian Association of Gerontology which is supporting her research into the quality of life of older Australians from Culturally and Linguistically Diverse backgrounds. Dr Hutchinson has a background in organisational psychology consultancy and is an experienced project manager.
Ruth is a social gerontologist with a background in Public Health, Psychology and Rehabilitation Counselling. She is currently Associate Professor in Disability and Community within the College of Nursing and Health Sciences at Flinders University. Her research focuses on life transitions associated with ageing as well as later life caregiving and the intersection between disability and ageing. She conducts qualitative research which gives voice to underserved groups of older people and which helps to shape practice and policy.
Associate Professor Ruth Walker
Co-Investigator
Dr Rachel Milte
Co-Investigator
Dr Rachel Milte is a Matthew Flinders Senior Research Fellow in the Health and Social Care Economics Group, College of Nursing and Health Sciences. With training in health, research methodology and economics, Dr Milte has established a career in health economics with particular strength and focus on understanding the ‘value’ to consumers of health and aged care services. Additionally, Dr Milte regularly undertakes economic evaluations to understand the value for money of health and aged care, particularly focusing on interventions aiming to improve the quality of life and wellbeing of frail older adults, rehabilitation patients, and people living with dementia.
Dr Jyoti Khadka
Psychometrics
Specialist
Dr Jyoti Khadka originally trained as an optometrist. He was awarded a PhD from Cardiff University in the UK, followed by a post-doctoral fellowship at Flinders University. His main areas of research interests and expertise are in healthy ageing, patient-reported outcomes and the application of modern psychometric methods. He has published over 50 peer reviewed research publications in patient-reported outcomes and quality of life. His other research interests include exploring ways to improve the quality of both preference and non-preference-based instruments to measure and value health and quality of life outcomes across the health, aged care and social care sectors.
Ms Jenny Cleland
PhD Candidate
Jenny completed her BA (Hons) degree in Sociology at Liverpool University, UK in 2002 and gained a postgraduate certificate in Social Science Research methods in 2003 at Nottingham Trent University, UK. Since graduating she has held a variety of University research positions, mainly in the public health field, including positions relating to cognitive functioning and ageing. Jenny is currently undertaking a PhD at Flinders University as part of the ARC Linkage grant. Her PhD focuses on using qualitative methods to develop a preference-based quality of life instrument with older people for economic evaluation in aged care.
Kate Swaffer
Co-Investigator & Consumer Representative
Kate is Chair, CEO and co-founder of Dementia Alliance International, a global group for people living with dementia, currently representing members in 49 countries, and elected board member of Alzheimer ’s Disease International. In 2017 she was Australian of the Year in South Australia and was also awarded the National Disability Award: Emerging Leader in Disability, for her global work in dementia and disability awareness. She’s a current PhD Candidate at the University of South Australia, an Honorary Associate Fellow with the Faculty of Science, Medicine and Health, University of Wollongong, and an International Fellow at Canterbury Christ Church University.
Professor Ian Cameron holds the Chair in Rehabilitation Medicine at the University of Sydney and is Head of the John Walsh Centre for Rehabilitation Research. He is a clinician researcher with broad interests in rehabilitation, disability and ageing. Professor Cameron has an extensive track record of productive research with relevant stakeholders including the NSW State Insurance Regulatory Authority and NSW icare Lifetime Care. CI Cameron leads the research in NSW and leads research on compensation systems, lawyer involvement and health outcomes.
Professor Ian
Cameron
Co-Investigator
Dr Candice McBain Research Assistant
Candice received her BA (Psychology) from Griffith University and Honours (Psychology) from the University of the Sunshine Coast, and recently completed her PhD (Forensic Psychology) at Griffith University. Her PhD research investigated deception enacted through feigning or malingering Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Candice is based at the Kolling Institute - John Walsh Centre for Rehabilitation Research, part of the University of Sydney. She is currently a part-time research assistant for the Good Life Project. She is also working on a research project for the NSW State Insurance Regulatory Agency relating to health services for people with work related injuries or illness.
Professor Emily Lancsar is Head of the Department of Health Services Research and Policy at the ANU. She is an economist with research interests in understanding and modelling choice, preferences and behaviour of key decision makers in the health sector, priority setting in the health system, economic evaluation and policy analysis. Prior to joining ANU, Emily was an Associate Professor in the Centre for Health Economics at Monash University and a Senior Lecturer in economics at Newcastle University in the UK. She has also previously worked at CHERE in Sydney and at the Federal Department of Health.
Professor Emily
Lanscar
Co-Investigator
OUR ENGAGEMENT
Heather is a member within Helping Hand’s Care Governance – Client Safety and Quality team, with a keen interest in clinical research. She has a Bachelor of Nursing and Graduate Certificate in Health Administration. She has worked in multiple senior nursing and project manager roles within the public sector and successfully implemented a statewide chemotherapy training education program. Heather has been involved in many change management projects, working closely with clinicians, providing expert guidance in reviewing current practices aligned with guidelines and policies to adopt new ways of working. She has a strong interest in improving customer well-being and in the use of technology within the aged care environment.
Marleesa Ly
Research & Evaluation Manager
ECH
Marleesa is a research professional with experience across a wide range of health disciplines including oncology, cardiology, chronic disease management, and community aged care. She has worked across a variety of study designs and clinical quality registries in both the public and private sector, and has experience in the design, development and implementation of research projects, project and data management, and statistical analysis. Marleesa is currently responsible for managing the ECH Research and Evaluation Portfolio, which is committed to ensuring ECH continues to provide innovative, co-designed, and evidence-based community aged care services to South Australian consumers.
Nina Bowes
Senior Manager
Research, Innovation
& Advocacy
Uniting Agewell
Nina has worked in the aged care, public health and community care sectors for close to a decade. She has a Masters of Social Policy and expertise in public policy, governance, reform implementation, and building the strategic capacity of not-for-profit and public sector organisations. Nina is responsible for Uniting AgeWell's research portfolio and innovation strategy, and is working to embed best-practice service design that is conducted in partnership with customers, their families and front-line staff. Nina believes passionately that the combination of strategic thinking and 'on-the-ground know how' can lead to better results for companies and the people they serve.
Photo and bio to come
Olivia Wood
Executive Director
Consumer Care & Qualily
Fleur Hourihan
Research &
Ethics Specialist
Uniting NSW.ACT
Fleur has an Master’s degree in Public Health from the University of Sydney and has wide experience in population and clinical research with publications in mental health, ophthalmology, emergency medicine, health promotion, pharmacy practice and aged care. Fleur has also undertaken policy development work to support implementation of the NSW Health Specialist Mental Health Services for Older People, mental health-aged care partnership initiatives. As well as her work on the QOL-ACC project, she is also engaged in evaluating the impact of the Uniting person-centred model of care being rolled out across its 75 residential aged care services in NSW & ACT.
