Founder of ROA

Rod O'Connor PhD

Rod O'Connor PhD
Executive Director ROA
Also Conjoint Associate Professor,
School of Public Health & Community Medicine,
Faculty of Medicine, University of New South Wales
Email: rod@RodOConnorAssoc.com
Ph: +(61-2) 9555 9916
Mob: 0413 60 70 73

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Positions held

* Conjoint Associate Professor, School of Public Health & Community Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of New South Wales (Current)
* Research Projects Manager, NSW Centre for Health Records Linkage, Cancer Institute
* Technical adviser on service quality improvement to the World Bank/HLSP 'Health VIII' project in P.R.China.
* World Health Organisation (WHO) Consultant in Outcomes Research
* Founder and inaugural Chairman, Australia Malaysia Health Industry Group (AMHIG)
* Member Executive Committee, Australian Health Industry Development Forum (AHIDF)
* Invited rapporteur for the UK Economic & Social Research Council
* Invited referee for the U.K. National Coordinating Centre for Research Capacity Development
* Adviser on Health to the Economic and Budget Review Committee of the Parliament of Victoria
* Founding Director of Health Solutions Pty Ltd in association with the Victorian Hospitals Association
* Regional Director (Acting) , Deputy Regional Director, & Co-ordinator of Regional Planning Group, Health Department Victoria
* Senior Research Associate, NHMRC National Centre for Health Program Evaluation
* Academic Associate, Department of Public Health, University of Melbourne
* Member of numerous specialist committees, including Chairman of Committee to Rationalise services at Royal Victorian Eye & Ear and St. Vincent's Teaching Hospitals; St. Vincent's Hospital (Vic.) Forward Planning Committee; Victorian Lithotripsy Advisory Committee; Executive Committee Victorian Mental Health Research Executive; Technical Advisory Committee on the Evaluation of the St. Nicholas Project; Working Party on the proposed Relocation of Prince Henry's Hospital (Vic.)

Qualifications / training

▪ PhD in Cognitive Psychology, Faculty of Science, Monash University, 1981
▪ Completed 'Measurement, Design and Analysis Methods for Health Outcomes Research', Harvard School of Public Health, June 1999
▪ Completed 'Introduction to Rasch measurement: Theory and Applications', conducted at University of Illinois at Chicago, April 2003
▪ Certificate in Health Economics, Monash University Faculty of Economics & University of Melbourne Department of Public Health and Community Medicine, 1994
▪ BSc Hons, Monash University 1976

Professional Associations

Australian College of Health Service Executives
International Society for Quality of Life Research (ISOQOL)
International Health Economics Association (IHEA)
Society for Medical Decision Making (USA)
Society for Judgement and Decision Making

Experience (in brief)

▪ Technical advisor on quality improvement for the HVIII Rural Healthcare Project, HLSP/The World Bank, P.R.China (2006/2007). The HVIII project aimed at improving the quality of rural healthcare in P.R. China, which entailed strengthening existing facilities and equipment infrastructure in health centres/hospitals; improving capability of medical staff; developing uniform sets of standards; establishing specific quality indicators; strengthening organisational structure and managers ability to plan and evaluate.
▪ WHO consultant in developing health outcomes research methodologies (Malaysia, 2001), and developing evidence–based policy to improve population health (Fiji, 2002).
• Rapporteur on ‘Quality of life’ for the UK Economic and Social Research Council (2003)
• Invited referee for the U.K. National Co-ordinating Centre for Research Capacity Development (2004)
▪ Directed 80+ health service research and development projects, including projects in health outcome measurement; health program development; services planning; health policy analysis; program research and evaluation; demography and epidemiology; service need assessment; health service demand forecasting; health status and quality of life measurement; health information systems; health economics; health-related behaviour; training in health services planning and evaluation.
▪ Experienced in most areas of health status and health outcome assessment. Acted as adviser to the Centre for Health Program Evaluation, Graduate School of Business, Faculty of Business and Economics, Monash University, on the development of health status measures as guides to resource allocation.
▪ Conducted research, planning and evaluation exercises in acute hospital care, psychiatric services, aged care, domiciliary care, community health, disability and rehabilitation, health promotion, community violence, AIDS, breast-cancer screening, and primary health care.
▪ Developed epidemiological methods for assessing need and directing service development in general hospitals, environmental health, mental health services, oncology, and palliative care.
▪ Consultant to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders Commission, and the National Aboriginal Health Strategy Evaluation.
▪ Co-developed Australia's first practical training courses in health program evaluation (Monash, 1992) and health outcomes measurement (UNSW, 1999).
▪ Developed service demand and planning models and a range of health care decision tools including those currently used for allocating the $4 Billion per year Commonwealth Disability Support Pension (the 'Work Ability Tables'); Aboriginal infrastructure funding (the 'Environmental Health Effects Scale'); and medication compliance (the ‘Asthma Medication Adherence Questionnaire’).
• Founded the Australia Malaysia Health Industry Group (AMHIG) in 1996, a health business trade group representing 200+ government, university, and commercial agencies, auspiced by the Health Ministers of Australia and Malaysia.

