Anne Mills will speak about primary healthcare and the private sector in low- and middle-income Countries, drawing from her wide-ranging expertise and careful empirical evaluation of health policies in a range of countries in Asia, Africa, and other parts of the developing world. Linking themes of good health at low cost and equitable paths toward universal coverage, Professor Mills will argue how policymakers might best strengthen healthcare systems in the Asia-Pacific region, including the opportunities for health and efficiency improvements and the opportunity costs of continuing hospital-centric delivery systems. Professor Mill embodies a distinctive ability to combine broad thinking on the role of primary care with specific examples of how to harness the private sector toward public health objectives, an inter-linked theme the Asia Health Policy Program’s colloquium series and policy research. 

Dame Anne Mills DCMG, CBE, FRS  Vice Director and Professor of Health Economics and Policy at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. In 2014 she became a Fellow of the Royal Society and was made a Dame in the 2015 New Year's Honors. Her main research interests are: (1) issues concerned with the financing and organization of health care in low and middle income countries, including the impact on demand, utilization, equity and efficiency, and the private health sector; (2) the economics of tropical disease control; and (3) how to encourage the use of economic thinking and analysis in decision making. Professor Mills has been active in making economic evaluation techniques accessible to a non-specialist audience, as well as initiatives to build capacity in health economics. She chaired the Board of the Alliance for Health Policy and Systems Research, based in WHO; was a member of the Commission on Macroeconomics and Health; and co-chaired Working Group 1 of the High Level Taskforce on Innovative International Financing for Health Systems.  Dr. Mills was President of the International Health Economics Association for 2012-13, and is currently a Board member of Health Systems Global.