Professor Andrew Palmer, who heads up the Menzies Institute for Medical Research health economics research group, has been ranked in the top 10 most productive authors in health economics research globally.
Professor Palmer has extensive experience in the health economics of chronic diseases including diabetes, osteoporosis, pulmonary fibrosis and multiple sclerosis. Over his time in this field he has authored more than 260 Medline-listed publications, leading to almost 6,000 citations.
The ranking, published by Health Economics Review, is based on health economics documents published between 1975-2022 and involved 4,096 authors, 1,723 institutions, 847 journals and 82 countries.
Crucially, Professor Palmer’s research findings have translated to broad policy changes and improved outcomes for people living with these chronic diseases. Results of his research into the health economic impact of multiple sclerosis, for example, have been successfully used in lobbying government for reimbursement of expensive new MS medications, increased research funding and funding of MS services.
Director of the Menzies Institute for Medical Research, Professor Tracey Dickson, congratulated Professor Palmer on this recognition of his research output.
“Andrew is a widely published, well-known and internationally respected health economist. His productivity is significant, and this top 10 global ranking is a testament to that,” Professor Dickson said.
Of the utmost importance is the quality and impact of his research. We highly value Andrew’s contributions to research at Menzies, and to the research and medical community more broadly.”
Professor Palmer studied medicine at the University of Tasmania, going on to work at the Launceston General Hospital, then as a general practitioner in Sydney.
In 1994 he moved to Switzerland, where he was clinical researcher and Medical Director of the Institute for Medical Informatics and Biostatistics (IMIB) from 1994 until 2000. Professor Palmer cofounded CORE (Center for Outcomes Research) in Basel, Switzerland in 2000 and was Medical Director and CEO until 2005 then Principal Researcher at IMS (Intercontinental Medical Statistics) Health in Switzerland until 2007. He started in academia in 2009 on his return to Australia.
Professor Palmer is now theme leader of Public Health Primary Care and Health Services Research at Menzies and is currently supervisor of four post-doctoral researchers and five PhD students, with one Masters and 17 PhD completions. To date he has received more than $30 million in National Health and Medical Research Council and Medical Research Future Fund research funding.
About the research
Read the full paper, ‘Global trends in the scientific research of the health economics: a bibliometric analysis from 1975 to 2022’, in Health Economics Review.