Public Health Seminar Series

The School of Population Health Seminar Series offers an opportunity for staff, students and others with an interest in public health research to learn more about the research and related activity of the School. Seminars are held most Wednesdays between 12pm and 1pm and are available online through Microsoft Teams. If you would like more information about the Seminar Series, or if you have suggestions regarding speakers and or topics (including your own) please contact Professor Robyn Richmond. Upcoming seminars may be found at Events.

Watch seminar videos

COVID-19 and Smoking – Prevention, outcomes and care

Presenter - A/Prof Freddy Sitas, Director Centre for Primary Health Care and Equity, SPHCM UNSW; A/Prof Menzies Centre for Health Policy, School of Public Health, University of Sydney; Burden of Disease Research Unit, MRC South Africa

In a rapidly evolving field, A/Prof Freddy Sitas summarises what we currently know about COVID-19 and smoking, what we can infer from analogy and from common sense. He then discusses working hypotheses moving forward and actionable suggestions on messaging for prevention, clinical risks and post hospital care. <Download flyer> (Presented: 27 May, 2020)

Greener Cities and Healthier Lives

Presenter - Associate Professor Xiaoqi Feng, NHMRC Career Development Fellow UNSW School of Public Health and Community Medicine, Adjunct Professor National Institute of Environmental Health China CDC

A/Prof Feng’s talk summarises a recent reconceptualization of the domain pathways that link urban green space and health to which she contributed as a member of an international team. She outlines some of her key findings in studies of green space quantity, quality and type using Australian data, before going on to suggest potential avenues for new research projects and interdisciplinary collaborations. <Download flyer> (Presented: 20 May, 2020)

COVID-19: Looking into the crystal ball and anticipating what might come next

Panel Experts: Dr Abrar Ahmad Chughtai, A/Prof David Heslop, Telphia Joseph, Prof Mary-Louise McLaws, Dr Holly Seale, A/Prof James Wood, SPHCM

Has physical distancing worked? Will a vaccine come any time soon? Will life ever return to what it used to be? Since the identification of COVID-19 in December 2019, life as we knew it has changed dramatically. Join the School as their infectious disease intelligence expert panel answer these questions and stare into the crystal ball to understand what may be ahead. (Presented: 8 May, 2020)

My Health Record: harmonised data quality assessment across the data lifecycle

Professor Teng Liaw, UNSW WHO Collaborating Centre on eHealth

Balancing privacy and security with the FAIR Guiding Principles requires a culture of reciprocity, transparency and interoperability as well as good documentation at point of care, good data management, good data governance and good reporting. This presentation describes how the framework was developed. <Download flyer> (Presented: 12 February, 2020)

Transformations in public health: looking back, moving forward

Keynote speakers - Emeritus Prof Simon Chapman, AO,School of Public Health, University of Sydney & Emeritus Prof Peter Baume, AC, UNSW

Public health has had major successes, but the terrain in which we work is changing rapidly. Will familiar approaches and tools serve us well as we move forward? Or do new challenges demand that we rethink and reskill to tackle population health inequities locally, nationally and globally? This event brings together leading public health practitioners and researchers to fuel our thinking about public health training and research going forward. <Download program> (Presented: 4 November 2019)

Adult literacy: a social determinant of Aboriginal health and wellbeing

A/Prof Toni Schofield, Honorary Scholar and former member of staff at the Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Sydney

In Australia and the countries of the ‘global north’ – in Europe, Japan and North America, for example – no-or-low adult literacy has virtually been eradicated. Not so in most of the nations of the ‘global south’, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. This disparity, however, does not prevail only between countries. It also operates within many of them, especially post-colonial nations like Australia. Here the pattern of no-or-low adult literacy in remote Aboriginal communities is more similar to those in Sub-Saharan Africa than to those of non-Aboriginal Australians. Around forty percent of all Aboriginal adults in remote communities are estimated to have no-or-low literacy. <Download flyer> (Presented: 4 September 2019)

Sexual Health and Development in the South Pacific

Professor Heather Worth, School of Public Health and Community Medicine, Academic Co-lead for the Pacific for UNSW’s Institute for Global Development

My question in this seminar is: how did we get to where we are today in terms of sexual health and development in the South Pacific? Does the 21st century global ordering of sexual health and sexualities in the Pacific reinforce a colonial model of administration of health and sexuality? <Download flyer> (Presented: 8 May 2019)

Digital Health in Primary Care Settings: Challenges and Opportunities

Dr Rajesh Kumar, Visiting Professorial Fellow, School of Public Health & Community Medicine, UNSW Sydney

Several digital health interventions have been implemented in hospitals, but the potential of digital technologies is yet to be realised in primary health care systems. We established a living lab in a primary health centre of Chandigarh (India) to address the needs of people, patients and healthcare providers. District Health Information System Tracker was customized and linked with the openMRS to integrate clinical and community health services. <Download flyer> (Presented: 20 March 2019)

Getting road safety on the global agenda: My experience from WHO

Dr Margaret Peden, BSc (Nursing), BSc Med Hons (Epidemiology), PhD

Dr Peden currently holds joint positions at The George Institute for Global Health (University of Oxford) – where she is Head of the Global Injury Programme as well as Co-directing the WHO Collaborating Centre on Injury Prevention and Trauma Care – and the International Injury Research Unit (Johns Hopkins University) where she is a Senior Technical Advisor. Dr Peden is also a Conjoint Senior Lecturer at UNSW Sydney. <Download flyer> (Presented: 15 February 2019)

Improving end-of-life care for older patients, families and health professionals through timely identification and management of frailty

Ebony Lewis, UNSW Medicine SPHCM

Our program of research on end-of-life aims to address the early identification and response to frail elderly dying patients to prevent non-beneficial treatments i.e. those that do not improve survival and can impair remaining quality of life. <Download flyer> (Presented: 10 October 2018)

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