Emily Walkom

Dr. Emily Walkom is a Research Officer/Evaluator at the Newcastle Evaluation Group within the School of Medicine and Public Health at the University of Newcastle, Australia. She is affiliated with the College of Health, Medicine and Wellbeing and focuses on providing external evaluations of submissions to the Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee (PBAC). Her work bridges clinical pharmacology, health policy, and medicines evaluation.

Education:

• PhD in Psychology, University of Newcastle (2002)
• Bachelor of Arts (Psychology) Honours, University of Newcastle

Dr. Walkom's research spans medicines affordability, quality use of medicines, and medicines policy. With expertise in behavioural epidemiology (50%) and health economics (50%), her work examines consumer decision-making around non-prescription medicines, pharmaceutical industry funding of healthcare professional education, and the impact of media coverage on medicine reimbursement decisions. She has conducted systematic reviews on depression screening tools in primary care and investigated the relationship between stress, adaptability, and medication use.

Her publication record shows consistent focus on pharmaceutical policy, medicine evaluation, and healthcare systems. Recent work emphasizes depression screening in community pharmacy settings, consumer perspectives on non-prescription medicines, and transparency in pharmaceutical industry relationships. Her research often employs systematic review methodology and analyzes Australian healthcare policy contexts.

Grants and Funding:

Dr. Walkom has secured significant research funding totaling over $14.4 million across four major grants. Her current work focuses on evaluating pharmaceutical benefits and health technology assessments for the Australian Department of Health and Aged Care. She serves as an investigator on projects analyzing economic implications of medical testing expansions and providing external evaluation of PBAC submissions.

Based at the Mater Hospital in Newcastle, Dr. Walkom works within the Newcastle Evaluation Group, contributing expertise in medicines policy evaluation and health technology assessment to support evidence-based decision-making in Australia's pharmaceutical benefits system.