Professor Marjan Kljakovic

MB ChB, FRNZCGP, FRACGP, PhD
Professor of General Practice
Director, Academic Unit of General Practice & Community Health, Australian National University

Marjan is a Professor of General Practice at the School of General Practice, Rural, and Indigenous Health in ANU Medical School, and a Senior Specialist with ACT Health. He is a general practitioner by clinical discipline and has also held academic appointments with the University of Edinburgh, Scotland and the University of Otago, New Zealand. He has developed and managed two general practices in New Zealand. Marjan has had a long history of balancing academic work with clinical general practice.

Marjan's research interests are in the areas of Health Informatics, Evidence Based Medicine and the Philosophy of Medicine. From a clinical perspective, Marjan's publications have focused on the quality of general practice care provided for injury, asthma, allergic disorders, and sore throat problems. Furthermore, he has explored the "gaps" between ideal and actual care of asthma, men's health, and mental health care in general practice. Finally from a philosophical point of view, Marjan has explored the relationship between single case explanation, medical science, and the flow of information in the health system. This work has allowed him to view the manner in which general practitioners have balanced evidence based care with patient centered medicine. Marjan has a passion for teaching medical students primary care and how evidence can help in the improvement of care for patients.

Dr Kathryn Dwan

Program Coordinator
Academic Unit of GP and Community Health, Australian National University

Dr Kathryn Dwan is a sociologist. As the Research Manager of the Academic Unit of General Practice and Community Health, ANU Medical School, she supports the development of research and researchers within the primary health care sector. She is also a chief investigator, along with two general practitioners, on the national, 3 year, Australian General Practice Nurse Study, which is due to finish in July 2008.

Kathryn has previously managed three national studies and has published the results from:

• 2001 National randomised, stratified telephone survey of over 1000 GPs’ use of information technology, commissioned by the General Practice Computing Group
• 2000 Communication between GPs and commonwealth health officers (n=73) (GPEP 849)
• 1998 National mail survey of three professional groups (n>600), including medical practitioners, in Australia (GPEP 535)

Professor Nick Zwar

MB BS Adl, FRACGP, MPH Syd, PhD Ncle NSW
Head of the UNSW Research Capacity Building Program
Professor of General Practice, UNSW Research Centre for Primary Health Care & Equity, University of NSW

Professor Zwar has substantial research experience in the areas of quality use of medications, educational program evaluation and health systems research on chronic illness.

In the early 1990’s Dr Zwar conducted research for a Masters of Public health on evaluating group educational programs to improve general practice prescribing of antibiotics and benzodiazepines. Subsequently for his PhD project, he went on to investigate practitioner feedback and management guidelines as a means of improving antibiotic prescribing and academic detailing as a means of improving benzodiazepine prescribing. Professor Zwar has since conducted a five year follow up study of the GPs who received the antibiotic prescribing intervention to examine for persistence of outcomes of the educational program. This work in the area of quality use of medicines and educational evaluation has been the subject of seven publications in refereed journals.

More recently he has been involved in a series of projects looking at health systems to support care of chronic illness. This includes projects on evaluation of the Enhanced Primary Care Package resulting in four publications. Currently Professor Zwar has an NHMRC project grant looking at outcomes of multidisciplinary care plans for patients with diabetes.

He also has a strong interest in tobacco control and has extensive educational experience in training GPs and other health professionals on brief interventions to assist smokers to quite. His research on bupropion slow release has had policy implications and has been of interest to the Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee. He is lead author of clinical practice guidelines for general practitioner on smoking cessation. These guidelines are due for dissemination in June 2004.

Ms Vanessa Traynor

Program Coordinator Research Capacity Building Program
UNSW Research Centre for Primary Health Care & Equity (CPHCE), University of NSW

Vanessa has 15 years experience in primary health care research, evaluation and development having worked on a range of programs and projects. She has worked with Division staff, GPs and other primary health care professionals assisting and advising them on research and evaluation methodology.

In addition to her part-time appointment as the Program Coordinator of the CPHCE Research Capacity Building Program, she is also employed as the Research Manager for the School of Public Health and Community Medicine at the University of New South Wales. Her research interests are research mentorship, the nature of research career pathways (transitions from novices to leaders), and the organizational environment and its impact on the development of research culture and practice.

