Abstract: 'Clear as Mud! Communicating complexity in chronic disease prevention with decision makers.'

Prevention of chronic disease involves difficult decisions for policy makers. There are many stakeholders with different interests inside and outside of the health system. There are many opinions about what should be done and how best to do it supported by variable levels of evidence. The willingness of governments to invest in prevention in the face of the demands of health care services is limited. But decisions will be made and one of the challenges is how to best inform these decisions with the available evidence. How to better do this is a core area of interest for the Prevention Centre including through the use of complex systems approaches.

Biography: Professor Andrew Wilson, The Australian Prevention Partnership Centre.

Andrew is the Co-Director of the Menzies Centre for Health Policy at the University of Sydney and Director of the NHMRC funded Australian Prevention Partnership Centre. He chairs of the Australian Government’s Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee. Previous roles include Chief Health Officer and Deputy Director General Public Health with NSW Health, and Deputy Director General, Policy, Planning and Resourcing, Queensland Health. His research interests concern the application of epidemiology to informing decision making in clinical medicine, public health, and health service policy and planning especially in chronic disease prevention and management.