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BA (Econ), MSc (Op Res), MSc (Comp Sci), MSc (Health Econ)

Senior Lecturer in health economics
Postgraduate course director (CPH, DPH & Diploma in Health Management)

Contact details

Email william.leung@otago.ac.nz

Research interests and activities

William is the health economist at the Faculty of Medicine – Wellington. He has a been a named health economist co-investigator on over $20m of contestable New Zealand research funding.

Current and past projects have included meta-analyses of the effect of calcium intake on:

and within-trial and decision-analytic cost-effectiveness analyses (as well as cost/burden studies) in areas such as:

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 (Professor Michael Baker), and is part of several international health economics collaborations eg on rheumatic fever, skin cancer, neuro-endocrine tumours, and multiple sclerosis.

Within New Zealand, he is involved with external consultancy work for government agencies. 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.

Teaching and service

William teaches:

  • PUBH 735 The Economics of Health Policy Decision Making
  • PUBH 736 Economic Evaluation (overall convenor)
  • Contributions to the undergraduate medical programme.

In partnership with one of the global Big Four accounting firms, William has offered students (e.g. Dr Grace Spratt) paid internships and placements with them.

University service roles include being the Wellington postgraduate course director for the CPH, DPH, and Diploma in Health Management. He has been Portfolio Lead (Teaching) and acting co-HoD for the Department, and acting Chair of the Public Health Board of Studies in recent years.

His current term as chair of the tri-campus Public Health Academic Committee, which has operational/academic oversight of the taught programmes, runs until 2028.

Student supervision

“Observations, and cost-effectiveness, of sun protection in schools”
Primary supervisor of Ryan Gage's MPH in the Health Promotion and Policy Research Unit. Data from Professor Louise Signal's Kids'Cam project were used. The thesis was published in the following international journals: Health Education & Behavior; Health Promotion International; and Photochemistry & Photobiology.

“The Waikōura Framework: A bicultural systems model for management of Lake Rotorua”
Co-supervisor of Mereana Wilson's extramural MPH in the Health Environment and Infection Research Unit. In collaboration with the Ministry for the Environment, Professor Graeme Doole, and Dr Paul Blaschke, a system dynamics model was designed and built to estimate the impact various freshwater management interventions have on lake health from a Māori and standard scientific perspective. Awarded a distinction-level pass.

“A gaping hole: oral health care for dependent older people”
Anne Russell MPH thesis awarded.

Publications

Noble, J. H., Bean, O., Perry, M., Sayers, R., Cullen, R., Black, B., … Leung, W., … Weatherall, M., Beasley, R. W., on behalf of the INFORM ASTHMA collaborators, including Kerse, K., Lynch, F., Sika-Paotonu, D., & Semprini, R. (2026). Budesonide-formoterol versus terbutaline reliever in adults with asthma using maintenance inhaled corticosteroids in New Zealand (INFORM ASTHMA): An open-label, parallel group, randomised, controlled, phase 4 trial. Lancet Respiratory Medicine, 14(2), 151-162. doi: 10.1016/S2213-2600(25)00327-3 Journal - Research Article

Leung, W., Reddel, H. K., Hung, T., Weatherall, M., Pelzer, I., Holliday, M., Sullivan, T., … Baker, M. G., … Beasley, R., & Hancox, R. J. (2026). Cost-effectiveness of as-needed budesonide-formoterol in adults with mild asthma: The Novel START trial. ERJ Open Research, 12(1), 00949-2025. doi: 10.1183/23120541.00949-2025 Journal - Research Article

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., 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

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