Professor Michael Kidd

MBBS (Melbourne), MD (Monash), DCCH (Flinders), DipRACOG, FRACGP, MAICD
Head of Department
Discipline of General Practice, University of Sydney

Michael Kidd is Professor of General Practice and Head of the Discipline of General Practice at The University of Sydney. He was President of the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners from 2002-2006. He has a Doctorate of Medicine in Medical Education from Monash University. He has research and education interests in general practice, medical informatics, health policy, medical education, safety and quality in primary care, and the primary care management of HIV and hepatitis C. He works as a general practitioner in the inner-city suburb of Darlinghurst in Sydney and is responsible for the University Health Service at The University of Sydney.

He is co-editor of the textbook "Health Informatics: an Overview" and wrote the chapters on “HIV/AIDS” and “Computers in the Consultation” in the Oxford Textbook of Primary Care Medicine. His new book, “Save your life and the lives of those you love – your GP’s six step guide to good health”, coauthored with Leanne Rowe, is due for publication in July 2007.

He is a member of the Australian Health Information Council which provides advice to Australian Health Ministers on long term directions and national strategic reform issues for information management and technology in health. He is past chair of the Australian General Practice Computing Group, past chair of the Australian Government MediConnect Project, and past member of the HealthConnect Board. He is past chair of the Australian Government’s National HIV/AIDS Committee, and a past member of the Australian National Council on AIDS, Hepatitis C and Related Diseases. He is chair of the National Standing Committee on Education of The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners.

He is a member of the Board of Therapeutic Guidelines Limited. At an international level he is an elected member of the executive committee of Wonca (The World Organisation of Family Doctors), convenes the Wonca Informatics Working Party and the Wonca Education Working Party and is the Wonca liaison person with the World Health Organisation. He co-chairs the Primary Care Working Group of the International Medical Informatics Association. He is a member of the board of the GLOBE international medical education project and a member of the International Research Advisory Board of the United Kingdom Biobank.

He is Editor in Chief of the Journal of Medical Case Reports, published by BioMed Central, and a member of the editorial boards of several other international journals. He is involved in medical education and assessment developments in Malaysia, Hong Kong, Sri Lanka and the Middle East, and leads the Timor Leste activities of the Faculties of Health at The University of Sydney. He is currently Visiting Professor at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine at University College London.

Dr Raechelle Rubinstein

Program Coordinator
Discipline of General Practice, University of Sydney

Professor Dimity Pond

BA Hons, Dip Ed, MBBS, Dip Soc Sci, FRACGP, PhD
Head of Department
Discipline of General Practice, University of Newcastle

Dimity is Head of the Discipline of General Practice at the University of Newcastle and a part-time general practitioner. Her research and teaching interests focus on general practice and disadvantaged groups in general practice. She has an extensive track record in researching the interface between general practice and the elderly.

In 1999 she was awarded funding to research the health effects of unemployment and to design a brief intervention for GPs to use with unemployed people. She also has a broader interest in health promotion and health service integration involving GPs and has been on the Management Committee of the Linked Care Co-ordinated Care Trial since its inception. Dimity has spent much of the last five years teaching undergraduates general practice skills, including consulting skills, the management of undifferentiated illness and multi-system illness, communication skills, and ethics. She had previously been a GP supervisor for participants in the Family Medicine Program, and still teaches some sessions to GP registrars in the General Practice Training Program. She is also an examiner for the RACGP Fellowship examinations and has been Chair of the Hornsby Ku-ring-gai Division of General Practice. Dimity is a Fellow of the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners and a member of the Australian Association of Academic General Practice.

Ms Susan Goode

BSc (Geography) (Hons)
Program Coordinator
Discipline of General Practice, University of Newcastle

Susan received her Bachelor of Science (Geography) (Hons) from the University of New South Wales in 1998 and took up a research assistant role with the Australian Institute of Criminology (AIC) in Canberra. During her 2 years at the AIC she worked in the Drugs-Crime Team conducting research to inform policy. In 2001 Susan accepted a position as a Project Officer at the Discipline of General Practice, University of Newcastle. Her initial work at the Discipline involved researching the health effects of unemployment and redundancy. Susan has subsequently been involved in the evaluation of several General Practice based interventions including a multidisciplinary intervention to manage hyperlipidemia. Her research and project management experience was furthered when she fulfilled the role of the NSW Trial Coordinator for the Women's Internal Study of long Duration Oestrogen after Menopause (WISDOM). More recently Susan has been involved in designing, implementing and evaluating a new model of primary health care at a Clinic in the Hunter Valley. Susan has been involved with the Newcastle PHRED Program (known as CAPRE-Capacity in Research and Evaluation) for 3 years, initially as the Network Coordinator and now as the Program Coordinator.

