Zanfina Ademi Delaney

Dr. Zanfina Ademi is a Professor of Health Economics and she leads the Health Economics and Policy Evaluation Research (HEPER) Group, Faculty of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Monash University. Her research vision is to improve health and reduce inequities in society by using high-quality epidemiological and health economic evidence for decision-making. Professor Zanfina Ademi is internationally recognised for leading a decade-long program of research quantifying the health and productivity burden of disease at the population level. This includes the development and application of the Productivity Index (PI), the Productivity-Adjusted Life Year (PALY), and Productivity-Adjusted Life Expectancy (PALE), together with systematic and methodological work advancing these measures across a range of conditions. She is now leading the international expansion of this research program across Asia and Europe, including work in Indonesia, China and Malaysia, and collaborations with colleagues in Finland and Germany. Her broader research spans the health economics of prevention, population genomic screening and disease management, with the aim of informing population-level decision-making. Her program of work also includes epidemiological modelling, such as Mendelian Randomisation in Health Economics, to overcome challenges in long-term prevention studies, and the novel Primary Prevention of Cardiovascular Disease Health Economic (HEM-PPCVD) model, developed with her team to guide interventions for individuals at risk of heart attack and stroke. She specialises in Health Technology Assessments (HTAs), economic evaluations alongside clinical trials and registries, and decision health economic modelling, and has led funded research projects in Australia, Finland, and Switzerland that provided evidence on effectiveness, cost-effectiveness, and return on investment, enabling key decision-makers globally to enact effective healthcare funding. Her research has impacted policy decision-making processes and attacted $45 million in funding (category 1 NHMRC and MRFF). She has authored >260 peer-reviewed publications, including in the top-ranking journals European Heart Journal, BMJ, New England Journal of Medicine, Lancet, JAMA Cardiology, JAMA Pediatrics, JAMA Network Open, Stroke, Diabetes Care, Hypertension, Value in Health, and PharmacoEconomics. Currently, she serves in a number of reputable national and international committees with translational impact, such as the Economics Sub-Committee (ESC) of Australia's Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee (PBAC), where she provides expert advice on the cost-effectiveness of treatments seeking reimbursement on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS); and the Lp(a) International Task Force, where she leads a health economics initiative to drive global efforts in addressing the economic impact of cardiovascular health. Previously at the University of Basel, Switzerland (2014–2018), she oversaw the health economic domain of the national health technology assessment (HTA) programme, directly impacting policy-relevant decision-making processes in cooperation with the Swiss Medical Board (SMB). Her global standing in the field has seen her invited to present her work on disease prevention at numerous international conferences and at the European Parliament. She is passionate about teaching and coordinates several units across Monash about Evidence-Based Medicine and Health Economics. Economic Evaluation, Epidemiology, Health Service Research, Cardiovascular Research, Chronic Disease modelling, Neuroscience, Healthy Living, Quality Of Life, Productivity, Outcomes Research, Health Technology Assessments, Cost Effectiveness, Budget Impact Analysis, Cost of Illness, Prediction Analysis, Clinical Trials, Clinical registries, Mendelian Randomization analyses

[2026] Current and Future Cost Burden of Myocardial Infarction in Australia: Dynamic Multistate Markov Model [2026] Future temperature-related labour loss due to premature deaths: a multi-country study [2026] How can we reduce the cost of OSCEs? A cost-minimization and test accuracy study [2026] Reply to Shankar regarding ‘Antenatal lifestyle interventions to reduce gestational weight gain: Where should we start and how much will it cost?’ [2026] Standardization of measurement and reporting of medication adherence using the TEN-SPIDERS tool for claims data