Professor Michael Kidd AO has been appointed as the inaugural Director of the new UNSW Centre for Future Health Systems, following more than three years as Australia’s Deputy Chief Medical Officer.
Scientia Professor Vlado Perkovic, Dean of UNSW Medicine & Health and Acting Provost – Faculties, has announced Professor Michael Kidd AO as the inaugural director of the new Centre for Future Health Systems, which is being established to promote sustainable, equitable, and person-centred health care for all people in Australia.
As part of the role, and through a partnership with The University of Oxford, he will also be appointed as Professor of Global Primary Care and Future Health Systems at that University.
Prof. Kidd joins UNSW from the Australian Government Department of Health and Aged Care, where he has served since February 2020 as Deputy Chief Medical Officer and Principal Medical Advisor, with involvement in the development and implementation of the nation’s primary care response to COVID-19, the rapid implementation of telehealth to the whole population, and many other initiatives. Before returning to Australia at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, he was based in Canada where he was the Director of the World Health Organization Collaborating Centre on Family Medicine and Primary Care, Chair of the Department of Family and Community Medicine at the University of Toronto, and Senior Innovation Fellow with Canada’s Institute for Health System Solutions and Virtual Care.
As a researcher, educator and medical leader in health systems, with a strong focus on primary care, Prof. Kidd will bring enormous experience to this role.
Prof. Kidd’s new role has been established with support from The Ian Potter Foundation and is focused on developing, testing and implementing innovative approaches to future health care delivery. The UNSW Centre for Future Health Systems will leverage existing expertise and build new capacity to further UNSW health systems research and improve contributions to health policy and advocacy.
“Thanks to the generosity of The Ian Potter Foundation, we can now ramp up our efforts to ensure equitable access to affordable, quality healthcare for all Australians,” Prof. Vlado Perkovic said. “As a researcher, educator and medical leader in health systems, with a strong focus on primary care, Prof. Kidd will bring enormous experience to this role. I look forward to working with him as we strive to modernise the Australian healthcare system.”
Prof. Kidd said he was honoured to be appointed as the foundation Director of the Centre for Future Health Systems, which will be located in the new UNSW Health Translation Hub based in the Randwick Health & Innovation Precinct.
“The Australian healthcare system faces many challenges, including the need for more equitable access to quality care,” said Prof. Michael Kidd. “Through innovative research and teaching, and engagement with researchers from across the University, the new Centre will play a critical role in achieving our shared goal of improving health for all Australians. In our partnership with the University of Oxford, we will also address regional and global challenges that intersect with health, such as climate change and artificial intelligence."
Through innovative research and teaching, and engagement with researchers from across the University, the new Centre will play a critical role in achieving our shared goal of improving health for all Australians.
A long serving consultant with the World Health Organization, and a past president of both the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners, and the World Organization of Family Doctors, Prof. Kidd is an internationally recognised expert in primary health care. He has over 35 years’ experience working as a general practitioner in urban, rural and remote practice in Australia and overseas, with special interests in the care of people with HIV, mental health and Indigenous health. He has held several past senior academic roles including as foundation Professor of Primary Care Reform at the Australian National University, Dean of the Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences at Flinders University, and Professor and Head of the Department of General Practice at the University of Sydney.
A graduate of the University of Melbourne Medical School, he completed postgraduate training in general practice with the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners, postgraduate training in public health at Flinders University, and he has a research doctorate from Monash University. He is an elected Fellow of the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences, and has research expertise in global primary care, digital health, health care safety and quality, the primary care management of COVID-19, HIV and sexually transmissible infections, and the translation of research into health policy.
In the recent King’s Birthday Honours List, Prof. Kidd was made an Officer of the Order of Australia.
Prof. Kidd will start in his new role on 17 July 2023.