Courses presented

<> Courses conducted directly and/or via the Australian College of Healthcare Executives or ACHSE (regular and ongoing):
   o ‘How to plan and evaluate a healthcare program in the era of evidence-based medicine and client-centred care’
   o 'Measuring patient-centred health outcomes: quality of life, functional status, and patient satisfaction’
   o ‘Making better decisions: mistakes, biases, irrational effects, and inspired genius!’
   o ‘Designing a Valid Questionnaire’
   o 'A suite of methods for increasing program effectiveness'
<> Graduate program in 'Measurement of Quality of Life and Patient Satisfaction' for the School of Public Health and Community Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of New South Wales, Sydney
<> Measuring Patient-Centred Outcomes in Community Care. Auspiced by the Metropolitan Domiciliary Care Services, Adelaide, S.A. March, 2004
<> The development of health outcomes research, conducted for World Health Organisation (WHO) to the Ministry of Health, Government of Malaysia (2001)
<> ‘Measurement of Quality of Life, Health Status, and Patient Satisfaction’ in Manizales, Colombia, a collaboration between the Catholic University of Manizales, Colombia, S.A., and the School of Health Services Management, University of New South Wales, Australia. April, 2000
<> International Workshop on Health Strategic Planning, in collaboration with the Tropical Health Program of the Queensland Institute of Medical Research and the University of Queensland
<> Health Program Evaluation, for the NHMRC National Centre for Health Program Evaluation, Melbourne
<> WHO Health Systems Research, for the Asian Development Bank (ADB), IDP, and the Institute of Public Health, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Books/ Presentations/ Papers (additional to Consultancy Projects )

