Dr Duncan Mortimer

Duncan has over ten years experience conducting applied health econometric and economic evaluation projects. Prior to his appointment to University of South Australia, Duncan held positions as senior research fellow at Monash University's Centre for Health Economics, senior research fellow in health economics at the Monash Institute for Health Services Research, research associate in health economics at the University of East Anglia, and research fellow in health economics at Monash and Melbourne Universities' Centre for Health Program Evaluation. Duncan has an ongoing appointment as senior research fellow at Monash University's Centre for Health Economics, and collaborative associations with the Australasian Cochrane Centre, Monash University's Centre for Clinical Effectiveness and the Australian Research Alliance for Children and Youth.

Duncan's current research work includes validation of the regression-based methods for transforming descriptive measures of health status into preference-based measures, economic evaluation alongside the IMPLEMENT, ALIGN, and IRIS trials, economic advice to the Australasian Sleep Trials Network (ASTN), and econometric modelling to quantify the relative importance of program and patient characteristics influencing funding decisions for health, environment and transport programs. He contributes regularly to ongoing debate surrounding methods for economic evaluation and priority setting, particularly with regards to outcome measurement, the inclusion of outcomes beyond the individual, and the influence of non-health characteristics of health interventions over funding decisions. Duncan also coordinates the Evaluation Discussion Group (EDGR), a cross-institutional forum to facilitate peer-to-peer learning and publication for early-career researchers and analysts in economic evaluation.

Duncan's past research includes development of a micro-economic model of drug-resistant malaria for the World Health Organization, preparation of commentaries on new applications for subsidy to the Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee (PBAC), critical appraisal of PBAC guidelines regarding the use of cost-utility analysis, preparation of health technology assessment reports for the Medical Services Advisory Committee (MSAC), modelled cost-effectiveness and cost-utility analyses of various health care interventions, econometric modelling of pricing in the market for GP and specialist services, and measurement of hospital efficiency in Australia and the UK. He has presented his work at national and international conferences and published in journals such as Applied Economics, Health Economics, Pharmacoeconomics, Value in Health, Medical Decision Making, and Social Science and Medicine. He has reviewed for over 20 health economic and health services research journals, including Applied Economics, BMJ, Journal of Health Economics, Journal of Health Services Research and Policy, Medical Decision Making, Health Economics, Australia and New Zealand Journal of Public Health, Social Science and Medicine, Pharmacoeconomics, and Health Economics, Policy and Law.

Doctor of Philosophy, Centre for Health Economics, Monash University, Australia. Awarded 2008. Thesis: Emerging Issues in Outcome Measurement for Health Care Priority Setting.

Master of Economics (Honours), Department of Economics, Monash University, Australia. Awarded 2001. Thesis: Methods for the Measurement of Hospital Efficiency.

Post-Graduate Diploma of Health Economics & Evaluation, Department of Economics, Monash University, Australia. Awarded 1997. Specialisations: health economics & economic evaluation.

Bachelor of Economics, Department of Economics, University of Adelaide, Australia. Awarded 1996. Specialisations: economics, psychology & philosophy.

Mortimer, D. (2005) On the relevance of personal characteristics in setting health priorities: A comment on Olsen, Richardson, Dolan & Menzel (2003). Social Science & Medicine, 60(8): 1661-1664 (ISI IF: 2.604; 8th of 79 public, environmental and occupational health; 4th of 29 social sciences, biomedical journals).

Mortimer, D. & Segal, L. (2005) Economic evaluation of interventions for problem drinking and alcohol dependence: Cost per QALY estimates. Alcohol & Alcoholism, 40(6): 549-555 (ISI IF 2.137; top few drug & alcohol journals).

Mortimer, D. & Segal, L. (2006) Economic evaluation of interventions for problem drinking and alcohol dependence: Do within-family external effects make a difference? Alcohol & Alcoholism, 41(1): 92-98 (ISI IF 2.137; top few drug & alcohol journals).

Richardson, J., Peacock, S. & Mortimer, D. (2006) Does an increase in the Doctor Supply Reduce Medical Fees? An Econometric Analysis of Medical Fees across Australia. Applied Economics, 38(3), 253-266 (ISI IF: 0.433).

