The Queensland Evaluation Group (QEG) was established in 2001 to undertake the evaluation of cost-effectiveness submissions to the Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee (PBAC).
Every 3 months, the PBAC receives submissions from pharmaceutical companies requesting the addition of new drugs or indications to the Schedule of Pharmaceutical Benefits. The submissions contain detailed clinical and economic evidence of comparative performance. The group evaluates these submissions, producing a commentary within an 8-week period. These commentaries, after review by the Economic Sub-Committee, are considered by the PBAC. The PBAC then makes recommendations to the Health Minister about which preparations should be made available as pharmaceutical benefits.
The group comprises evaluators, aided by experts in biostatistics, health economics, epidemiology, biostatistics and pharmacy from the School of Population Health and the School of Pharmacy. The group has been contracted to provide this service to the Department of Health and Aged Care over a period of 4 years (2004 -2008).
In addition to this large service component the group is developing a research program, focusing on pharmacoepidemiology and aspects of the PBAC submission process.
Staff
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Dr Samantha Hollingworth has been a Senior Research Fellow within the Queensland Evaluation Group, School of Population Health since 2002. During this time she has evaluated numerous drug submissions and presented and published research in areas such as drugs utilisation trends in atypical antipsychotics and adverse effects of rofecoxib (also known as Vioxx) which was pulled from worldwide markets in 2004). She has contributed to both undergraduate and postgraduate teaching in Epidemiology, Pharmacy, Clinical Pharmacology, Medicine and Health Economics Samantha graduated from the University of Queensland in 1986 with BSc (Hons) and Monash University with a PhD in 1993. Samantha then obtained a Sydney Segal Postdoctoral Fellowship (Canadian Foundation for the Study of Infant Deaths) at Mt Sinai Hospital in Toronto, Canada. Seeking a change, Samantha then was appointed as a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Physiology, School of Medical Sciences at the University of Science and Technology (UST) in Kumasi, Ghana (West Africa) from 1995-1998. Following a return to Australia Samantha completed a Certificate IV in Small Business Management and then a Master of Public Health at the University of Queensland. |
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ErikaTurkstra has a Ph.D. in renal physiology and hypertension obtained at the University of Utrecht in 1998. The title of her thesis is ‘Nitric oxide and angiotensin II interaction on renal hemodynamics, in normal and renovascular hypertensive rats’. After working as a post doctoral fellow for 12 months, she moved to the National Institute of Public Health and Environment (RIVM) in the Netherlands where she performed toxicology evaluations of public health and safety risks for the regulation of pesticides. From 2003, Erika has worked at Food Standards Australia and New Zealand as a senior toxicologist. The main task was the evaluation of safety aspects of foods and food ingredients. Furthermore toxicological risk assessments on emerging issues in the food supply were part of the workload. |
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Rachel Ngui completed a Master of Health Economics at UQ in 2006, and holds an Honours degree majoring in Economics from QUT. Prior to joining QEG, she was a Research Officer at the Centre for Burden of Disease and Cost Effectiveness in 2006, where she was involved in the development of courses in the Master of Health Economics program for external delivery, research in illicit drugs and a project within the ACE-Prevention Study. Prior to this, she was a Research Assistant at Griffith University in health economics, and a Policy Officer at Queensland Health in the area of health funding. Rachel also has experience in various roles within other government departments and the private sector both in Australia and overseas. |
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Ashutosh joined the Queensland Evaluation Group (QEG) as a Clinical Fellow in end of May 2007. Ashutosh completed his MBBS from India’s Pune University in 1998 and also holds a Post Graduate Diploma in Health management from New Delhi, India and a Master of Public Health from the University of New South Wales. Back in his native India he taught Clinical Pharmacology to medical students while also doing part time general practice in one of the suburbs in Pune. Before joining the QEG Ashutosh coordinated a multi-centric intervention research project focusing on the sexual and reproductive health needs of married adolescent girls in rural India. The focus of this project was on policy advocacy at state and national level. He has keen research interests in Pharmacoepidemiology. |
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Peter Coxeter completed a BHSc (acupuncture) at the Australian College of Natural Medicine (ACNM) in 1997. Following a hospital internship in Nanning, Guanxi, PRC, Peter returned to Australia to practice Traditional Chinese Medicine in private practice. He concurrently volunteered acupuncture services for the “Wastelands Detox Programme’, an acute and maintenance heroin detoxification programme established by QuIVaa. A growing interest in research led Peter to the Master of Public Health (MPH) and he graduated in 2001. His dissertation “Valerian versus Placebo Single Patient Trials for the Management of Insomnia in General Practice: Pilot Experience” was completed while employed with the Centre for General Practice (CGP). Later he worked and gained invaluable experience at various research centres at the School of Population Health (SPH), including roles with the Center for Health Promotion and Cancer Prevention Research (CHPCPR) and the Queensland Alcohol and Drug Research and Education Centre (QADREC). Peter then moved to the University of Sydney in 2003 where he managed a herbal medicine and drug interaction project at the Herbal Medicines Research and Education Centre (HMREC), Faculty of Pharmacy. More recently he moved to the Centre for Complementary Medicine Research (CompleMED), University of Western Sydney, to undertake his PhD and to lecture in undergraduate and Masters coursework programmes. Peter joined the Queensland Evaluation Group (QEG) in July 2006 and enjoys the addition and broadening of his skills within a health policy and regulatory environment and continues to maintain a broad range of research interests. |
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Marion Connel joined QEG in July 2006 as their first Administration Assistant. She previously worked with UQ on 5 year Longitudinal Study of Ageing and Women (LAW study) at Betty Byrne Henderson Women’s Health Research Centre at RBWH, Herston. Marion has also worked in human resources, marketing and sales. |
