Associate Professor Rachel Milte

Dr Rachel Milte

Caring Futures Institute - Health and Social Care Economics Enabling Theme / Quality Aged Care Area of Focus

Position Title: Matthew Flinders Senior Research Fellow

Research Biography

With training in health, research methodology and economics, Dr Milte has a growing national and emerging international reputation in innovative health services research. She has proven experience in undertaking high quality economic evaluations along-side clinical trials, and analysis of health care expenditure in the context of the Australian health system.

Awarded her PhD in 2014, Dr Milte has since been awarded over $6.6 million in research as Chief Investigator. Dr Milte regularly undertakes economic evaluations alongside clinical trials, and is currently leading the economic evaluation component of 10 NHMRC/MRFF-funded clinical trials. Dr Milte has extensive experience in use of Health-Related Quality of Life (HRQoL) measures in clinical trials. She is part of the team which developed the Quality of Life-Aged Care (QOL-ACC) measure (https://www.qol-acc.org/). 

Research Impact

Dr Milte specialises in undertaking economic evaluations alongside clinical trials for vulnerable groups, including people living with severe mental illness, dementia, living with a disability, and disadvantaged children. Her work as the health economist evaluating the cost effectiveness of small-dementia specific care homes published in the Medical Journal of Australia has been used as evidence for the recommendation by the Aged Care Royal Commission to expand use of these models in the sector.

In 2020 she was part of the team commissioned by the Royal Commission to investigate the quality of care and funding of Australia’s aged care system. This work was referred to extensively in the Royal Commission Final Report in recommendations around financing aged care, and defining high-quality care for the system.

Research Interests

•      Aged care
•      Health economics
•      Quality of life