Benjamin Cowie

Research Overview

Our multidisciplinary team collectively supports the work of the World Health Organisation and national partners in eliminating viral hepatitis as a public health concern in coming years and improving the lives of people living with viral hepatitis. Through sustained efforts, partnerships, and innovative approaches we believe this goal is within our grasp. Our group forms the epidemiology and public health team within the WHO Collaborating Centre for Viral Hepatitis at the Doherty Institute.

Internationally, we are active in public health policy development and assist the WHO in implementing the Global Health Sector Strategy on Viral Hepatitis. We collaborate with a range of partners including community organisations, research institutes, and other government and civil society bodies to achieve progress towards the elimination of viral hepatitis in Australia and globally.

Nationally we undertake epidemiological and public health research in viral hepatitis for the Commonwealth and Victorian Governments, and a range of other competitive and philanthropic funding bodies. The team are recognized internationally as leading public health researchers in viral hepatitis.

Further details are available at https://www.doherty.edu.au/viralhepatitis

Staff

  • Mielle Abbott – Linkage to Care Coordinator, LINC-B
  • Dr Nicole Allard – Post-Doctoral Fellow, Medical Epidemiologist
  • Tepy Hoeung – System Navigator, LINC-B
  • Jennifer MacLachlan – Senior Epidemiologist
  • Roisin McColl – Activity Administrator
  • Dr Anh Nguyen – Infectious Diseases Modeller
  • Nicole Romero – Epidemiologist and Program Manager
  • Amelia Savage – Program Manager
  • Lien Tran – PhD Scholar, Epidemiologist

Funding

  • Doherty Institute Viral Hepatitis Surveillance Program: The National Viral Hepatitis Mapping Project, and Surveillance for Hepatitis B Indicators - supported by a $1.28 million grant (4-E0C0196), Australian Government Department of Health and Aged Care, 2023-2026
  • Linking to hepatitis care through linking existing data for Victorians living with viral hepatitis: The LINK-2-HepCare Project - supported by $330,000 in funding (GA-F4561788-3860) from the Victorian Medical Research Acceleration Fund, the Royal Melbourne Hospital Foundation, and the WHO Collaborating Centre for Viral Hepatitis, 2023-2025
  • Linkage to Information and Care for people notified with hepatitis B – the LINC-B Pilot Project - supported by a $249,125 grant (Grant ID: 1439), Victorian Government Department of Health, 2023-2024
  • Eliminating hepatitis B in remote Indigenous settings: generating health economic evidence - supported by a $750,737 Ideas Grant (2012285) (Dr Barbara de Graaff, CIA), National Health and Medical Research Council, 2022-2025
  • Doherty Institute Viral Hepatitis Surveillance Program: The National Viral Hepatitis Mapping Project, and Surveillance for Hepatitis B Indicators - supported by a $1.66 million grant (4-E0CQDHO), Australian Government Department of Health, 2020-2023
  • Development of a molecular point-of-care test for hepatitis C to increase uptake of curative antiviral treatment - supported by a $781,352 Development Grant (2000162) (A/Prof Jack Richards, CIA), National Health and Medical Research Council, 2021-2023
  • Information for Action: Developing an Operational Guide to assist countries in collecting monitoring and evaluation indicators for viral hepatitis - supported by a $USD225,000 grant, The Hepatitis Fund/EndHep2030, 2020-2023
  • Coordinated Hepatitis responses to Enhance the Cascade of Care by optimising existing Surveillance systems: CHECCS - supported by a $182,930 grant, EC Australia, 2020-2022
  • A partnership approach to preventing liver cancer: tackling viral hepatitis in primary care - supported by a $1.6 million Victorian Cancer Agency (ICOUGI18010) Improving Cancer Outcomes for Upper Gastrointestinal Cancers Collaborative Research Grant, 2019-2024

Research Publications

  • Deng HMA, Romero N, Allard N, Rowe SL, Yussf N, Cowie BC. Uptake of perinatal immunoprophylaxis for infants born to women with a record of Hepatitis B in Victoria (2009-2017). Vaccine 2023; 41 (10): 1726-1734
  • Mnatzaganian G, MacLachlan J, Allard N, Brown C, Rowe S, Cowie BC. Missed opportunities for diagnosis of hepatitis B and C in individuals diagnosed with decompensated cirrhosis or hepatocellular carcinoma. Journal of Gastroenterology and Hepatology 2023; 38 (6): 976-983
  • Sheena BS, Hiebert L, Han H, …, Cowie BC, …, MacLachlan JM, et al. Global, regional, and national burden of hepatitis B, 1990-2019: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2019. The Lancet Gastroenterology and Hepatology 2022
  • Allard N, Tran L, Yussf N, MacLachlan JH, Cowie BC. Time for universal hepatitis B screening for Australian adults. Medical Journal of Australia 2021; 215 (3): 103-105.e1
  • McCulloch K, Romero N, MacLachlan J, Allard N, Cowie B. Modeling progress towards elimination of hepatitis B in Australia. Hepatology 2020; 71 (4): 1170-1181
  • Thevarajan I, Buising KI, Cowie BC. Clinical presentation and management of COVID-19. Medical Journal of Australia 2020; 213 (3): 134-139
  • Razavi-Shearer D, Gamkrelidze I, Ngyuen MH, …, Cowie BC, et al. Global prevalence, treatment, and prevention of hepatitis B virus infection in 2016: a modelling study. The Lancet Gastroenterology & Hepatology 2018; 3 (6): 383-403

A comprehensive list of our team’s publications can be found at: https://www.doherty.edu.au/viralhepatitis/publications-hepi

Research Projects

For project inquiries, contact our research group head.


Faculty Research Themes

Infection and Immunology


Key Contact

For further information about this research, please contact Professor Benjamin Cowie

Department / Centre

Infectious Diseases

Unit / Centre

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