Professor Barbara McPake
Professor Barbara McPake joined the Nossal Institute in July 2014 and was Director of the Institute until 2023. Under her leadership the Nossal Institute for Global Health has reinforced its position as a world leader in systems strengthening for health impact. Barbara was Director of the Institute for International Health and Development at Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh (2005-2014) and lectured in Health Economics at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine between 1991 and 2005. She also served as Head of the Health Policy Unit and Director of the Knowledge Program on Health Systems Development, supported by the UK Department for International Development.
Barbara has a PhD in Health Economics from the University of Wales College of Medicine.
Barbara’s research focuses on the application of economic theories and methods to the understanding of issues in health system strengthening in low and middle-income countries. Her work has focused on health financing, contracts within public health systems, health workforce, hospital reform and the health system issues of conflict affected states. Barbara is currently focused on the economic, demographic and epidemiological transitions undergone by middle income countries, and how health systems respond to questions of emerging infectious diseases exacerbated by economic transition, rising income and wealth inequalities, and epidemics of chronic disease.
Barbara’s work has been funded by DFID, the European Union, UK and Australian research councils, UNICEF, WHO and the World Bank.
Barbara has made a significant contribution to the training of the next generation of health system economists and she is principal author of the leading text in health economics for international application which has engaged thousands of students since its first publication in 2001.