Professor Lisa Askie joined WHO at its Geneva Headquarters in 2020 as Scientist and Methods Lead within the Quality Assurance Norms and Standards Dept, in the Science Division. Her role is to support WHO to innovate and adopt best practice methods and standards, thereby ensuring the evidence underpinning its global guidance is trusted and timely, so it has maximal impact in countries.
Prior to her WHO appointment Prof Askie led a large team at the NHMRC Clinical Trials Centre, University of Sydney, which managed the Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry, undertook Health Technology Assessments for the Australian Government, hosted two Cochrane entities (Breast Cancer Review Group, Prospective Meta-analysis Methods Group) and oversaw an extensive medical test evaluation research program.
Lisa’s clinical background is in perinatology and she has worked as a neonatal nurse and midwife in healthcare systems in Asia, Australia, UK and USA. She undertook her postdoctoral fellowship at the UK Cochrane Centre in Oxford. Prof Askie has a long-standing interest in the methodology of clinical trials, systematic reviews and other forms of evidence synthesis, especially regarding increasing research transparency and reducing research waste. She has published over 150 scientific papers, has been a member of various academic advisory boards, and is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences and the Higher Education Academy.