The Cancer Health Services Research unit at the University of Melbourne consists of a multidisciplinary team conducting data-driven and evidence-based health services research to optimise equitable cancer care that reflects the needs and preferences of people affected by cancer.
In this presentation, they will share and discuss recent research in relation to the role of using artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning in cancer screening, the need of establishing linked dataset for informing current and new cancer treatments, as well as the considerations on reimbursement strategies for cancer genome sequencing.
Speakers
Prof Gang Chen is a health economist with training in medicine, management and health economics. He is currently serving as the Vice President of the Australian Health Economics Society (AHES) , and an Associate Editor for the Quality of Life Research (an official journal of the International Society of Quality of Life Research, ISOQOL). He is also a tenured member of the International Academy of Health Preference Research (IAHPR) and co-chaired the 14th Meeting of IAHPR in 2023.
Prior to his appointment at the University of Melbourne and Peter Mac, Gang was an Associate Professor at the Centre for Health Economics (CHE), Monash University. He also worked at Flinders Centre for Innovation in Cancer and Flinders Health Economics Group (2012-2016) where he received the Flinders University Vice-Chancellor’s Award for Early Career Researchers.
Dr Franchini is a senior research fellow and senior data scientist specialising in clinical and digital health at the Cancer Health Services Research Unit. She earned her PhD in Clinical Medicine from the University of Oxford, focusing on the tumour micro-environment and immune regulatory networks in colorectal cancer.
Today, she combines her expertise in clinical medicine and data science to enhance public health outcomes, particularly in cancer care. Her professional journey is marked by a passion for bridging the gap between data science and clinical research, which she applies to develop precision medicine approaches and reduce the burden of disease. She uses clinical registries and population-based linked datasets to improve cancer care and public health, aiming to generate actionable clinical insights, inform healthcare policies, and improve treatment equity.
Dr Khorshidi obtained his PhD in Applied and Computational Mathematics from Monash University in 2016 and worked as a Senior Data Analyst in Institute for Safety, Compensation and Recovery Research (ISCRR) using data from WorkSafe Victoria and Transport Accident Commission (TAC). Before joining CHSR, he had worked in the School of Computing and Information Systems as a Research Fellow for more than three years. He has conducted research projects in medical data mining, optimisation, machine learning, and uncertainty, and brings these experiences into cancer research.
Dr Khorshidi is a chief investigator in a joint research grant-awarded project in Manchester-Melbourne Research Fund, and recipient of O&G Innovation Grant. He is an associate editor in International Journal of System Assurance Engineering and Management. He has been a member of editorial boards in International Journal of Quality and Reliability Management and The TQM Journal.
