Tess joined AHA as a consultant in 2006 and is now an Associate Director and Head of Major and Strategic Projects. Her qualifications include a Master of Public Health from Flinders University (2015), which complements her previous B.A./B.Sci (Hons) from Melbourne University.
Tess has worked extensively in the pharmaceuticals area, which has provided her with significant insight into the Australian Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) and associated arrangements, and Community Pharmacy more broadly. In this area, Tess has been responsible for managing the CSO Funding Pool, on behalf of the Department of Health. This program, which has an annual budget of almost $200 million, and is designed to ensure that pharmacy wholesalers provide community pharmacies with timely access to PBS medicines, wherever they are located in Australia. AHA conducts audit, data analysis and reporting tasks on a monthly basis. She is also a key team member in AHA’s work for the Department of Health in managing the Price Disclosure arrangements.
Tess has conducted many AHA projects in the diabetes area, including – providing data analysis for AHA’s assessment of the clinical benefit and cost effectiveness of insulin pumps – managing the review of the National Diabetes Services Scheme (NDSS) Product Schedule – managing the review of the accuracy of the NDSS Registrant database.
Tess has worked across a wide variety of other AHA projects, in areas such as primary health care, Indigenous health and aged care. She has utilised her skills in stakeholder engagement, data collection design and data analysis, process and procedure design, literature review and reporting. Recent work includes literature reviews in aged care into advocacy and reablement, data analysis and reporting for AHA’s review of renal services in Tasmania and database design for managing applications for Victoria’s Program for Students with Disabilities (PSD).
Tess has extensive experience of public health initiatives, service improvements and evaluations.
