Researcher

Professor Louisa Jorm

My Expertise

I apply advanced analytics to health and medical big data, including routinely collected hospital, Medicare and pharmaceutical records, to generate real-world evidence to improve health care and patient outcomes. I am a sought-after expert on better use of health data, including prolific print and radio media commentary (e.g. ABC Radio National Big Ideas and the Health Report), appearing as a witness before the Senate Select Committee on Health (2015), and presenting at hearings of the Productivity Commission inquiry into Data Availability and Use (2015). My work has had numerous impacts, including driving changes to reporting of national public health performance indicators, shaping national policy regarding access to publicly funded health data for research, and contributing to national ethical and governance frameworks in relation to use of health and medical big data.

Keywords

Fields of Research (FoR)

Health services and systems, Data engineering and data science, Epidemiological methods, Epidemiological modelling, Epidemiology, Public health, Public Health and Health Services

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Biography

I apply advanced analytics to health and medical big data, including routinely collected hospital, Medicare and pharmaceutical records, to generate real-world evidence to improve health care and patient outcomes.

I am the Foundation Director of the Centre for Big Data Research in Health at UNSW Sydney. I am a high-profile advocate for more and better use of routinely collected health data for research. I have published >200 scientific papers...view more

I apply advanced analytics to health and medical big data, including routinely collected hospital, Medicare and pharmaceutical records, to generate real-world evidence to improve health care and patient outcomes.

I am the Foundation Director of the Centre for Big Data Research in Health at UNSW Sydney. I am a high-profile advocate for more and better use of routinely collected health data for research. I have published >200 scientific papers and been awarded >$40 million in research grants.

I joined UNSW in late 2014. From 2007 until November 2014, I was Foundation Professor of Population Health and Director of the Centre for Health Research at the University of Western Sydney, and Principal Scientist and then part-time Senior Advisor at the Sax Institute. Prior to this, I spent more than 15 years in senior government and service roles.

I have demonstrated a career commitment to putting evidence to work in policy and practice and my work has had numerous translational impacts, e.g.: driving changes to reporting of national health performance indicators; supporting the planning of community-based early childhood and aged care services; informing national guidelines for management of acute coronary syndrome in Indigenous people; and shaping national policy regarding access to publicly funded health data for research. 

I have played a leading role in the establishment of major infrastructure and capacity for health big data research in Australia, including the NSW/ACT Centre for Health Record Linkage, the 45 and Up Study and the NSW Biostatistical Officer Training Program. I oversaw the development of the Secure Unified Research Environment (SURE) and E-Research Institutional Cloud Architecture (ERICA) secure remote access data analysis laboratories. I led the development of the UNSW Master of Science in Health Data Science, the first such program in the southern hemisphere.

I am a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences and Director of the Australian Chapter of the Medical Devices Epidemiology Network (MDEpiNet). I am a member of the ARC Medical Research Advisory group and was previously a member (appointed by the Minister for Health) of the NHMRC Australian Health Ethics Committee, NHMRC Research Committee and NHMRC Prevention and Community Health Committee. I was a Member of the Health Expert Working Group, Roadmap for Australian Research Infrastructure (2011 and 2008) and was an invited participant in the inaugural meeting of the Australia-US Science and Technology Joint Commission Steering Committee in Washington DC in February 2011. 

 


My Research Supervision


Supervision keywords


Areas of supervision

ILP, Honours, Masters, PhD


Currently supervising

Honours, Masters, PhD

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Location

Level 2, AGSM Building (G27)

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Contact

+61 (2) 9385 0644