Professor Susannah Ahern (MBBS (Hons), MBA, FRACMA, PhD)

Professor Ahern is a medical administrator and academic in health services research and management at Monash University. As the Head, Clinical Outcomes data Reporting and Research Program at Monash University, she is the Monash Academic Lead for six national clinical quality registries including in dementia, cystic fibrosis, breast devices, spine surgery and pelvic floor procedures. Her areas of research interest include registry governance, secondary use of clinical registry data, registry data reporting and benchmarking, and clinical and consumer engagement with registries. Professor Ahern’s registry policy and methodology-focused papers aim to inform national debate and discussion. Topics have included clinician-level reporting from registries; patient-reported outcome measures in registries; developing a national strategy for registries; integration of clinical registry outputs with health service clinical governance frameworks; a review of qualified privilege and its role in registries and national audits; and leveraging clinical registries to undertake clinical trials. These papers have informed and been cited in Victorian and national health department and agency reviews.

Professor Ahern currently manages research projects worth over $4m per annum from various funding sources. She engages with medical and surgical Colleges and specialists, jurisdictional and Commonwealth governments, the drug and device industry, not for profits and consumer groups and fora. She has published over 60 peer-reviewed journals, twenty-five technical registry reports, and one book chapter. Professor Ahern is a reviewer for numerous journals including the Internal Medical Journal, BMC Health Services Research, ERJ Open Research, Journal of Cystic Fibrosis, BMJ Leader, BMC Medical Research Methodology, and the Journal of Patient Reported Outcomes.

Professor Ahern is currently a member of a number of national and state-based committees regarding clinical quality registries, including the Clinical Principal Committee (CPC) Clinical Quality Registries (CQR) Expert Advisory Group (EAG) and the Breast Implant Expert Working Group of the Australian Government Department of Health; the Clinical Quality Registries Framework Review Advisory Group, of the Australian Commission of Safety and Quality in Healthcare; and the CQR Working Group, Victorian Agency for Health Innovation, of the Victorian Department of Health and Human Services. She is co-Chair of the Australian Clinical Trial Alliance Registry Special Interest Group, and a member of the International Collaboration of Breast Registry Activities (ICOBRA) and the Cystic Fibrosis Registries International Data Harmonization Working Group.

Professor Ahern presents regularly as an invited speaker at national meetings in relation to clinical registries and related research including in 2021, the national Rare Voices Australia Annual Summit, the Cystic Fibrosis Australia Annual Conference, and the Health Technology Assessment Consumer Consultative Committee Symposium. In 2022 she has been an invited speaker to the National Incontinence Conference, the national REDCaP conference regarding use of REDCaP in clinical registries and is presenting at the Australian Patient Advocacy Alliance Summit in Canberra regarding health data. She initiated and has hosted National Clinical Registries meetings in Australia since 2018, including the 2022 meeting to be held Adelaide in November 2022.

Professor Ahern was for 5 years until 2022 the Director for Monash Masters courses in Health Management. She has co-authored and lectures in the Masters units of Clinical Leadership and Management, and Managing Digital Health. In Professor Ahern’s 6 years in academia, she has become a recognised national expert in clinical registries, evident by her ongoing funding success, research output, and Committee and conference invitations. Her work has informed state and national registry policy and practice and since the recent release of the National Clinical Registry strategy, is work of increasing national significance.