Meet the 2024 Winner: Lisa Higgins, PhD, MPH, PT
Dr. Lisa Higgins is an NHMRC Emerging Leader Fellow and Lead of the Health Economics Program for the Australian and New Zealand Intensive Care Research Centre at Monash University, Australia. Her research focuses on the cost-effectiveness of critical care interventions and the long-term outcomes if critical care. She is an honorary Senior Research Fellow at the George Institute for Global Health, a member of the Australasian Clinical Trials Alliance (ACTA) Health Economics Alongside Trials (HEAT) Group, and a member of Research Australia's Health Economics Working Group. She has qualifications in physiotherapy, public health, biostatistics, and health economics.
Lisa has been a key member of the REMAP CAP adaptive platform trial since its inception 10 years ago, is a member of the International Trial Steering Committee and leads the global health economics working group. As a Chief Investigator, she is currently leading the economic evaluations of >15 NHMRC or MRFF funded trials in trauma, sepsis, oxygen therapy, transfusion, ECMO and early rehabilitation research. Lisa also leads the Health Economics Stream for the Blood Synergy (2020-2024), funded by the top ranked NHMRC Synergy grant for 2019 on which she was a chief investigator.
Description
This award recognizes a junior faculty with their primary appointment outside of the United States or Canada with exemplary achievements in a scientific area of interest to the Assembly and who demonstrates clear promise for a future of sustained productivity. Nominees from low-middle income countries are encouraged, and nominators should describe the environment of the nominee. The awardee will be honored at the CC Assembly gathering at the ATS International Conference. There is a small monetary award for this recognition (note: this will not cover expenses of travel to the meeting).
Criteria
Candidate should be:
- An active clinician or investigator in critical care medicine within ~10 years of completion of training (i.e., fellowship or terminal doctoral degree, whichever was completed/awarded latest). The bulk of the awardee’s research should have been performed outside the United States or Canada.
- A CCA member (primary or secondary).
- Contributions to the CC Assembly in the form of committee participation or leadership, promoting CCA diversity, and/or otherwise advancing the CCA’s mission will be viewed favorably.
The nomination package must include a nomination letter touching on all four scoring metrics (see below scoring rubric) from one or more members of ATS describing why the award is merited. Nominators should note in their letter any extenuating circumstances affecting the nominee. The curriculum vitae from the candidate must also be included with the nomination packet. Unawarded nominations from prior years do not carry over and should be resubmitted; previous awardees are not eligible for the same award.
Example Nomination Letters
Bronwen Connolly, PhD, MSc, BSc(Hons), 2023 Awardee
Emma J Ridley, 2022 Awardee
Scoring Rubric
Applicants are scored on 4 criteria using a 1-5 rating system (with 1 being the best) across the below categories. In the event that none of the nominees in a given category receive an average score ≤3, the Planning Committee may choose to defer granting an award in that category that year. If the Planning Committee does not receive any eligible nominations in a given category (e.g., CCA member, active clinician/investigator for roughly the stated time frame), the Committee may choose to nominate an individual, who must be unanimously approved by all members in order to receive the award.
- Scientific Contributions/Products (which may include: research articles, data, reagents, software, and intellectual property)
- Teaching/Mentoring/Educational/Advocacy Contributions
- Participation in Assembly and ATS Activities (administrative, committees, workshops etc.)
- Overall impact/impression of dossier submitted for award application