A/Prof Chris Schilling and Cade Schadbolt from the University of Melbourne examine the issue of waste in clinical trials. They provide a brief overview of the history of waste in medical research, and the papers that have shaped the field over the last 30 years. They also present findings from their own investigation into waste in surgical trials, offering evidence of real-world delays and inefficiencies. Finally, they explored the broader implications of these findings by introducing a customised economic model that evaluates the costs of trial inefficiencies. Their goal is to stimulate discussion on practical strategies to improve trial efficiency and reduce waste, ultimately leading to more effective and streamlined research practices.
Speaker Bios:
Associate Professor Chris Schilling is an applied health economist at the Health Economics Unit and the Department of Surgery at the University of Melbourne. Chris has worked in senior positions across academia, government and consultancy. He provides research, supervision and teaching across multiple research programs. He is the lead health economist for the MRFF-funded ARISTOCRAT stem-cell research program, and his research priorities include developing simulation models to evaluate interventions, advancing the evidence base around the economics of palliative care, and reducing low-value care across the Australian health care system. In government, Chris was the Research Director at the Australian Institute of Family Studies, where he led three of Australia’s most prominent longitudinal studies: the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children (LSAC), the Ten to Men study of Australian male health, and Building a New Life in Australia, the Longitudinal Study of Humanitarian Migrants. In consultancy, Chris led a team of health economists providing economic evaluation and modelling to a range of government and industry clients. His work has influenced key public policy debates around obesity, mental health, low-value care and the economics of palliative care.
Cade Shadbolt is a postdoctoral research fellow at the Department of Surgery at The University of Melbourne. In this role, he aims to build the capacity in conducting high quality, efficient clinical trials in patients undergoing surgery. His primary research interests include measuring inefficiency in clinical trials and implementing novel methods to minimise this inefficiency.