More than $300,000 of funding has been invested in this program of work, which will involve researchers travelling to Canada, the United Kingdom, The Netherlands and the United States to share research results. These countries are common comparator countries for Australia in general practice and primary health care research.
The travelling scholarships give researchers who were involved in an earlier program of work which examined mental health, chronic illness and multidisciplinary teams to take their work to an international audience, says APHCRI Director Professor Nicholas Glasgow.
“The work being done in Australia is of tremendous interest to overseas audiences, and of course our research benefits from this global input,” Professor Glasgow said. “The scholarships give researchers starting out in their primary health care careers an opportunity to learn more and make useful international contacts with established research centres and academics.
“Primary health care research is an important and developing discipline in health care research. It’s vital that we give new researchers in this area an opportunity to develop their careers,” he said.
The successful applicants are:
- Dr Sarah Dennis, University of New South Wales: Will expand on work led by Professor Nicholas Zwar last year which looked at chronic disease management. She will travel to universities in the United Kingdom;
- Julie McDonald, University of New South Wales: Will travel to Canada to continue research on comprehensive primary health care models from Stream Four of APHCRI research;
- Dr Elizabeth McDonald, Menzies School of Health Research: Will participate in the Professor Ross Bailie led project examining growth faltering in remote indigenous communities, and spend time at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and the World Health Organization;
- Dr Lydia Hearn and Margaret Miller, Edith Cowan University: Will look at childhood obesity and travel to the United Kingdom, Canada and the United States will develop the research further;
- Gawaine Powell Davies, University of New South Wales: Will travel to The Netherlands, a good comparator country for Australia in this area, to examine coordination of care within primary health care and secondary care;
- Lucio Naccarella, University of Melbourne: Will examine levers to influence medicine and outcomes for patients in Australia will travel London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine;
- Professor John Wakerman and Professor John Humphreys, Flinders University: Will compare health concerns in remote Australia issues with a Canadian research team also dealing with remote populations; and
- Professor Helen Christensen and Associate Professor Kathleen Griffiths, ANU: Will travel to the UK and the Netherlands to continue research examining the use of Internet tools for the management of anxiety and depression.