Associate Professor Jeff Fuller

PhD, MSc, GCPopHlth, BN, RPN, RN
Head Research Capacity Building Initiative
Chair NSW PHC
Northern Rivers University Department of Rural Health, University of Sydney

Jeff was trained as a mental health and community health nurse. He has worked for over 20 years in multidisciplinary public health settings, including as a manager in community health services and for over the last 10 years in university posts (now at the Northern Rivers University Department of Rural Health, University of Sydney). His research interests are in rural mental health, Indigenous and cross cultural health servicing and public health program planning using both quantitative and qualitative methods. His theoretical orientations (formed through his MSc & PhD) are within primary health care, public health nursing and sociology.

Dr Megan Passey

Program Coordinator
Northern Rivers University Department of Rural Health, University of Sydney

Megan is Director of Clinical and Health Services Research at the Northern Rivers University Department of Rural Health, Sydney University and oversees the PHCRED program. Her research interests include prevention and management of chronic diseases, particularly among Aboriginal people. She has over fifteen years experience in population health and health services research, working previously as a researcher with the PNG Institute of Medical Research and in clinical medicine. She continues to act as a Technical Advisor to the WHO.

Professor David Lyle

MBBS (UNSW), PhD, FAFPHM
Head of Department
Broken Hill University Department of Rural Health, University of Sydney

David is Professor of Rural Health and Head of the Department of Rural Health in Broken Hill. As an epidemiologist and public health physician David has a particular interest in rural and indigenous health. He was a medical epidemiologist with NSW Health for five years and has been involved with a range of clinical and public health policies and programs. His research has been published in several scientific journals.

Ms Frances Boreland

BA (Biology) (Hons), Grad Cert Pop Health Research Methods
Network Coordinator
Broken Hill University Department of Rural Health, University of Sydney

Frances received her Bachelor of Arts (Biology) (Hons) from Flinders University of South Australia in 1982 and followed this up more recently with a Graduate Certificate in Population Health Research Methods from the University of Sydney in 2002. Frances has a strong interest in all areas of environmental research, having spent ten years working in range-land ecology. Over the past nine years Frances has focussed her research and evaluation work on lead-health issues, the results of which have recently been published in the Journal of Range Management and the Australian & New Zealand Journal of Public Health.

Professor Peter Jones

MBBS, PhD, DCH, FRACP
Head of UDRH Northern NSW Research Capacity Building Program, Director,
University Department of Rural Health Northern NSW, University of Newcastle

Peter is a paediatrician with many years experience as an academic and clinician. Peter completed his undergraduate medical education at the University of Sydney in 1987. After he completed his internship at the Woden Valley Hospital in Canberra, he returned to Sydney as a Paediatric Resident and Registrar at the Royal Alexandria Hospital for Children. This period included a one-year exchange to the UK where he was a Lecturer in Child Health with the University of London.

In 1994, Peter was appointed as the Senior Paediatric Registrar at John Hunter Hospital, Newcastle. In 1995, Peter became a Lecturer in Child Health with the University of Newcastle and commenced his PhD studies. In 2000, Peter completed his Doctor of Philosophy, with his thesis, "How chemotherapy alters the severity of symptoms of asthma in children with cancer", and was appointed as the Senior Lecturer in Paediatrics and Child Health. In 2002, Peter was appointed as the Director of the UDRH, Northern NSW. Peter has been involved in the development, conduct and supervision of numerous research programs at various levels and for various organisations. He has an excellent understanding of research principles and techniques and is able to provide expert advice on the conduct of health related research within the Northern NSW region.

Dr Rod Cooper

Program Coordinator
University Department of Rural Health Northern NSW, University of Newcastle

Rod is a Tamworth-based academic at the University Department of Rural Health, University of Newcastle. Since graduating in 1987, Rod has worked in a wide variety of rural and metropolitan paediatric occupational therapy settings and has developed expertise in child protection, play assessment and play therapy. Rod was awarded a doctorate in 2001 from the University of Queensland. His doctoral research examined the developmental impact of child abuse on children’s play. He has presented at conferences, published in Australian and international journals and has conducted professional workshops to allied health, medical, education and welfare workers. Rod is passionate about children’s play, permaculture and rural health research. He has four children who give him plenty of opportunity to indulge these interests!