RESEARCH DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM, PHCRED
UNIVERSITY DEPARTMENT OF RURAL HEALTH, UNIVERSITY OF TASMANIA
Theresa Doherty
PHCRED Statewide Coordinator
P: 03 62264803
E: bdoherty@utas.edu.au
Emily Shepherd
E: emily.shepherd@utas.edu.au
Emily has a bachelor of health science degree from the University of Tasmania and a background in health promotion. Her research project is investigating how the print media produces and reproduces constructions of older adults and physical activity. The project may lead on to a further study around how such constructions act as enablers or barriers to older people and participation in physical activity. At this stage Emily is collecting data using Tasmanian newspapers and five magazines from 2007, 1997 and 1986. Her main focus is on the 2007 data but she will use the earlier years as a comparison. The next phase is commencing data analysis using NVivo.
Helen Zournazis
E: helen.zournazis@utas.edu.au
Helen Zournazis, has a background in nursing and an interest in primary health care, completing a Masters in Primary Health in 2002. Since taking up her position as an RDP, she has identified a project which aims to explore the engagement and maintenance of social relationships of adolescents and young adults with intellectual disability living in rural environments; and the benefits to their health and well being from a parent carer's perspective. This proposed project will be recruiting participants from rural northern Tasmania , outside the greater Launceston area and within the ‘63' telephone directory. At present, this project has just received ethics approval and Helen is in the process of recruiting participants.
PHCRED TASMANIA
MENZIES RESEARCH INSTITUTE
Danielle Williams
PHCRED Program Coordinator
P: 03 6226 4769
E: Danielle.williams@utas.edu.au
 Research Clinics
As part of PHCRED Tasmania's annual workshop program we have visited the North West coast of Tasmania, traditionally quite an isolated area for practitioners wanting to engage in research and professional development activities. Over the past year PHCRED has worked to build a relationship with key stakeholders who have supported us in developing relationships with practitioners in the North West.
Thanks especially to Maree Gleeson, a research champion and Research Fellow within the Faculty of Health Science located at the Rural Clinical School in Burnie. PHCRED has been able to make significant inroads into establishing and developing relationships with a community of practitioners hungry to increase and expand their research capacity. Maree has established a research group, Health Research Matters, which acts both as a forum to showcase and support local researchers.
Following on from the initial success of our inaugural Research Clinic in November 2007, more clinics were included in the 2008 workshop program. The Research Clinic was developed in order to provide practitioners with the opportunity to discuss individual research problems with a PHCRED academic. The clinic appointments were aimed at individuals who needed assistance with framing a research question, designing a research methodology, writing up their research or who may have just had a primary health research interest but didn't know where to start.
The clinic was run over two days, with individual 60-minute consultations available. Over the duration of the clinic, practitioners from seven different disciplines gained assistance and insight into their individual project proposals, with issues ranging from how to conduct rigorous data analysis, developing more effective literature review strategies, and writing a research proposal.
PHCRED Tasmania has been thrilled with the response to the clinic, and the subsequent interest it has generated in this burgeoning research community. We plan to return later this year.
PHCRED Program Coordinators
Danielle Williams, Menzies Research Institute, University of Tasmania
Dr Peter Orpin, University Department of Rural Health, University of Tasmania
Theresa Doherty, State-wide Coordinator
GENERAL PRACTICE
UNIVERSITY OF WESTERN AUSTRALIA
Caroline Bulsara
Coordinator PHCRED
P: 08 9449 5166
E: caroline.bulsara@uwa.edu.au
The Primary Health Care Research, Evaluation and Development program at the University of Western Australia has been very busy in recent months in fostering new researchers within the Research Development Program bursary and fellowship schemes. This year we have had a diverse range of researchers.
Our fellowship holders are Dr Mike Civil who has begun collaborative work with Professor Jon Emery on the effectiveness of a range of intervention strategies in the prevention of cardiovascular disease. Dr Greg Glazov is our second fellowship recipient and is completing his research in the area of laser acupuncture and chronic lower back pain.
 Our bursary holders are novice researchers in the areas of enriching primary health care research by fostering collaboration between health professionals and their communities (Nancy Pierce, consumer representative), the utility of troponin testing in primary care (Dr Helen Wilcox) and communication between general practitioners and state health departments in an emergency setting (Dr Nick McLernon). All bursary holders are novice researchers and we look forward to mentoring all the award recipients over the coming year with an exciting diversity of projects and research methodologies.
DEPARTMENT OF GENERAL PRACTICE
 MONASH UNIVERSITY
Christopher Anderson
PHCRED Coordinator
P: 03 8575 2248
E: Christopher.Anderson@med.monash.edu.au
I would like to introduce our 2008 PHCRED Fellows:
Jill Kelly has worked in Divisions of General Practice for 11 years and currently is the Primary Health Integration Manager at Melbourne East General Practice Network. Her other portfolio includes developing the research capacity of the Network through building working relationships with tertiary institutions. Her research interests are at the organisational level, and she is using her PHCRED fellowship to review the readiness of Victorian Divisions of General Practice to undertake clinical data management (using Information Management tools) for National reporting to the Commonwealth.
Jade Bloom is a registered psychologist and completed her Masters in Psychology (Counselling) from Monash University in 2004. She currently works at Jewish Care's Active Living Centre as a counsellor and Healthy Ageing Program assessor. Her research project will explore determinants of the use of ethno specific health and community services by Holocaust survivors and their family caregivers.
