Shehzad Ali, PhD
Associate Professor
P: 519.661.2111 X80573
F: 519.661.3766
E: shehzad.ali@uwo.ca
Dr. Shehzad Ali is Canada Research Chair in Public Health Economics at the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry. He is also cross-appointed with the Western Centre for Public Health and Family Medicine. Dr. Ali is also Visiting Associate Professor of Health Economics and Health Services Research at University of York (UK), Heidelberg University (Germany) and Macquarie University (Australia). He holds a PhD in Social Policy (Health Economics, University of York), MSc in Medical Statistics (University of Leicester), Masters in Public Health (University of Leeds) and Bachelors in Medicine and Surgery (Dow University of Health Sciences).
With several grants funded in the UK (National Institute of Health Research, NIHR), USA (Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, AHRQ) and Australia (National Health and Medical Research Council, NHMRC), Dr. Ali has led research in the areas of public health economics, health services research and health technology assessment. He has published research in leading journals in the fields of Medicine (e.g. the Lancet); Health Economics (e.g. Health Economics; Medical Decision Making); Health Policy and Health Services Research (e.g. Health Policy and Planning; Social Science & Medicine); and Applied Public Health (e.g. Obesity; Addiction). He is also an Associate Editor of the British Journal of Psychiatry.
Dr. Ali’s research focuses on the following five areas: (1) Health services performance evaluation in terms of efficiency and equity of access, utilization and patient outcomes using patient-level linked administrative data (“big data”) and population surveys; (2) Economic evaluation for health technology assessment and evidence-based decision-making, both in developed and developing countries; (3) Evaluation of small and large-scale interventions/policies delivered at patient, provider or population-level, using observational and randomized evidence; (4) Developing statistical algorithms for predicting patient outcomes in clinical practice; and (5) Elicitation of value judgments and treatment preferences to inform resource allocation decisions.
Dr. Ali’s has held a number of leadership positions, including Health Economics Lead at the Canadian Agency for Drugs and Technologies in Health (CADTH) and Lead Health Economist in the Mental Health Research Group at University of York, UK. He was also the Dean of Derwent College at University of York until 2012. Dr. Ali has provided leadership on a number of projects funded by the Department for International Development (DfID, UK), German Corporation for International Cooperation (GIZ), UNICEF and Save the Children. Also, as National Program Manager with the Aga Khan Development Network, he led a multidisciplinary team in Central Asia on projects funded by the World Bank and United Nations.
With a strong track record of scholar-practitioner partnerships, Dr. Ali’s research has focused on policy-relevant questions. Examples of research with direct impact on practice include: (a) Health Equity Performance Indicators which were adopted by NHS England to monitor and reduce potentially avoidable inequalities; and (b) Empirical evidence to inform the largest evidence-based patient case management information system (PCMIS) in England which has been used by >12,000 psychotherapists for 2 million referrals.
Dr. Ali has designed and delivered research-led teaching as part of the Master of Public Health, MSc in Applied Health Research, MSc in Health Economics and BA and MA in Social Policy programs in the UK and internationally. Specific courses include health economics, decision modelling, health care financing, health care organization and statistics. He supervises research fellows as well as MSc and PhD students.
Appointments
- Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics
- Department of Anesthesia & Perioperative Medicine
- Schulich Interfaculty Program in Public Health
Research Cluster Membership
- Biostatistics
- Chronic Disease & Mulitimorbidity
- Global Health
- Marginalised Populations & Social Determinants of Health
- Mental Health & Addictions
- Epidemiological Observational Studies
- Evidence Synthesis & Health Technology Assessment
- Health Economics
- Health Services Research
- Program & Policy Evaluation
Research Interests
- Monitoring equity and efficiency of health systems using administrative data
- Health policy analysis using observational data
- Economic evaluation for health technology assessment
- Developing predictive algorithms for patient outcomes
- Elicitation of value judgments and treatment preferences to inform resource allocation
