Jo Watson (BASoc.Sc, MPH) is the Deputy Chair of the Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee (PBAC), an independent statutory body established to make recommendations and give advice to the Commonwealth Minister for Health and Aged Care about medicines listed on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme.
She is also the Deputy Chair of the MBS Review Advisory Committee (MRAC), an independent non statutory committee, to advise Government on publicly funded services listed on the Medical Benefits Schedule.
She is Chair of the Consumer Consultative Committee, within the Office of Health Technology Assessment in the Commonwealth Department of Health and Aged Care, and is also the Deputy Chair and Director on the Board of the Consumers Health Forum (CHF), the peak national health consumer organisation in Australia.
She has been a community representative and patient advocate in the Australian HIV response since the early nineties, including as the Executive Director of the National Association of People living with HIV Australia (NAPWHA) from 1998 to 2014.
Areas of interest include developing model pathways for patient engagement in health technology assessment, public health issues in infectious disease, and capacity building for patient representatives and advocates at the national level. She has contributed to health policy reform and analysis in the areas of Communicable Diseases, the National Medicines Policy, and PBS programs over the past several decades, including contributions to peer reviewed publications and national and international research projects.