Dr Louise Freijser
Research Fellow
Dr Louise Freijser joined the Nossal Institute in the Health Systems, Governance and Financing Unit in 2020. She is a public health researcher and program manager with ten years of experience in program evaluation, policy analysis and qualitative research in primary health care (PHC). She has a BSc, Master of Public Health specialising in program evaluation, and PhD in Health Policy at the University of Melbourne, as a recipient of an Australian Post Award academic scholarship. Her doctoral thesis examined the role of co-production in Australian policy and practice, in caring for ageing population in the community.
Her recent work at the Nossal Institute includes leading a project for the WHO Western Pacific Region Office on the role of hospitals in strengthening PHC. She is also involved in other projects in the region including an evaluation of the Royal Australasian Collage of Surgeons Pacific Island Program, and establishing a baseline for the Spotlight Initiative for ending violence against women and girls, a partnership between EU and UN in Timor-Leste.
She is part of a research team that successfully acquired $2.3 million in funding from the National Health and Medical Research Council, and is the research program manager of this three-year, multi-institute body of work, with the Health Economics Unit. This role involves overseeing the implementation of six research projects looking at measuring health related quality of life in paediatric populations.
Louise project managed and developed content for an online course Communicating COVID-19, preparing clinicians to tackle challenging questions, for the School of Population and Global Health, at the University of Melbourne. This course has over 2,600 enrolments from over 15 countries. She has also been selected to participate in Primary Health Care Performance Initiative, Joint Learning Exchange, on Transforming the Health System to Prioritise Primary Health Care.
She has authored research reports, peer-reviewed publications, and co-authored a book chapter on co-production, as well as presenting at national and international conferences. Her interests include program evaluation, health systems research, participatory approaches (including co-production and co-design), informal care and health equity.