The following research leaders were recently awarded Senior Research Fellowships under the PHCRED Strategy and are profiled in this issue.
A further eight experienced researchers were awarded Research Fellowships and five project grants were awarded to Deakin University (2), Flinders University, La Trobe University and the University of Sydney. We will be profiling Dr John Furler, Dr Lynn Kemp, Dr Marie Pirotta, Dr Jonathon Adams, Dr Melina Gattellari, Dr Emily Hansen, Dr William Kuipers and Dr Judith Taylor in the next issue.
Profiles
 Dr Grant Blashki
Dr Grant Blashki (MD MBBS FRACGP) is a Senior Research Fellow in the Primary Care Research Unit, Department of General Practice, The University of Melbourne, and Honorary Senior Lecturer at the Institute of Psychiatry, Kings College London. During his fellowship he is working on Primary Care Pathways to Psychological Care, a rapidly evolving and complex area of policy reform in Australia.
During the first year of the fellowship he will be distilling the evidence from four mental health research projects that he is involved with, with the aim of providing relevant and informative feedback to health practitioners and policy makers about different models of providing psychological treatments in primary care.
Dr Grant Blashki explains that, “This fellowship has really given me an opportunity to take a long term approach to developing a program of research in primary mental health care, rather than relying on short term research projects.”
“This means that I have been able to provide support to other researchers in our department such as supervising their higher degree work and assisting new researchers.”
“In terms of research training, I'm developing my skills at the Primary Care Research Unit at the University of Melbourne where my fellowship is based. There is a strong commitment to research capacity building, with a fulltime research training coordinator now on staff, a steady stream of international visitors, and a critical mass of excellent of primary care researchers.”
“Making sure that our research results are effectively disseminated and communicated to policy makers and practitioners is a strong focus of PHCRED strategy, and is a priority for this fellowship. I find this aspect of primary care research very satisfying, as in my view, the whole point of this type of research is to make a real difference to the way in which health care is delivered to the community. In particular, recent changes in the delivery of psychological care in Australia present an excellent opportunity to undertake research that can genuinely assist policy makers and health practitioners.”
Mark Harris
 Over the past 10 years, with colleagues at the Centre for Primary Health Care and Equity at UNSW, I have developed an innovative program of research on the prevention and management of chronic disease in primary health care. This has included trials of team work in general practice and linkages between it an other services to improve care for people with CVD and diabetes; quality of care and equity of access to comprehensive primary health care for people with diabetes based on survey and register data; absolute CVD risk assessment in patients; pilot studies of SNAP intervention through Divisions of General Practice, behavioural risk factor management in community health services and prevention of diabetes in a Division of General practice. More recently we have begun an evaluation of the impact of the 45 year old health check on GP processes of care and patient behaviour and the prevention of vascular disease based on a health check in patients aged 45 to 69 years in general practice.
Our current and previous work suggests that the Chronic Disease model may apply not only to the care of patients with existing chronic conditions but those at risk of these conditions. Because risk needs to be identified by screening and the size of the ‘at risk' group is usually much larger than those with chronic conditions, issues of capacity are even more important. Our qualitative research suggests that elements of the chronic illness model may apply with some modification to take into account a population focus. However this needs to be tested. This has great policy relevance at present with the ABHI initiatives to encourage preventive care. I am also interested in exploring interventions to address equity of access to preventive care and the “inverse care law” in disadvantaged populations.
The Fellowship will provide me with the ability to focus my time on this research work allowing me to provide more active leadership of this team and to develop collaborations with other institutions internationally especially in the UK, Canada and the USA.
Geoff Mitchell
 My research Fellowship will be spent exploring all aspects of palliative care from a primary care perspective. My interest in palliative care dates back to 1987, when I became involved in the development of a palliative care service, and ultimately a GP based hospice, in Ipswich. In parallel to this opportunity was a desire to be as competent a GP as possible. For that to occur in areas like palliative care (and others – obstetrics, plastic surgery, medicine, psychiatry), meant having or creating the opportunities to practice the skill, knowing where to seek support, and a willingness to actually do the work. It has occurred to me that these three things are essential to maintain and expand a skill base. The first two are afforded by the system; the third is a personal choice. I decided that, where I could, would provide opportunities for GPs (including me!) to develop and practice skills that are easily lost because the problems look too hard. Palliative care was an obvious starting point.
Hence my research agenda has been spent finding means of supporting GPs so they can learn and increase their skills in palliative care and other difficult clinical problems. My PhD investigated using case conferences as a means of engaging GPs into the palliative care team. Future work in this direction includes investigating improvements in discharge planning in palliative care, working with the Palliative Care Knowledge Network project (Flinders University), and with a team that has developed and is rolling out a generic undergraduate curriculum in palliative care (based at QUT). I am currently engaged in a project that looks at how health practitioners address spiritual issues in palliative care- an area of need and one which most GPs find very uncomfortable. Future work with colleagues may include the problem of palliative care in dementia, and how to meet the needs of the primary caregivers of palliative care patients.
I have instituted an international group working on research in this area, which meets annually. They will be meeting in Australia this year at the Pallative Care Australia conference in Melbourne in August.
I will be doing work increasing the knowledge base in a range of areas. I was fortunate to work in a department that had expertise in clinical trials. We have developed and applied n-of-1 trials in a range of conditions, and will soon expand this work into palliative care. Other work on symptom management in palliative care has centred on non-drug therapies, particularly in relation to nausea and vomiting.
I am also interested in the practice management of chronic and complex conditions in general practice. To this end I will continue working with a group of GPs who have all independently instituted team based approaches to a range of conditions, but have had little research experience. This group has already published three papers between them individually, and now as a group is looking at collaborative research activity.
Finally, earlier work along the same lines in the area of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder has led to an opportunity to work on a committee writing NHMRC sponsored clinical guidelines for this disorder.
Prof Nigel Stocks
 I will use the next four years to expand my current collaborative research program in cardiovascular and respiratory health. Cardiovascular disease is a major cause of morbidity and mortality in the world. Although the major risk factors are known and advances in treatment have led to lower mortality after ischemic events, the primary and secondary prevention of heart disease can be improved. My proposed research will enhance our ability to provide preventive care opportunities for those at high and moderate risk of IHD. Secondly in collaboration with members of the Primary Care Respiratory Research Unit in our Discipline I hope to contribute to a better understanding of disease processes in COPD and the management of acute respiratory illness in general practice. The Fellowship will give me the opportunity to visit and collaborate with our ‘sister' units in Aberdeen and the Netherlands. It will also allow me an opportunity to enhance our Unit by developing a network of practices with an interest in primary care respiratory research.
Supporting early researchers through educational activities, workshops, conferences, bursaries and fellowships will be an important element of my Fellowship. I will continue to supervise higher degree candidates and we hope that a recently established honours program in the DGP will increase the pool of potential PhD candidates. We have already been successful in attracting excellent international postgraduate students, including the highest ranked University of Adelaide candidate in 2006 and I will foster such international links in the future.
Finally I have already seen how research findings can result in partial changes in practice (reduction in the use of antibiotics for acute bronchitis) and how policy does not always reflect clinical practice (the use of statins to lower cholesterol). I will use my Fellowship to undertake research that will inform both policy and practice. I will continue to use the traditional dissemination methods of publication and conferences but add appropriate activities to enhance the impact of our research findings, drawing upon my media and advocacy experience to lead effective change at government, industry, consumer and professional levels.
|
print version
email this page