Mortimer, D. & French, S. (2006) Can dissenting findings with respect to the comparative effectiveness of ICSI and IVF be explained by a learning curve? Journal of Assisted Reproduction & Genetics, 23(1): 33-36 (ISI IF 1.123; top few assisted reproduction journals).

Segal, L. & Mortimer, D. (2006) A population-based model for priority setting across the care continuum and across modalities. Cost Effectiveness and Resource Allocation, 4: 6 (Unofficial BMC IF: 1.09).

Mortimer, D. & Kelly, J. (2006) Economic evaluation of the Good Life Club intervention for diabetes self-management. Australian Journal of Primary Health, 12(1): 92-101.

Mortimer, D. (2006) The value of thinly-spread QALYs. Pharmacoeconomics, 24(9): 845-853 (ISI IF: 2.808).

Mortimer, D., Segal, L, Hawthorne, G. & Harris A. (2007) Item-based versus scale-based mappings from the SF36 to a preference-based quality of life measure. Value in Health, 10(5): 398-407 (ISI IF 3.009; 7th of 62 health services journals; 6th of 41 health policy and services journals).

Hollingsworth, B.A., Harris, A. & Mortimer, D. (2007) The cost-effectiveness of intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI). Journal of Assisted Reproduction & Genetics, 24(12):571-577 (ISI IF 1.123; top few assisted reproduction journals).

McKenzie JE, French SD, O'Connor DA, Grimshaw JM, Mortimer D, Michie S, Francis J, Spike N, Schattner P, Kent P, Buchbinder R, Green SE. (2008) IMPlementing a clinical practice guideline for acute Lower back pain Evidence based manageMENT in general practice (IMPLEMENT): cluster randomised controlled trial study protocol [ACTRN012606000098538]. Implementation Science, 3:11 (Unofficial BMC IF: 2.75).

Mortimer, D., French, S., McKenzie, J., O'Connor, D. & Green, S. on behalf of the IMPLEMENT study group. (2008) Protocol for economic evaluation alongside the IMPLEMENT cluster randomised controlled trial [ACTRN012606000098538]. Implementation Science, 3:12 (Unofficial BMC IF: 2.75).

Mortimer, D. & Segal, L. (2008) Comparing the incomparable? A systematic review of competing techniques for mapping one health outcome measure into another. Medical Decision Making, 28(1): 66-89 (ISI IF 2.929; 8th of 62 health care scicences and services).

Mortimer, D. & Segal, L. (2008) Is the value of a life-year saved context specific? Further evidence from a discrete choice experiment. Cost Effectiveness and Resource Allocation, 6:8 (Unofficial BMC IF: 1.09).

Dalziel, K., Segal, L. & Mortimer, D. (2008) Review of Australian Economic Evaluation in Health 245 interventions: What can we say about cost-effectiveness? Cost Effectiveness and Resource Allocation, 6:9 (Unofficial BMC IF: 1.09).

Mortimer, D. (2008) Modelling downstream effects in the presence of technological change. Pharmacoeconomics, 26 (12): 991-1003 (ISI IF: 2.808).

Hawthorne, G., Densley, K., Pallant, J., Mortimer, D. & Segal, L. (2008) Deriving utility scores from the SF-36 using ordinal Rasch analysis. Quality of Life Research, 17(9): 1183-1193. (ISI IF: 2.169; 20th of 62 health care sciences & services journals).

Mortimer, D., Segal, L., Sturm, J. (2009) Can we derive an ‘exchange rate’ between descriptive and preference-based outcome measures for stroke? Results from the TTU technique. Health & Quality of Life Outcomes, 7:33. (ISI IF: 3.200; 3rd of 41 health policy and services journals; 4th of 62 health care scicences and services).

Segal, L., Dalziel, K. & Mortimer, D. Fixing the game: Are between-silo differences in funding arrangements handicapping some interventions and giving others a head-start? Health Economics, published Online 20 Apr 2009 (ISI IF: 1.994; 18th of 209 economics journals; 15th of 41 health policy and services journals).

Harris, A. & Mortimer D. (2009) Funding illness prevention and health promotion in Australia: a way forward. Australia and New Zealand Health Policy 2009, 6:25. http://www.anzhealthpolicy.com/content/6/1/25