Welcome to Rachel O’Loughlin

Rachel O’Loughlin has recently joined the Health Economics Unit within the Centre for Health Policy as a PhD Candidate. Her PhD project is supervised by A/Prof Kim Dalziel, Prof Harriet Hiscock and Prof Nancy Devlin. The project will explore concepts of value in children’s healthcare – specifically, examining the impacts of mental health and physical health comorbidity on children’s quality of life; comparing the validity and reliability of various quality of life measures in children; and examining how the use of these measures can add value in a clinical setting.

Prior to joining the team, Rachel was a Research Assistant with the Health Services Research group at the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute and the Royal Children’s Hospital. In this role, Rachel worked on a number of projects led by Prof Harriet Hiscock. These spanned areas such as: children’s use of emergency departments for problems related to anxiety and depression; describing and reducing the use of low value tests and procedures; and examining the feasibility and acceptability of a pilot program that placed paediatricians within general practice clinics with the aim of reducing GP referrals to emergency departments and outpatient clinics, and increasing family satisfaction with their care.

Rachel completed her undergraduate study in Economics and International Business at the University of Sydney, and later completed a Graduate Diploma and Graduate Diploma (Advanced) in Psychology at the University of Melbourne. Her research interests include children’s health, health services research, mental health, and – more broadly – ensuring that all children have access to great quality care.