David Preen

Professor David Preen is the Chair in Public Health at the School of Population Health, The University of Western Australia (UWA). He was the Director of the UWA Centre for Health Services Research from 2006-2015 and holds honorary positions at the University of South Australia and the College of Medicine, Swansea University (UK). He has been involved with conducting health services research using population-based linked data, for almost 15 years to study areas including: i) cancer service delivery, ii) pharmaco-epidemiology, iii) chronic disease management, iv) morbidity of marginalised populations, and v) methodological advances using medical record linkage.

Professor Preen has been awarded over 50 competitive research grants as a chief investigator totalling $30.9 million and has published over 150 scientific articles, most of which have used whole-population linked administrative health data, He has been awarded prizes at national and international level for his work, including the Peter Reizenstein Prize from the International Journal of Quality in Health Care, the Editor’s Choice Award from the Medical Journal of Australia, and prizes from multiple conferences.

Due to his expertise in linked data, Prof Preen has been a member of >20 State and national committees such as: i) Data Linkage Australia Advisory Board; ii) Scientific Committee Chair for the inaugural International Data Linkage Conference; iii) National Youth Cancer Services Research Advisory Committee, iv) Cancer Council of Western Australia Research Committee, v) NPS MedicineInsight Data Governance Committee, and the vi) Australian Health Review Editorial Advisory Committee. He has been involved with teaching linked data analysis courses for the last 10 years, being responsible for coordination of the UWA linked data training curriculum since 2012.

Chair in Public Health

Deputy Head of School (January 2015 – July 2016)
School of Population Health, The University of Western Australia (UWA)


Director; Centre for Health Services Research (December 2006 – May 2016)
School of Population Health, The University of Western Australia

Research Associate/Fellow (January 2002 – December 2006)
Centre for Health Services Research
School of Population Health, UWA

Clinical Research Co-ordinator (July 2001 – December 2002)
General Practice Divisions of Western Australia Ltd (GPDWA)

Lecturer (Part-time; January 2000 – July 2001)
School of Health & Physical Education
University of Notre Dame (Australia)

Curriculum Development Officer (Part-time; January 1999 – December 1999)
School of Health Sciences
Curtin University of Technology

Cardiovascular Physiologist (Part-time; January 1996 – January 1998)
LifeCare Medical Centre (Challenge Stadium, Perth WA)

Professor Preen's primary research interests include: i) pharmaco-epidemiology, ii) cancer services delivery, iii) reproductive health, iv) health of disadvantaged populations (such as criminal offenders), and iv) methodological advances using data linkage.