* 'The development of an evaluation framework for injury surveillance systems'. Rebecca J Mitchell, Ann M Williamson and Rod O'Connor. BMC Public Health, 2009, In Press.
* ‘Overcoming Mistakes, Biases & Irrational Effects to Make Better Decisions'. Invited presentation to "Strategies for patient- centred healthcare excellence", 2ND ANNUAL Healthcare Operations Management. IBC Asia Pty Ltd. Grand Copthorne Waterfront Hotel, Singapore. 29 – 31 October 2008.
* ‘Making better decisions: errors, lies, fickle emotions, and inspired genius.' School of Public Health and Community Medicine, Samuels Building, Kensington Campus, University of New South Wales, Sydney, 30 August 2008
* ‘Applying EBM’ (ie. RCTs) versus ‘Understanding and improving what happens’. Invited presentation to ‘Myth-Busting for Improved Patient Care 2008 - Interactive Consensus Day Workshop’ Friday 22 February 2008, Stamford Plaza Hotel, Sydney
* 'Development of an Evaluation Framework for Injury Surveillance Systems'. Mitchell R, Williamson A, O’Connor R. International Injury Prevention conference, Mexico, 2008
* 'Making Decisions: Mistakes, biases, irrational effects and inspired genius'. Invited presentation to 'Frontiers in Healthcare Delivery', IIR Conferences, Citigate Hotel, Sydney, 24th & 25th October 2007
* ‘Why outcome measures are more important than level of evidence in psychosocial care’. Invited speaker to ‘The Challenge of Research & Supportive Care in Cancer’, Seminar on supportive care research and translation of knowledge into practice, Victorian Ministerial Taskforce for Cancer. Duxton Hotel, Melbourne 21 & 22 November 2005
* ‘Quality of life for people with dementia in residential care’. Kanegae S, Fleming R, Ehrlich F, O'Connor R. American Public Health Association 133rd Annual Meeting & Exposition, Philadelphia PA, December 10-14, 2005
* ‘Measuring Quality of Life in Health’ (book), pub. Churchill Livingston / Elsevier Science UK, June 2004
* ‘Quality of Life Measures in Aged Care’. Invited presentation to ‘Better Practice’ Conference, Aged Care Standards and Accreditation Agency Ltd, Adelaide, April 2004
* ‘Measuring patient-centred health outcomes: current trends’. Invited speaker to Annual Conference of Australasian Pharmaceutical Science Association, Sydney 3-5 December 2003.
* ‘What is a ‘dimension’? Rasch Analysis, Classical Test Theory, and the role of criterion-related validity’ Health Outcomes 2003 - The Quest for Practice Improvement. 9th Annual National Health Outcomes Conference, Canberra, 20 - 21 August 2003
* ‘How to Improve the Health System: Ideas and Innovations’ Facilitator/ originator, seminar conducted by Australian College of Health Service Executives (Sydney). 18 July, 2002.
* ‘Changing from Passive to Dynamic Measures: measuring health-related behaviour to prevent as well as describe health outcomes’. Health Outcomes 2002 - Current Challenges and Future Frontiers. 8th Annual National Health Outcomes Conference, Canberra, 17-18 July 2002
* 'Incorporating service quality and outcome measures into healthcare funding systems', presentation to Inquiry into Public Hospital Funding, Community Affairs References Committee of the Australian Senate. 21 March 2000
* Development of a questionnaire for estimating adherence to asthma medication. R O'Connor, P Gibson, C Jenkins, C Mitchell and M Peters. TSANZ Annual Scientific Meeting, 2000
* The Work Ability Tables as a measure of health outcomes. 1999 Health Outcomes Conference, Canberra,1999.
* Measuring outcome quality: the importance of case-mix specific tools (to be presented). The Tenth Casemix Conference in Australia. Melbourne Convention Centre, Melbourne 6-9 September 1998
* Custom-designing instruments to implement government and commercial decisions: work-related disability, quality of life, and Aboriginal environmental health. 1998 Health Outcomes Conference. Rydges Lakeside, Canberra 7- 8 August,1998
* The importance of using case-mix specific tools when measuring Health related Quality of Life. Annual Conference of the Australian Health Economics Society, Sydney, July 1998
* Update on health services in the South East Asia Region. Invited presentation to 'Effective Rehabilitation - Managing Care'. Sydney Convention Centre, Darling Harbour, Sydney Australia 28-30 May, 1998.
* International Co-operation and Communications in Promoting Healthcare. Invited presentation to plenary session of the 1997 Asian Healthcare Convention and National Healthcare Conference & Exhibition ‘Asian Healthcare Challenges Towards the 21st Century’. Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, August 1997
* Rehabilitation and Aged Care, Australia Malaysia Health Industry Group Seminar. Shangri-la Hotel, Kuala Lumpur, August 1997.
* A Critique of the AQoL. Invited critique on the Australian Quality of Life Instrument, or AQoL, to the 1997 Conference of the Australian Health Economics Society, The University of Melbourne, July 1997
* The Changing Pattern of Diseases: How will it Impact our Hospitals. Invited presentation to plenary session of the 1996 National Healthcare Conference ‘Future Needs, Future Resources’. Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, June 1996.
