Our People

Paul has worked across the health and community services sector for over 30 years.  His career began with ten years in the South Australian Health Department working across a number of operational areas.  He undertook a number of health planning studies across country regional and community hospitals, quality assurance projects encompassing all country hospitals, was at the forefront of establishing casemix funding for country hospitals in mid-late 1980s.  From 1989 to 1998 Paul developed a consulting career in the health sector working on the staff at KPMG (initially Touche Ross) followed by Price Waterhouse Coopers (initially Coopers & Lybrand).  He was then a founding partner of the Healthcare Management Advisors consulting firm until 2011.  Since 2011 Paul has worked as a contractor with a number of consulting groups across Australia.

Paul is an experienced management consultant and business operator and has undertaken projects across a variety of policy and technical areas in all states/territories specifically as well as those focussed nationally. He has an extensive background in the design, management and operation of large, technically complex projects.  These have included the National Costing and National Service Weights projects, the design of components of the national evaluation for the coordinated care trials, assessment of the anaesthetic relative value scale, benchmarking and profiling of Aboriginal Medical Services and a review of PBS arrangements for aged care providers.

Paul has also undertaken many projects focussed on planning, evaluation and assessment of the operational and financial efficiency across a range of health service settings including the acute, aged care, pharmaceutical, drug and alcohol as well as the community focussed sectors. He has worked with a range of stakeholder groups. Stakeholders vary from project to project but include the full range of clinical and allied health professionals, health service management, health authority personnel and consumers.

Notable consulting assignments include:

• Preparation of a business case for acquisition of a clinical decision support system
• National Mental Health Costing Project
• Review of the sustainability of private hospitals
• Review of Medicare utilisation within OATSIH funded health services
• Analysis of Fee for Service payment arrangements for medical specialists
• Evaluation of the National Integrated Diabetes Program
• Evaluation of the National Diabetes Improvement Program
• Evaluation of the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme Quality Enhancement Program
• Needs assessment for a Melbourne metropolitan Medicare Local
• Analysis of aged care demographics for assessing home-based care in country NSW
• Assessment of ambulance response times in Victoria

Dr Samantha Battams  has over 23 years’ experience in the health and community service sectors, in strategic planning, project and program management, community development, research and consultancy, governing boards and tertiary education. She has completed consultancy and research assignments in Australia and Switzerland, for state and national governments and NGOs and research for the World Health Organization.

Samantha is connected to the academic sector as Adjunct Associate Professor (Torrens University). Prior to commencing with HOI, Samantha was Associate Professor and inaugural Public Health Program Director at Torrens University (2014-2016). She also established the inaugural Massive Open Online Course: Global Health, An Interdisciplinary Overview as Course Director at the University of Geneva (2013). She worked as Research/Visiting Fellow on the Global Health Europe Platform, Global Health Programme, The Graduate Institute, Geneva (2011-2013). Samantha has had a longstanding connection with Flinders University’s Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences (2003-present): from 2003-2010 she was Project Manager, Lecturer and Research Fellow (Discipline of Public Health; Southgate Institute for Health, Society and Equity; and, National Centre for Education and Training on Addiction) and currently has academic status as Associate Professor (Southgate Institute).

Samantha spent 5 years as Panel Assessor on the District Court of South Australia, hearing appeals under the Mental Health and Guardianship Acts (Governor appointed). She was also a community member on the Occupational Therapy Board of SA (Governor appointed) and on University Council (Flinders University), Academic Council (Torrens University) and the policy sub-committee of the Carers Association of SA.

Prior to entering academia, Samantha worked in program management, strategic planning community development and direct service provision in the health and community service sectors (1993-2003). This included 7 years with general practice organisations including the start-up phase of Divisions of General Practice, and roles in health service integration (hospital-general practice service agreements, shared mental health care, outcomes based funding), community liaison, research and grant development. Samantha has previously undertaken consultancy work on health system governance, NCD strategy, drug and alcohol research, primary health care models, health promotion for people with disabilities, mental health promotion and family carer policy.

Samantha is an experienced researcher, consultant and project manager in the areas of health policy and governance, social determinants of health, mental health, alcohol and other drugs, carers, health service integration and community partnerships in policy development and services. She also has considerable experience in tertiary education, curriculum development strategic planning, needs assessments and project development, implementation and evaluation.

Samantha is a member of the Public Health Association of Australia and Associate Editor of the international journal BMC International Health and Human Rights.