Dr Stephen Duckett PhD, DSc, FCHSE, FASSA, Executive Director, Reform and Development Division Queensland Health, Australia 

Stephen Duckett, an economist, heads the Queensland Health Reform Team. He was Secretary of the Australian Health Department from 1994 - 1996 and has held leadership positions in the Victorian Health Department, at La Trobe University and as Chair of the Boards governing The Alfred and the Brotherhood of St Laurence. He was responsible for the design and implementation of casemix funding in Victoria in 1993.

Professor Kathy Eagar, PhD, MA, Director of the Centre for Health Service Development (CHSD), University of Wollongong, Australia

Professor Kathy Eagar is Director of the Centre for Health Service Development (CHSD). She has over twenty five years experience in the health and community care systems, during which she had divided her time equally between being a clinician, a senior manager and a health academic. She has authored over 250 articles, papers and reports on management, quality, outcomes, information systems and funding of the Australia and New Zealand health and community care systems. Professor Eagar leads a research team of 40 researchers covering 18 disciplines. They have a national reputation reflecting a track record of policy-relevant health services research & development & the translation of research findings into policy & practice. Their research interests lie in health service delivery, organisation & performance, care coordination & integration, health outcomes, health policy & management, health & community care financing and casemix classifications across settings.

Steve Sutch, MAppSc, CertHServMgt, BSc (Hons), Sutch Consulting International Ltd, UK Ltd, UK

Steve Sutch has a special interest in worldwide developments in Patient Classification and its application in Health planning, funding and resource allocation. He began working in the English NHS in 1987 as an Operational Research consultant, modelling hospital and NHS systems. In 1991, he moved to Wales to manage the investigation of casemix, its introduction, advising the Welsh Health Department and providing a range of casemix information services to hospitals and authorities. In 1994, he moved to the national casemix office in England, continuing work for Wales as a casemix Consultant including the move from APDRG to HRG. Joining the NHS Information Authority in 1999 he managed the Analytical and Statistics department supporting the development of casemix groupings (Healthcare Resource Groups) and related services in England and Wales until 2004, and from 2004 to 2006 was Principal Casemix Consultant responsible for the design of casemix groupings for England. In 2006 he set up a consulting company specialising in health information and the design of casemix classifications. He currently has ongoing work in the Netherlands, France, USA, Australia and the UK. Steve is a prominent committee member of the world-wide casemix conference PCSI (Patient Classifications International), lectures and provides consultancy Worldwide, on Casemix development and health informatics.

Dr Jason M. Sutherland PhD, Assistant Professor, Center for Health Policy Research, The Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice in Hanover, New Hampshire, USA 

In the Center, Dr. Sutherland is the Assistant Director of the Data Sciences Group where he spearheads collaborative research projects and analytic support of the Dartmouth Atlas for Health Care. Dr. Sutherland has experience in the analysis of large, complex longitudinal health services databases and expertise in population estimation problems. Dr. Sutherland also has experience in the evaluation of case mix methods for acute and non-acute care in single-payor health systems. His research interests include health services research, development and evaluation of risk adjustment methods and the development and application of statistical methods generated through health services research.

Assoc Prof Theo Vos PhD, MSc, Director of the Centre for Burden of Disease and Cost-Effectiveness, School of Population Health, University of Queensland, Australia

The Centre for Burden of Disease and Cost-Effectiveness aims to provide health policy makers with best available evidence to guide the allocation of resources. Theo has carried out burden of disease studies in Mauritius and Victoria and has made major contributions to the Australian studies and studies in Zimbabwe, Thailand, South Africa, Malaysia and Vietnam. He was chief investigator on the recent update of the Australian Burden of Disease study including for the first time an Indigenous study. He is currently part of a core team of researcher directing an update of the Global Burden of Disease and is responsible for estimates of mental disorders, injuries, musculoskeletal disorders and neurological conditions as well as risk factors including alcohol, violence, occupational hazards, lead and osteoporosis. He has also led cost-effectiveness studies in the areas of cardiovascular disease and mental disorders. He is currently directing two large economic evaluation projects: a) the ACE-Prevention project which will have evaluated the cost-effectiveness of 100 prevention options for non-communicable disease in Australia by the end of 2009; and b) the SPICE project in Thailand examining intervention options for tuberculosis, mental disorders, lifestyle risk factors and road traffic injuries.

Jim Birch AM, Lead Partner, Health & Human Services, Ernst & Young

Jim is Ernst & Young's Lead Partner in Health and Human Services. He has over thirty years experience in planning, leading and implementing change in complex organisations transcending such areas as Health Care, Justice and Human Services. Jim has been a Chief Executive of a Human Services and Health Department (South Australia), Deputy Chief Executive of Justice and Chief Executive of major health service delivery organisations, including teaching hospitals. 

