Ramya Walsan

Ramya Walsan is a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Centre for Health Systems and Safety Research within the Australian Institute of Health Innovation at Macquarie University. Her work focuses on using large-scale linked health datasets, health economics, and spatial analysis to evaluate innovative models of care and improve health equity.

Dr. Walsan completed her PhD in Medicine at the University of Wollongong in December 2020, with a thesis titled "Type 2 diabetes comorbidity in serious mental illness: Do neighbourhoods matter." Prior to her current position, she served as a Research Assistant at both The University of New South Wales and the University of Wollongong from 2019 to 2022, and was an Honorary Research Associate at Illawarra Shoalhaven Local Health District from 2016 to 2019.

Her research interests span several critical areas in health services research. Dr. Walsan specializes in analyzing large, linked datasets across multiple Australian states to evaluate health service and population health outcomes using complex statistical modeling. She has particular expertise in health economics, virtual healthcare delivery, cancer outcomes, and chronic disease management. Her work consistently emphasizes improving equity in health outcomes and addressing financial toxicity in healthcare. Dr. Walsan also has extensive experience with Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and spatial methods to identify at-risk populations for targeted health interventions.

Dr. Walsan's recent publications demonstrate a strong focus on healthcare costs, health equity, and the evaluation of innovative care models. Her work frequently examines out-of-pocket costs and their relationship to care quality, particularly in surgical contexts. She has also conducted significant research on cochlear implantation outcomes and healthcare utilization patterns. Her research employs both quantitative and qualitative methodologies, often using large-scale retrospective cohort designs.

Dr. Walsan has received several notable awards for her research contributions:

• Faculty ECR Unsung Hero Award (2023)
• Editor's choice award for "Marked variations in medical provider and out-of-pocket costs for radical prostatectomy procedures in Australia" (2024)
• HDR Student Publication Price (2019)
• Illawarra Shoalhaven Local Health district - UOW matching scholarship (2016)
• Travel award, School of Science, Medicine and Health, University of Wollongong (2019)

As a researcher, Dr. Walsan has secured over $1.8 million in funding as Chief Investigator and has led significant national projects including the NHMRC Smarter Hospitals Partnership Project, which evaluates virtual care integration, and a Medibank-funded national study on out-of-pocket costs and care quality. She actively contributes to research leadership through student supervision, ethics committee service, peer mentorship, and institutional engagement, and is open to supervising PhD students in her areas of expertise.

Dr. Walsan currently leads coordination and data analysis for multiple research initiatives, establishing Communities of Practice and national steering committees with policymakers and consumer representatives. Her work bridges academic research with practical health system applications, directly informing strategic decisions in government health sectors.