People

AHTA is made up of a multidisciplinary team with staff expertise in areas of health technology assessment (HTA), health economics, research synthesis, methodological research, guideline development, research information technology management, biostatistics, and ethics.

Photo of AHTA Director, Professor Tracy Merlin

Professor Tracy Merlin, Director

Tracy Merlin is the first Professor of Health Technology Assessment in Australia, having worked in this relatively new field for over 20 years.

She is the director and co-founder of AHTA at the University of Adelaide. In this role she leads a large and experienced team of researchers undertaking multi-million dollar applied research and evaluation activities on behalf of government and non-government agencies. This research directly informs health policy and clinical practice. The HTA arm of AHTA has been undertaking applied/contract research since 2001.

Professor Merlin is Chair of the Board of the International Network of Agencies for Health Technology Assessment (INAHTA) and co-chaired the INAHTA Quality Assurance Group for two years. She is the current Chair of the English Editorial Board of the international HTA Glossary and has been a member of Health Technology Assessment International (HTAi) since its inception.

Professor Merlin is a methodologist and clinical epidemiologist. In addition to publishing on methodological work, she has written over 150 systematic literature reviews, clinical practice guidelines and health technology assessment reports.

  • Team leaders

    Dr Shuhong Wang

    Team Leader, Pharmaceuticals

    Dr Shuhong Wang is responsible for evaluation of pharmaceutical industry submissions to the Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee. She has a PhD in Public Health (major in Health Economics) from the University of Adelaide, as well as a medical degree and a Masters in Medical Sciences from China. She is a health economist by training, with a background in epidemiology and experiences in economic modelling.

    David Tamblyn

     

    David Tamblyn

    Team Leader

    David Tamblyn has worked in the field of health technology assessment for over 10 years, and has experience evaluating pharmaceuticals, devices and medical services. He has been involved in HTA evaluations for both reimbursement and regulatory purposes, and in the development of national guidelines to inform the assessment of pharmaceuticals and medical services.

    Jacci Parsons

     

    Jacci Parsons

    Team Leader, Special Projects

    Jacci Parsons is an epidemiologist and public health researcher with close to 20 years' experience in systematic reviews. She began her training as a reviewer while working at the University of Oxford, and has conducted multiple systematic reviews for the Cochrane Library, and five for the World Health Organization. With over 10 years of service at AHTA, Jacci has been across a number of projects, including Horizon Scanning, systematic reviews to support clinical practice guidelines, systematic review development for TGA, NHMRC and the WHO, as well as actively contributing to teaching HTA and public health to undergraduate and postgraduate students at the University of Adelaide.

    Camille Schubert

     

    Camille Schubert

    Team Leader, Health Economics

    Camille Schubert is primarily involved in modelling health outcomes and costs associated with proposals for new listings on the Medicare Benefits Scheme, for the Medical Services Advisory Committee and supervision of the production of independent Commentaries for the Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee on applications made by industry to the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme. Her primary expertise is health economic policy associated with funding of health technologies, pharmacoeconomics and the economics of co-dependent health technologies.

    Skye Newton

     

    Skye Newton

    Team Leader, Medical HTA

    Ms Skye Newton is a clinical epidemiologist who has 14 years' experience performing and providing guidance and quality assurance for evaluations for the Medical Services Advisory Committee (MSAC). Skye has strong expertise in the evaluation of investigative tests, in particular, genetic tests.

    Dr Jennie Louise

    Team Leader, Statistics

    Dr Jennie Louise is a biostatistican with many years' experience providing statistical support and working collaboratively with clinical and health researchers. Her main area of expertise is in the design, conduct, analysis and reporting of large clinical trials and cohort studies, but she also has interests and experience in general statistical consulting, including outside the health and medical sector, and bioinformatics.

    Andrew Holton

    Team Leader, IT

    Andrew Holton has worked in the Health IT realm for over 15 years with extensive experience in creating customised data management solutions for health research, and clinical data collection and trials. He and the Research IT Service provide full end-to-end support for projects including scope and consultation, solution architecture, full stack development and ongoing maintenance.

  • Administration

  • Ethicist

  • Pharmaceutical evaluators

  • Healthcare & medical device evaluators

  • Health economists

  • Statisticians

  • Research IT team

  • Students

  • Affiliates and consultants