* Opportunities in a Changing Healthcare sector. Invited presentation to the 4th Joint Business Conference of the Australia-Malaysia and Malaysia-Australia Business Councils. Sydney, June 1996.
* The Development and Application of Health Status Measures as Guides to Government Funding. Invited presentation to the Health Systems Research Division, Public Health Institute, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. 1995.
* Development of the health effects scale: a trial instrument based on expert judgement for rating the effect of environmental factors on the health of Aboriginal households, Working Paper 43, NHMRC National Centre for Health Program Evaluation, 1995.
* Seven Priority Action Areas in Aboriginal Health. Invited paper, presented to the NSW Health Services Association Annual Conference, 1995.
* Making Better Decisions: Resource Allocation through the use of Expert Judgement. Presented to Annual conference of Public Health Association of Australia, Adelaide. 1994.
* Issues in the Measurement of Health-related Quality of Life, Working Paper 30, NHMRC National Centre for Health Program Evaluation, 1993.
* Linking Community Action and Preventive Health Care in developing areas: The Darwin Rural Districts Women's Health Program. Prepared for Public Health Association as background documents for the Australian Government delegation to the World Health Assembly on the subject of Community Action for Health. 1993.
* Needs Based Methods for Allocating Funds. Invited paper, presented to The Indigenous Australians Shelter Conference, 1-3 November 1993, Brisbane, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders Commission. 1993.
* Insights arising from a SIPO (Structure, Implementation, Process, and Outcome) approach to health program evaluation. Paper given to the Health Evaluation Special Interest Group, Annual Conference of the Australasian Evaluation Society, World Congress Centre, Melbourne, 1992.
* Health-related Quality of Life Measures need Content Validity. Australian Health Review, 1992, 15 (2), 155-163.
* Issues in the Measurement of Quality of life. Paper presented at the NHMRC National Centre for Health Program Evaluation, 1991.
* Child Sexual Abuse: Treatment, Prevention, and Detection, Working Paper 16, NHMRC National Centre for Health Program Evaluation,1991.
* Pesticides: Hazard and Risk. Chairman's presentation to conference 'Pesticides: Hazard and Risk', Public Health Association of Victoria, Wednesday 19 June, 1991, Ashley Ricketson Centre, Caulfield General Medical Centre, 1991.
* Research Methods: Getting started. Invited paper to the Vic. Research Special Interest Group of the Australian College of Health Service Administrators, 1990.
* Demand Forecasting - Anticipating Needs is Not a Guessing Game. Paper presented at "Care '88" Conference, World Trade Centre, Melbourne, 1988.
* DRGs and Estimating Service Demand: A Tool for Appraising Hospital Roles? Proceedings of the Health Services Strategies Conference 1987. The Victorian Hospitals' Association Limited. 1987.
* Regionalisation - A Progress Report. Paper presented to Australian College of Health Service Administrators Seminar on Regionalisation, 1986.
* Four Tools Regional Directors Need. Health Department of Victoria Internal Report, 1986.
* A Framework for planning the Roles of Hospitals. Health Department of Victoria Internal Report, 1985.
* The Report of the Inquiry into the Method of Remuneration for Visiting Medical Staff at Public Hospitals. Economic and Budget Review Committee, Parliament of Victoria, 1985 (O'Connor et al).
* A Method for Establishing, Reviewing and Monitoring the Roles of Public Hospitals in Regions. Health Commission of Victoria Internal Report, 1985.
* Hospital Role Delineation. Health Commission of Victoria Internal Report, 1985.
* Area Health Boards. Health Commission of Victoria Internal Report, 1985 (with R Scotton).
* Patient Dependency Systems: PAIS, Rush Medicus, and Royal Melbourne. Health Commission of Victoria Internal Report, 1984.
* Murray Valley Health Services Planning Group Report. Volumes 1 and 2. Health Commission of Victoria and New South Wales Department of Health, 1984 (with Maddox, Stuart, Parkinson, & Green).
* The Murray Valley Health Study, 1983. Paper presented to the Department of Social and Preventative Medicine, Monash University, 1983 (with Maddox).
* Evaluation of a Drink Driving Warning System. Proceedings of the 9th International Conference on Alcohol, Drugs and Traffic Safety, Puerto Rico, 1983 (with Bodi and King).
* Laboratory and Field Testing of a Drink Driving Warning System. Road Traffic Authority, 1983. (with Bodi, King, McDermott & Hughes).
* Staff and Organisational Development: Participative Problem Solving. ROSTA Internal Report, 1982.
* Social Mix: the method and advisability of integrating public and private housing. Housing Commission Victoria, 1981.

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