Professor Susan Hurley Epidemiologist, Health Economist, Statistician, Pharmacist & Author
Talking Business with Alan KohlerShow Notes
Susan decided to turn her hand to creative writing after a long career in medical research, public health advocacy and the pharmaceutical industry. She holds Master’s degrees in pharmacy and biostatistics, a PhD in epidemiology and health economics, and was a National Health and Medical Research Council Neil Hamilton Fairley Fellow. She holds honorary professorships at Griffith University and the University of Melbourne. Many of Susan’s research projects have influenced health policy. For example, her early work on the use of theophylline in acute asthma highlighted its toxicity and led to an appropriate decline in its use. The ecological analysis of the effectiveness of needle-exchanges that she published in The Lancet, was pivotal in securing government support for these programs. Her major area of expertise is cost-effectiveness analysis and she has written numerous successful submissions, on behalf of not-for-profits and pharmaceutical companies, for government subsidy of medicines. Susan’s experience in the medical research and biotechnology words was invaluable in the writing of Eight Lives, her first novel. Susan is a keen traveller and aspiring sketcher. She lives in Melbourne with her husband and labradoodle: She discusses: Her career & business background and able to touch on some of the research projects that have influenced health policy. Fiction that educates as well as informs. She likes to read fiction that’s ‘about something’ in addition to the characters and the story, fiction that takes me to a world I don’t know or relates to a subject I’m unfamiliar with. The seed of the idea for the book came from a UK drug trial. Ignorance about science is pervasive. In Australia, every second person believes that psychic powers are real, and one in five believes in magic. Although this could be viewed as harmless, or even amusing, the so-called ‘anti-vaxers’ provide a pertinent example of the human cost of such ignorance. Fiction like Eight Lives has the potential to educate people about science, and this learning, occurring while the reader’s emotions are heightened — when they are feeling empathy for the characters of a novel, say — has the potential to be sustained.
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More from Talking Business with Alan Kohler
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Insync Network Group is an Australian-based community of returned expats. A recent study found that the majority of Australia's returning expats struggle to re-settle in Australia, which is one of the reasons why this community was started three years ago. Since, it has grown to cover three cities (Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane). Margot is an expert in career and leadership management, who also lived and worked in London for 7 years. Upon returning to Australia, Margot noticed that re-settling at 'home' was more challenging than she had anticipated and underestimated the need to both translate international experience in the local Australian market, and re-integrate socially and emotionally in her home country. These are common challenges faced by many returning expats, which continues long after the jet-lag subsides. She also discusses her ‘Talentinsight Australia’ business. ‘They work with both individuals and businesses alike and are passionate about assisting senior professionals and executives understand their true value and how they can in turn maximise both their contribution and personal fulfilment. They work with organisations to support leaders maximise their own career performance so that they can in turn genuinely support the success and capability of both the business and those within their own teams’. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Daniel is the Managing Director of Chironix which operates throughout A/NZ and the USA. He has a deep interest in artificial intelligence, space technologies, mobile robotics, human memory, cyber operations, cognitive studies & social processes. Daniel also served for two years in the Navy Strategy Executive in the Office of the Chief of Navy as the Deputy Director of Technological Solutions. Chironix’s Machine Learning and Data Engineering team provides consultancy services with significant expertise in delivering effective solutions to our clients through the process of human machine teaming. This forms a core capability from which their product arms interact. Augmenting this centralised capability are two product verticals: Robotics and wearables. The Robotics capability is focussed on autonomous field robotics performing tasks that either humans should not be doing (as we do not do them well), or roles which are dangerous too humans. The final vertical is in wearables, where they have collaborated with Google X as a foundation partner with Glass for Enterprise — the new Google Glass. Daniel is also a Research Fellow with the Perth USAsia centre where he writes on strategy (both national and military). See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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