At a National level he has been Chair of the Australian Health Ministers' Advisory Council, led the establishment of the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care and was a Director of the National E Health Transition Authority. Over the past year he has been appointed to Board of National Health Call Centre Network Ltd and Chair of Rural Health Workforce Australia. He has also held Board positions on a Division of General Practice and with the University of South Australia. 

Since July 2006 Jim has been involved in management consultancy practice and in November 2007 was admitted as Lead Partner, Health and Human Services (Oceania) with Ernst and Young. 

In January 2007 he was awarded an AM in the Australia Day honours.

Marie Gerdtz PhD, RN, BN, A&E Cert, GDAET 

Marie Gerdtz is an emergency nurse with 15 years experience working in clinical and teaching roles. She currently works as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at The University of Melbourne's School of Nursing and Social Work. Marie's research program investigates the ways in which emergency care environments impact patient safety outcomes. To date this work has focused on emergency access, risk assessment and aggression management. As a result of recommendations arising from her thesis she has worked extensively as a consultant for the Australian Department of Health and Ageing on the development and implementation of a national training strategy for emergency department triage.

Claude has been head of the national Casemix programme in Ireland since 2001 with responsibility for both the day-to-day management of the national programme and the development of national policy. He has worded in both private industry and the public service. He worked in various Government Departments (Ministries) including Public Service, Finance, Environment & Justice. He joined the Department of Health in 1995 and moved into Casemix Unit in 1998. In 2001 he has promoted to Head of Casemix with the specific brief to review the sustainability or otherwise of Casemix in Ireland which, at that time, was just 15% of funding for Inpatients and Daycases only. He initiated a comprehensive 'root-and-branch' review of Casemix in Ireland. His final report 'the Modernisation of the National Casemix Programme ' submitted to the Minister, recommended a complete modernisation and expansion of the programme until it became 'a central pillar in acute funding policy'. All the recommendations were accepted in full. A major recommendation initiated was changing from the American HCFA DRGs and ICD-9-CM to Australian AR-DRGs and ICD-10AM and funding every patient encounter. Now approximately 60% of acute hospital budgets in Ireland are Casemix based, and this is being incrementally expanded each year. A proposal to move to 100% Casemix-based prospective funding for every acute hospital patient encounter within 5 years was launched at the annual Casemix conference last April. Ireland has strong links with Australia, particularly Laeta , Victoria and the NCCH.

Dr Ric Marshall OAM, PhD., Health Service Management Information Specialist Infrastructure Development for Strengthening and Restructuring of Health Services' Financial Management Project, Turkey 

Ric Marshall was Director of DRG Development and Director Case Payment in Australia between 1992 to 1996. He is an Epidemiologist who has specialised in Health Service performance statistics and activity efficiency measurement. More recently, he has worked as a specialist consultant in a wide range of international settings focusing on patient classification and grouping of interventions and procedures in primary and secondary care settings. His Health Service Management Consulting experience has involved several national health funding policy reform projects including implementations of DRG based casemix programs.

Dr Tony Sherbon, Chief Executive, South Australian Department Of Heath

Before taking up the position of SA Health Chief Executive in 2006, Dr Tony Sherbon had 18 years experience in clinical and administrative management within the NSW and ACT health systems. Dr Sherbon has overseen the design of the SA Government's Health Care Plan and is now overseeing its implementation. In accordance with this plan, Dr Sherbon's future aims for SA Health are to develop primary care strategies, improve patient access to the SA's acute hospitals, provide safe, high quality services, improve the care of the mentally ill and provide a safe workplace. Dr Sherbon is a Board member and past Chair of National E-Health Transition Authority, a past Chair of the Australian Health Ministers Advisory Council and a Board member of Bio Innovation SA.

Fran Thorn, Secretary, Department of Human Services, Victoria

Fran Thorn was appointed Secretary of the Department of Human Services in March 2007. As Secretary, Fran is responsible for a portfolio which encompasses health, community services, housing, aged care and disability, with a total budget of $13.1 billion (as at 2008-09), representing approximately 40% of the Victorian State Government outlay, as well as portfolio assets of $21.5 billion. Between 2005 and early 2007, Fran was Secretary of the Department of Innovation, Industry and Regional Development. Immediately prior to this role she was with the Department of Sustainability and Environment as Under Secretary, Portfolio Performance. From 2002 to mid 2004 she was a Deputy Secretary of the Policy and Cabinet Group in the Department of Premier and Cabinet. Between 1996 and 2001 Fran was a Director of KPMG Consulting Pty Ltd, in Australia and then Hong Kong. Whilst at KPMG, Fran primarily consulted to the education sector and Government, providing advice on policy implementation, program evaluation strategy, costing and refocussing service delivery and future directions at Government and the funded institution level. Prior to joining KPMG, Fran had 17 years experience in public sector administration, with approximately half of that in post compulsory education and training, where she held senior management roles with major policy development, budget, staffing, program management and strategic planning functions. She has been actively involved in managing implementation of reforms in government service delivery in education and training at a system-wide level and in the management of human resources at a public sector-wide level.