Professor David Preen is the Chair in Public Health at the School of Population and Global Health, The University of Western Australia (UWA). He was the Director of the UWA Centre for Health Services Research from 2006-2016 and holds an honorary academic appointment at the Swansea University (UK). Prof Preen has an established international reputation in the application of epidemiological methods to linked data research and has been involved with conducting public health and health services research using whole-population linked administrative health data for over 20 years to study areas including: i) social determinants of health, ii) health of marginalised populations, iii) health service use and outcomes, iv) pharmaco-epidemiology, v) chronic disease management, and v) methodological advances using data linkage. 

Professor Preen has been awarded over 85 competitive research grants as a chief investigator totalling $69.2 million and has published over 390 scientific works, 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 2024 President’s Award from the Public Health Association of Australia,  Peter Reizenstein Prize from the International Journal of Quality in Health Care for the best paper published by that journal, Top cited article 2021-2022 from the Australasian Journal of Ageing, Editor’s Choice Award from the Medical Journal of Australia and the Editor’s Clinical Highlights Award from the Journal of Rheumatology and the UWA Vice-Chancellor's Senior Research Award Special Commendation. Prof Preen has also received prizes from multiple national and international conferences.

Due to his expertise in linked data research, Prof Preen has been a member >20 national/international committees such as:  Data Linkage Australia Advisory Board;  Sax Institute Board;  NHMRC Research Committee;  NHMRC Australian Health Ethics Committee;  Chair - Cancer Council of Western Australia Research Grants Advisory Committee; Chair - Brightwater Care Group Research Governance Committee; Chair - Precision Public Health Asia advisory committee; ALIVE National Centre for Mental Health Executive Committee; Scientific Committee Chair - 2012 and 2020  International Population Data Linkage Conference; NPS MedicineInsight Data Governance Committee, and the Australian Health Review Advisory Committee.  He has been an associate editor or editorial board member for multiple international journals including the International Journal of Population Data Science, Frontiers in Public Health Journal and BMC Health Services Research Journal. He has been involved with teaching public health and linked data analysis courses for the last 15 years, being responsible for coordination of the UWA linked data training curriculum since 2012.

Chair in Public Health

School of Population Health, The University of Western Australia (UWA)

Deputy Head of School - Research (January 2021 – September 2023)
School of Population Health, The University of Western Australia (UWA)

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)