47th Annual AHES Conference

The Australian Health Economics Society (AHES) looks forward to welcoming you to the 47th Annual AHES conference on the 22nd  and 23rd of September 2026, to be held at the Hobart Convention and Exhibition Centre, Grand Chancellor Hotel, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia.

Keynote Speakers

Professor Michael Pervan

Professor Michael Pervan C.F. was appointed as CEO of the Australian Independent Health and Aged Care Pricing Authority (IHACPA) on 1 February 2023. Prior to this, Michael has been Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Communities Tasmania where for nearly a decade he was responsible for the delivery and reform of health, housing and care services. Michael is a Churchill Fellow and in addition to his roles in Tasmania has held senior health roles in Western Australia and at the national level including as Chair of the Australian Health Ministers Advisory Council. In addition to his IHACPA role, Michael is currently the Co-Chair of the Commonwealth Leadership Institute Board and leads the Australian chapter of the Institute.

Associate Professor Lesong Conteh

Lesong Conteh is a health economist working on infectious disease and diagnostics markets across Africa. Over 25 years, her research has helped inform global policy, including the WHO Global Technical Strategy for Malaria and the economic case for investing in two malaria interventions later endorsed by WHO.

She is Associate Research Professor at the London School of Economics and Political Science and Visiting Professor at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine. Her work spans economic evaluation, health financing, infectious diseases, and diagnostics markets, asking a consistent set of questions: how do we deliver interventions in a sustainable and equitable way, and where do the costs and benefits actually fall?

She leads a Wellcome Trust-funded programme on the economics of diagnostic markets across Africa and co-chairs the Independent Scientific Advisory Group for the NIHR Global Health Research Programme, a principal funder of global health research for the UK government. She has worked closely with leading scholars and policymakers across Africa and beyond to translate evidence into real-world change.

In this keynote, she argues that robust economic and health systems evidence is the bridge between local realities, national policy change, and global guidance, and will explore what it actually takes to generate evidence that makes an impact.

Updates on Sponsors coming soon