Director, WORC Project
Michael Hilton Ph.D.                            

Email: michael_hilton@qcmhr.uq.edu.au

Michael leads a research team investigating the prevalence and treated prevalence of mental health problems in the workforce and the clinical an economic benefits with screening and early intervention mental health programs. Current projects aim to quantify the reduction in absenteeism, presenteeism, job churn, Workcover claims and workplace accidents from screening and early intervention; the extent to which the costs of the early intervention programs can be offset by gains in productivity and the extent to which these programs reduce the number of individuals claiming Government assistance payments.

Michael has worked in the field of mental health, employment and economics since 2004. In that time he has engaged over 60 large national employers, representing 420,000 employees in a screening and early intervention program for depression. Prior to his repatriation to Australia he was involved in sleep and circadian rhythm research with a special interest in pulmonary and cardiovascular biorhythms.

Dr Hilton graduated from The University of Queensland in 1988 with a Bachelor of Science (majoring in Physiology). His PhD, awarded by The University of Warwick in the UK in 1999, was on the effect of sleep apnoea on the cardiovascular system. Following this he held a post-doctoral position at the School of Sleep Medicine , Brigham and Women's Hospital / Harvard Medical School , Boston , MA , USA .

Ten representative publications

•  Ryan PJ, Hilton MF , Boldy DAR, Evans A, Bradbury S, Sapiano S, Prowse K, Cayton RM. Validation of the British Thoracic Society guidelines for the diagnosis of the sleep apnoea / hypopnoea syndrome: can polysomnography be avoided? Thorax 1995; 50 :972-975.

•  Hilton MF , Ryan PJ, Beattie JM. Spectral analysis of heart rate variability: The impact of R-wave measurement error. Am J Cardiol 1997;79:844-845.

•  Bates RA, Hilton MF , Godfrey KR, Chappell MJ. Autonomic function assessment using analysis of heart rate variability. Control Eng Practice 1997; 5 :1731-1737.

•  Hilton MF, Bates RA, Godfrey KR, Chappell MJ, Cayton RM. Evaluation of frequency and time-frequency spectral analysis of heart rate variability as a diagnostic marker of the sleep apnoea syndrome. Med Biol Eng Comput 1999;37:760-769.

•  Hilton MF , Chappell MJ, Bartlett WA , Malhotra A, Beattie JM, Cayton RM. The sleep apnoea/hypopnoea syndrome depresses waking vagal tone independent of sympathetic activation. Eur Respir J 2001;17:1258-1266.

•  Tunnicliffe WS, Hilton MF , Harrison RM, Ayres JG. Differences in the effect of sulphur dioxide exposure on indices of heart rate variability in normal and asthmatic adults:- implications for the understanding of the respiratory and cardiovascular effects of air pollutants. Eur Respir J 2001;17:604-608.

•  Hu K, Ivanov PC, Chen Z, Hilton MF , Stanley HE, Shea SA. Non-random fluctuations and multi-scale dynamics regulation of human activity. Physica A 2004; 337(1-2):307-318.

•  Shea SA, Hilton MF , Orlova C, Ayers RT, Mantzoros CS. Independent circadian and sleep/wake regulation of adipokines and glucose in humans. J Clin Endocrinol Metab 2005; 90(5):2537-2544.

•  Hu K, Ivanov PC, Hilton MF , Chen Z, Ayers RT, Stanley HE et al. Endogenous circadian rhythm in an index of cardiac vulnerability independent of changes in behavior. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 2004; 101(52):18223-18227.