Ep 4: Ann Single

Ann Single

Patient Voice Initiative

Improving the patient voice in the Australian health system

In this episode, RCA Chief Executive Richard Vines speaks to Ann Single about:

• The limitations of Australia’s Health Technology Assessment (HTA) process
• How and why the HTA process needs to be framed from a patient perspective
• Australia’s perception of ‘value’ as it applies to health versus other areas like defense
• The need to embrace uncertainty and speed up patient access to cancer treatments
• Why she finds HTA fascinating and why she’s optimistic about the HTA Review
• What she’s learned from 20 years of working with patients
• Improving the patient voice in the Australian health system
• Why she moved from journalism to science communication

Listen to the episode as a podcast

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More about Ann Single

Ann is Coordinator of the Patient Voice Initiative, an association that works towards improving the patient voice in the Australian health system. She has more than 20 years of experience in developing policy and practice in patient involvement in health technology assessment, or HTA. Ann is Chair of the HTAi Interest Group for Patient and Citizen Involvement in HTA and has been selected as a consumer representative on the Australian Government’s HTA review.

More about Richard Vines

Richard is the co-Founder and Chief Executive of Rare Cancers Australia. He is Convener and Co-chair of the National Oncology Alliance, and Deputy Chair of Omico. Richard also serves as an associate investigator on several research projects and is a spokesperson for cancer patient advocacy issues in both Australia and the Asia Pacific region.