In 1995, Banks was appointed as an epidemiologist at the Cancer Epidemiology Unit, Imperial Cancer Research Fund, University of Oxford. She was a founding member of the team that created the Million Women Study, a large-scale prospective study of UK women born between 1935 and 1950.[8] From 2001 to 2002 she was the scientific secretary to the Protocol Development Committee for UK Biobank, during which time she wrote the protocol for a cohort study of 500,000 men and women to study gene-environment interaction. She was deputy director of the Cancer Research UK Epidemiology Unit, University of Oxford from 2001 to 2003.
Beral and Banks' 2003 publication on MHT and breast cancer in the Million Women Study[9] was the most frequently cited paper on breast cancer worldwide in 2003–2005 and led to immediate changes in MHT prescribing policy and practice. This is likely to have contributed to the observed concurrent reductions in breast cancer incidence in many countries. In Australia alone, an estimated 600–800 fewer women are now diagnosed with breast cancer annually, attributable to more judicious use of menopausal hormone therapy.[7]
In 2003, Banks returned to Australia. She was a founding member of the team that created the 45 and Up Study, Australia's largest ongoing study of health and ageing, with over 250,000 NSW participants.[10] She was scientific director of the 45 and Up Study from 2003 to 2018.[11]
At the same time, Banks took up an appointment at the National Centre for Epidemiology and Population Health, being first a Senior Fellow (2003–2007) then Associate Professor (2008–2009). Banks was appointed a Professor of Epidemiology in 2010 and heads the Centre for Public Health Data and Policy at the Australian National University.
Banks' 2006 World Health Organization paper on female genital mutilation (FGM) and obstetric outcome[12] yielded the first reliable findings on the subject and resulted in a landmark cover publication in the Lancet in June 2006.[13] The paper was cited in the UN-WHO Interagency Statement on the Elimination of Female Genital Mutilation.[14] Its findings are widely acknowledged as providing the key research evidence underpinning advocacy against female genital mutilation and influenced the UN Resolution on FGM.[15] Banks' work in this area was acknowledged by the Australian Health Minister and shadow Health Minister in a speech to Federal Parliament on 6 February 2013.[16]
Her 2015 paper on smoking and mortality, which showed that up to two-thirds of Australian smokers will die from their habit, resulted in extensive public, research and policy discourse on smoking-related harms.[17][18] The new evidence was used extensively by policy agencies, to guide policy, tobacco control and disease prevention efforts, including use by: commonwealth and state/territory health departments in their tobacco control strategies; Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet, in the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Performance Framework 2014 Report; and the Australian Institute for Health and Welfare report on tobacco indicators. The paper is now routinely used by governments, non-government organisations (NGOs), health professionals and tobacco control advocates as part of their day-to-day work, and in education of health professionals. The research has been used to support legislative change, including being cited in the Explanatory Memorandum to the Excise Tariff Amendment (Tobacco) Bill 2016 and the Customs Tariff Amendment (Tobacco) Bill 2016.[19] The research was used for advocacy and to guide cancer and cardiovascular disease prevention efforts for NGOs such as the Cancer Council and Heart Foundation and has been described by the Cancer Council Australia as "one of the most impactful studies published in Australia in relation to our work in health messaging, public policy and community engagement ... (It) is the highest impact paper in tobacco control in Australia for at least the last decade."
More recently, Banks has been leading the public health assessment of the effects of electronic cigarettes for the Australian Department of Health, which has also provided evidence underpinning the forthcoming NHMRC CEO'S statement and clinical guidance on the use of e-cigarettes for smoking cessation from the RACGP.
She currently chairs the NHMRC Health Research Impact Committee[5] and is a member of the NHMRC Council.[6]
