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Contact Details

Phone
+64 4 918 4617
Email
william.leung@otago.ac.nz

University Links

Position
Senior Lecturer
Department
Department of Public Health (Wellington)
Qualifications
MSc (Op Res), MSc (Comp Sci), MSc (Health Econ)
Research summary
Health Economics

Research

William is the University of Otago, Wellington School of Medicine’s health economist. Recent projects have included meta-analyses of the effect of calcium intake on fracture and bone mineral density (with Distinguished Professor Ian Reid), and within-trial and decision-analytic cost-effectiveness analyses in areas such as CVD, diabetes, mental health, oncology, physical activity, respiratory disease, smoking cessation, and sun safety. He is leading the economic component of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention-funded Southern Hemisphere Influenza and Vaccine Effectiveness Research and Surveillance (SHIVERS) multi-agency project, and is part of several international health economics collaborations eg Single Pill to Avert Cardiovascular Events, multiple sclerosis, and neuro-endocrine tumours.

Within New Zealand, he is involved with external consultancy work for government agencies, often with health economist colleagues in Dunedin campus. For example, The Royal Society of New Zealand’s 2017 evidence update of antimicrobial resistance, and peer reviewing, for the Social Policy Evaluation and Research Unit (Families Commission), PwC’s economic evaluation of the Prime Minister’s $64m Youth Mental Health Project.

Before training as a health economist at the University of York, he was an operational research analyst (working with Professor Val Belton, Dr. Mark Elder and others) in the British National Health Service applying discrete-event simulation and other tools to modelling cancer treatment pathways.

Publications

Gordon, L. G., Leung, W., Johns, R., McNoe, B., Lindsay, D., Merollini, K. M. D., … Whiteman, D. C. (2022). Estimated healthcare costs of melanoma and keratinocyte skin cancers in Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand in 2021. International Journal of Environmental Research & Public Health, 19, 3178. doi: 10.3390/ijerph19063178 Journal - Research Article

Leung, W., Roberts, V., Gordon, L. G., Bullen, C., McRobbie, H., Prapavessis, H., … Maddison, R. (2017). Economic evaluation of an exercise-counselling intervention to enhance smoking cessation outcomes: The Fit2Quit trial. Tobacco Induced Diseases, 15, 21. doi: 10.1186/s12971-017-0126-y Journal - Research Article

Leung, W., Kvizhinadze, G., Nair, N., & Blakely, T. (2016). Adjuvant trastuzumab in HER2-positive early breast cancer by age and hormone receptor status: A cost-utility analysis. PLoS Medicine, 13(8), e1002067. doi: 10.1371/journal.pmed.1002067 Journal - Research Article

Bolland, M. J., Leung, W., Tai, V., Bastin, S., Gamble, G. D., Grey, A., & Reid, I. R. (2015). Calcium intake and risk of fracture: Systematic review. BMJ, 351, h4580. doi: 10.1136/bmj.h4580 Journal - Research Article

Tai, V., Leung, W., Grey, A., Reid, I. R., & Bolland, M. J. (2015). Calcium intake and bone mineral density: Systematic review and meta-analysis. BMJ, 351, h4183. doi: 10.1136/bmj.h4183 Journal - Research Article

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