Annette Dupont graduated from Curtin University with a Masters in International Health in 2007, completing a systematic review on culturally appropriate mental health care for refugees and asylum seekers. Her PHCRED project this year is exploring barriers and strategies to increase immunisation coverage among new arrivals. An experienced teacher and vocational trainer, she has worked in development projects overseas, and has interests in practitioner education and training, cultural competency and the health of CALD communities.
Dr Raymond Chan graduated at Melbourne University in 1984 and has been a GP since 1990 with a special interest in drugs and alcohol. He currently works part time at both Greater Dandenong Community Health Services at Springvale, and at Dandenong Hospital/MMC-Clayton at the Addiction Medicine Unit. His research project is investigating the alcohol withdrawal scale as an assessment tool for patients who stop drinking.
DEPARTMENT OF RURAL AND INDIGENEOUS HEALTH
MONASH UNIVERSITY
Jowey Lim
PHCRED Coordinator
P: 0422 545 488
E: jowey.lim@med.monash.edu.au
Primary health care researchers build bridges
Primary health care research fellows from across Victoria recently met in Moe to discuss the issues and implications facing rural and Indigenous health. The excursion held at Monash University's Department of Rural and Indigenous Health (MUDRIH) gave students attached to the Primary Health Care Research, Evaluation and Development (PHCRED) strategy the chance to also share and discuss their primary health care research. PHCRED research fellows and academics from MUDRIH, Monash University 's Department of General Practice (DGP) and Melbourne University 's DGP were involved in the day long excursion.
This was the first excursion held at MUDRIH and it was a perfect chance for the fellows to network, share research experiences, expertise and knowledge in relation to primary health care. It was also a good opportunity for the fellows from Melbourne to look at our department and its people to understand the rural issues faced here in regards to primary health care.
The excursion featured MUDRIH Indigenous Health Unit lecturer, Hilton Gruis who spoke to the students about the issues and implications challenging rural and indigenous health research.
“This excursion is also beneficial for our fellows who will build up positive relationships from this and also support each other with their research when needed,” coordinator Chris Anderson said.
“The most interesting aspect from this is learning about the issues of rural and indigenous health and while we look at multicultural aspects in Melbourne , this is different to many of the primary health care issues faced in rural areas such as the Latrobe Valley .”
DEPARTMENT OF GENERAL PRACTICE
 THE UNIVERSITY OF MELBOURNE
Melinda Soós
Practice-Based Research Network Coordinator
P: 03 8344 3392
E: msoos@unimelb.edu.au
What do women think of chlamydia screening in general practice?
For many years, Australian healthcare practitioners have considered introducing a chlamydia screening program. Since scant information exists regarding how acceptable the screening program would be to young women and how it would practically be implemented through general practice, researcher Dr Natasha Pavlin conducted interviews from November 2005 to February 2006 with 24 young women living in rural, regional and urban Victoria recruited through general practice to explore their views about the introduction of chlamydia screening in general practice. The results were published the BioMed Central open access journal Infectious Diseases on 9 May 2008. Interest in what women think was so great that within six weeks of the article's publication, the journal received 1405 hits.
Natasha Pavlin is a rural general practitioner in Natimuk in western Victoria. She undertook the research with a team of two other doctors, a sociologist and an epidemiologist because sexual health and rural medicine are areas of interest important to her. Prior to this, when an academic registrar at the University of Melbourne, she was offered a role in a project funded by the Department of Human Services Victoria to examine the implementation of chlamydia screening to Victoria in 2005.
The results showed that women would prefer chlamydia screening to be based on age rather than a flag indicating increased sexual risk, which would help to normalise and de-stigmatize screening. The women indicated they do not want to provide details of their sexual history in order to undertake a chlamydia test with their general practitioner. Dr Pavlin hopes that these results will influence policy on chlamydia screening and plans to explore the area further in future.
Reference
Pavlin NL, Parker R, Fairley CK, Gunn JM and Hocking J (2008). Take the sex out of STI screening! Views of young women on implementing chlamydia screening in general practice . BMC Infectious Diseases 8:62.
UNIVERSITY DEPARTMENT OF RURAL HEALTH NORTHERN NSW
 THE UNIVERSITY OF NEWCASTLE
Karyn Blackman
RCBI funded primary health care researcher
P: 02 6767 8465
E: Karyn.Blackman@hnehealth.nsw.gov.au
Fit and Free – Evaluation of a rural falls prevention program
In Australia, falls are the leading cause of injury related deaths amongst the elderly. Tamworth-based physiotherapist, Karyn Blackman, is currently completing research examining whether a balance training exercise program significantly reduces falls risk factors in elderly people living in rural areas. Fit and Free is a randomised control trial undertaken in the Hunter New England region of NSW with 147 elderly community dwelling participants recruited through primary health care settings.
Participants were randomly allocated to either intervention (n=74) or usual care control (n=73) groups. Intervention subjects received 13 weekly exercise classes delivered in five rural hospitals by Area Health Service physiotherapists and volunteers, and also performed a weekly home exercise program for 12 months. The exercise program was purpose designed for safely challenging balance in everyday activities.
Primary outcome measures were the Physiological Profile Assessment (PPA) and Berg Balance Scale with assessments conducted at baseline and following a 13-week time period. Results showed a significant reduction in falls risk factors as measured by the PPA (p=0.012) and a significant improvement in Berg Balance score (p=0.043) following the exercise intervention.
To date, research into falls prevention has primarily been metropolitan based. The implementation of this program took into account issues associated with rural health care provision, such as distance and access. The results reinforce the need for rural-based programs which prevent injury in older age with exercise looking like an effective means of achieving this. This research is supported by Research Capacity Building Initiative (RCBI) funding.
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