Stephen Duckett

Change agent, Policy maker

Dr Stephen Duckett is a Professor in the School of Public Health at the University of Alberta. He has held senior health care leadership positions in Australia and Canada, with a reputation for creativity, evidence-based innovation and reform in areas as diverse as hospital funding (introduction of activity-based funding for hospitals) and quality (new systems of measurement and accountability for safety of hospital care). During 2009-10, he was the foundation President and Chief Executive Officer of Alberta Health Services, Canada’s largest provider of health care. As President and CEO he oversaw the integration of the previous 12 entities which were merged to form the new organisation, and fostered innovative responses to address health needs in a fiscally constrained environment. Prior to moving to Alberta, he was Chief Executive of the Centre for Healthcare Improvement in Queensland Health (2006-2009). From 1994 to March 1996 he was Secretary (Deputy Minister equivalent) of the Australian Commonwealth Department of Human Services and Health (now the Commonwealth Department of Health and Ageing). From 1996 to 2006 he was Professor of Health Policy, Dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences, and Pro Vice-Chancellor (Learning and Teaching) at La Trobe University. Dr Duckett is an economist with a Masters and PhD in Health Administration from the University of New South Wales and a higher doctorate, the DSc, awarded on the basis of his scholarly contributions, from the Faculty of Medicine of the same University. He is a Fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia. From 1983 to 1993, Dr Duckett held various operational and policy positions in the Victorian Department of Health and Community Services where he planned and effected the introduction of casemix funding for Victoria’s acute public hospitals, the first such implementation in Australia. In 1999-2000 Dr Duckett was Chair of the Ministerial Review of Health Care Networks, the group responsible for the restructure of Melbourne’s public hospital system. From 2000-2006 he was Chair of the Board of Management of Bayside Health (the Metropolitan Health Service responsible for The Alfred, Caulfield General Medical Centre and Sandringham and District Hospital) and of the Board of Directors of the Brotherhood of St Laurence. During 2008 and 2009 he was a member of the (Australian) National Health and Hospitals Reform Commission. He was awarded the Sidney Sax Medal of the Australian Healthcare Association and an (Australian) Centenary Medal in 2003. Dr Duckett is an Adjunct Professor in the School of Population Health and the Australian Centre for Economic Research on Health at the University of Queensland, in the School of Public Health at Griffith University and in the Department of Community Health Sciences at the University of Calgary. Dr Duckett's research is in the area of the economics of hospital care, with a particular focus on casemix and other performance measures, and Australian health policy.

Ensuring access to high quality health care through sustainable public financing.

Health Economics, Health Services Administration, Health Services Research