Rate My Professor Deborah Schofield

Distinguished Professor Deborah Schofield serves as Professor and Chair of Health Economics and inaugural Director of GenIMPACT: Centre for Economic Impacts of Genomic Medicine at Macquarie University Business School. She commenced her career as a speech pathologist, running a paediatric clinic focused on children with developmental disorders and disabilities. Over two decades, she worked as an economist before spending a decade in senior government roles at The Treasury, Department of Health and Ageing, and Department of Family and Community Services. At Macquarie University, Schofield has pioneered applications of microsimulation modelling to health, developing a research program on the productivity impacts of illness. She has established herself as one of a handful of international leaders in the emerging field of economics of genomic medicine, with research interests encompassing health economics, genomics, genetics, microsimulation, economic evaluation, and policy analysis.

Schofield's influential work examines the costs and benefits of genomic medicine, productivity losses from chronic diseases, and economic evaluations of health interventions. Key publications include 'The burden of mitochondrial disease: healthcare and societal costs' (Value Health, 2025, with Katherine Lim et al.); 'Health-related quality of life in patients with mitochondrial disease and their carers' (J Med Genet, 2025, with Joshua Kraindler et al.); 'Cost-effectiveness of population-based expanded reproductive carrier screening for genetic diseases in Australia: a microsimulation analysis' (Eur J Hum Genet, 2025, with Evelyn Lee et al.); 'Economic impact of informal caring for a person with arthritis in Australia from 2015 to 2030: a microsimulation approach using national survey data' (BMJ Open, 2024, with Katherine Lim et al.); and 'The Healthcare and Societal Costs of Familial Intellectual Disability' (Int J Environ Res Public Health, 2024, with Rupendra Shrestha et al.). Her contributions have earned the title of Macquarie University Distinguished Professor, an award for Research Excellence - Future-Shaping Research Priorities for Prosperous Economies in November 2019, and finalist status for the Jim Piper Award for Excellence in Research Leadership in November 2023.