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 Michele Rains-Joseph. Upcoming seminars may be found at Events.

Watch seminar videos

Research strategy at The George Institute for Global Health

Scientia Professor Anushka Patel UNSW Sydney, Cardiologist Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, Vice-Principal Director and Chief Scientist The George Institute for Global Health

In this seminar, Professor Anushka Patel provides a brief overview of the The George Institute for Global Health's research with exemplars of projects and collaborations within Australia and globally. The Institute’s current strategy is centred around 3 research themes – Better Treatments, Better Care, and Healthier Societies; and 3 impact themes – Advocacy & Policy Engagement, Thought Leadership, and Social Entrepreneurship. These themes operate across all the Institute’s regional offices in Australia, China, India and the UK, as well as being embedded within cross-cutting programs such as Women’s Health. (Presented: 21 April, 2021)

The treatment of wrist fractures in older patients

Andrew Lawson, Physiotherapy Head of Department The Sutherland Hospital

In this presentation, Andrew Lawson will present an overview of the treatment of wrist fractures including the results of recent studies comparing the outcomes of surgical and non-surgical treatment showing that plaster could be as good as surgery for treating wrist fracture for older people. (Presented: 7 April, 2021)

Funding for Population Health Research – the opportunities are in the periphery

Professor Michael Kimlin, Director of Research of School of Public Health at QUT, Executive Director of Health Research Institute at USC

In this presentation, Professor Michael Kimlin will overview where we can access “out of the box” funding for population health and public health research. He will overview often overlooked NHMRC schemes, along with overseas sources of funding. (Presented: 31 March, 2021)

COVID-19: Debate around the face masks

Dr Abrar Chughtai, Infectious Diseases Lecturer & Medical Epidemiologist, School of Population Health, UNSW

In this seminar, we will discuss issues around the use of face masks for COVID-19 and present findings from some of our recent studies. COVID-19 pandemic has renewed the debate around the selection and use of face masks and guidelines of health organisations and countries are inconsistent. (Presented: 24 March, 2021)

Enhancing and supporting the COVID-19 vaccination program: Focusing on Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Communities

Associate Professor Holly Seale, UNSW Sydney & Deputy Chair, Collaboration on Social Science and Immunisation (COSSI)

This presentation will focus on key findings from social research designed to help strengthen the implementation and delivery of the Australian COVID-19 vaccination program with a focus on vaccinating individuals from culturally and linguistically diverse CaLD backgrounds. (Presented: 17 March, 2021)

How is COVID impacting children and young people with disability and their families?

Helen Dickinson is Professor of Public Service Research and Director of the Public Service Research Group at the School of Business, UNSW Canberra

Our research concludes that recent developments in the Australian disability context to personalize services have arguably made people with disability and their families less safe within a pandemic context and we outline some ways that these issues might be addressed. (Presented: 10 March, 2021)

Promoting assisted decision making in acute care settings in the care of older people

Dr Éidín Ní Shé, Senior Lecturer in Health Management, UNSW School of Population Health

Dr Éidín Ní Shé shares insights and showcases the ‘serious game’ developed as part of her PADMACS study in Ireland. The game promotes understanding of assisted decision making among healthcare professionals (PADMACS) and encourages their adoption into care planning with older people in acute care, such as intensive care, emergency, and coronary care, and including people with dementia. (Presented: 3 March, 2021)

When work impacts mental health. What can fire fighters teach us about how to support healthcare workers during COVID?

Sam Harvey is the Chief Psychiatrist at the Black Dog Institute and an Associate Professor at UNSW

Mental ill health is now the leading cause of long-term sickness absence and incapacity amongst Australian workers. Since 2012, UNSW and the Black Dog Institute have led Australia’s largest program of research focused on understanding the links between work and mental health. Much of this research has focused on first responders, particularly fire fighters, with an increasing amount of work developing and testing mental health interventions for this group. At present there is concern about how COVID-19 will impact the mental health of healthcare workers. (Presented: 18 November, 2020) READ MORE

Research on trauma and injury in NSW: current practices and future directions

A/Prof Michael Dinh, Clinical Director, NSW ITIM and Dr Pooria Sarrami, Research Fellow, NSW ITIM

Trauma remains the leading cause of morbidity and mortality in Australians younger than forty years of age. There are around 4000 patients with moderate to severe injuries recorded in the New South Wales (NSW) trauma registry each year. In this presentation the current priorities in trauma research, methods commonly used and future directions of trauma research will be discussed. Also, a short introduction will be given to the injury severity scoring system that is widely used in trauma research. (Presented: 14 October, 2020) READ MORE

Large scale observational research using routinely collected electronic health records

Dr Jitendra Jonnagaddala, Research Fellow, School of Population Health, UNSW Medicine

In this seminar Dr Jitendra Jonnagaddala will discuss findings from several studies carried out using the harmonized linked data from the electronic practice-based research network (ePBRN) data repository. ePBRN is a large primary care data repository of over 1 million unique patients linked with hospital admissions and community health center data. Dr Jonnagaddala will also discuss the challenges and limitations associated with observational research using EHRs in primary care. (Presented: 11 November, 2020) READ MORE

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