Miranda Batten

I am a policy maker, pharmacist and researcher with over 15 years of experience in health service, regulatory, research, advocacy, consulting and policy roles. I have a particular interest in using evidence-based research alongside the voices of consumers and clinicians to pragmatically improve health policy and practice.

I have served as a Board member on the University of Canberra Council, and my PhD research at the University of Canberra focused on evaluating components of an on-site pharmacist intervention in Australian residential aged care facilities. I have presented my research at both Australian and international conferences, published peer-reviewed papers, and was honoured to be an invited keynote speaker at the inaugural Australian Pharmacists in Aged Care Stakeholder Symposium.

I currently serve as the ACT practitioner member on the Pharmacy Board of Australia and provide expert health service policy advice to support Voluntary Assisted Dying implementation in the ACT.

My experience places me in a unique position to explore how international Voluntary Assisted Dying approaches work in practice from multiple stakeholder perspectives. This work will help inform Australia’s ongoing debate and consideration around whether people who have lost decision-making capacity should be able to access voluntary assisted dying.

This Fellowship will enable me to explore how Voluntary Assisted Dying is approached in countries such as the Netherlands, Belgium, Spain, and Canada for people who have lost decision-making capacity. By gaining real-world insights from these international models, I hope to bring timely, practical, and informed perspectives back to Australia—helping support more nuanced debate and future policy discussions on this complex and important issue.