Deborah Schofield is an Australian academic in the Macquarie Business School,

Macquarie University Macquarie University ( ) is a public research university based in Sydney, Australia, in the suburb of Macquarie Park. Founded in 1964 by the New South Wales Government, it was the third university to be established in the metropolitan area of S ...

where she is the director of the Centre for Economic Impacts of Genomic Medicine (GenIMPACT)

Background

Schofield was born in 1965 in

Wahroonga Wahroonga is a suburb in the North Shore (Sydney)#Upper North Shore, Upper North Shore of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia, 18 kilometres north-west of the Sydney central business district, in the Local government in Australia ...

, Sydney. She has worked for the

Australian Government The Australian Government, also known as the Commonwealth Government, is the national government of Australia, a federal parliamentary constitutional monarchy. Like other Westminster-style systems of government, the Australian Government i ...

, in academia and clinical practice and studied health

microsimulation Microsimulation (from microanalytic simulation or microscopic simulation) is a category of computerized analytical tools that perform highly detailed analysis of activities such as highway traffic flowing through an intersection, financial transact ...

modelling at National Centre for Social and Economic Modelling. Prior to joining Macquarie University and the

University of Sydney The University of Sydney (USYD), also known as Sydney University, or informally Sydney Uni, is a public research university located in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in Australia and is one of the country's si ...

, Schofield worked for a decade in senior governmental roles where she led the development of major new policies.

Education

Schofield began her career with a Bachelor of

Speech Therapy Speech is a human vocal communication using language. Each language uses phonetic combinations of vowel and consonant sounds that form the sound of its words (that is, all English words sound different from all French words, even if they are th ...

from the

University of Queensland , mottoeng = By means of knowledge and hard work , established = , endowment = A$224.3 million , budget = A$2.1 billion , type = Public research university , chancellor = Peter Varghese , vice_chancellor = Deborah Terry , city = B ...

in 1986, which she followed up with Graduate Diploma in Computing Science from the

University of Canberra The University of Canberra (UC) is a public research university with its main campus located in Bruce, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory. The campus is within walking distance of Westfield Belconnen, and from Canberra's Civic Centre. UC ...

in 1993. She received a PhD in applied microsimulation modelling in 1999, also from the University of Canberra.

Research

Schofield's research includes assessments of the

productivity Productivity is the efficiency of production of goods or services expressed by some measure. Measurements of productivity are often expressed as a ratio of an aggregate output to a single input or an aggregate input used in a production proces ...

impacts of illness. She currently leads a research program at Macquarie University on the relationship between health and

social policy Social policy is a plan or action of government or institutional agencies which aim to improve or reform society. Some professionals and universities consider social policy a subset of public policy, while other practitioners characterize soci ...

. The applications of

Schofield and colleagues pioneered helps to ensure health care funding is sustainable and labour force participation is maximised. This assists governments providing the information needed by policymakers who impact health, the labour market, income and taxation policy. The purpose of Schofield's research is to ensure that the health and aged care systems meet the demands of an ageing population. It uses data drawn from her own work, other studies and publicly available datasets in areas as diverse as IQ deficits caused by anaemia in pregnancy, poverty and

mental illness A mental disorder, also referred to as a mental illness or psychiatric disorder, is a behavioral or mental pattern that causes significant distress or impairment of personal functioning. Such features may be persistent, relapsing and remitti ...

,Schofield D, Kelly S, Shrestha, R, Callander E, Percival R, Passey M (2011) Quantifying the effect of early retirement on the wealth of individuals with depression or other mental illness. British Journal of Psychiatry 198:123-128.

genetic testing Genetic testing, also known as DNA testing, is used to identify changes in DNA sequence or chromosome structure. Genetic testing can also include measuring the results of genetic changes, such as RNA analysis as an output of gene expression, or ...

for highly disabling childhood genetic disorders,

chronic pain Chronic pain is classified as pain that lasts longer than three to six months. In medicine, the distinction between Acute (medicine), acute and Chronic condition, chronic pain is sometimes determined by the amount of time since onset. Two commonly ...

Schofield D, Kelly S, Shrestha R, Callander E, Passey M, Percival R (2012) The Impact of Back Problems on Retirement Wealth Pain 153(1):203-10. and

whole genome sequencing Whole genome sequencing (WGS), also known as full genome sequencing, complete genome sequencing, or entire genome sequencing, is the process of determining the entirety, or nearly the entirety, of the DNA sequence of an organism's genome at a s ...

References

External links

GenIMPACT
{{DEFAULTSORT:Schofield, Deborah 1965 births Living people University of Canberra alumni University of Queensland alumni Academic staff of the University of Sydney Australian women academics Academic staff of Macquarie University Australian women economists Health economists Australian economists