Stream Eleven

International Visiting Fellows 2009

Dr Andrew Bazemore

Dr Andrew Bazemore (Robert Graham Center, Washington DC, US)

Dr Bazemore visited Australia in November and December 2009, when he presented at the APHCRI plenary session during the Health Services & Policy Research Conference in Brisbane, met with policy advisers at the Department of Health and Ageing and gave a seminar at The Australian National University. During these presentations, he spoke about primary health care reform in the US and his research into the use of geographic information systems to inform health care policy. He is the Assistant Director of the Robert Graham Center, a policy research institution focused on primary care. Dr Bazemore has longstanding research interests in policy and access to care for underserved populations both domestically and internationally, and on the application of the geographic information systems to the study of the population health and health care. He also serves on faculty at Georgetown University, George Washington University and Virginia Commonwealth University, where he sees patients and teaches every week.

Prof Pim Cuijpers

Professor Pim Cuijpers (VU University Amsterdam, The Netherlands)

Professor Cuijpers’ visit took place in November and December 2009. During his visit he presented a series of keynote lectures including a talk on Internet supported self-help in stepped care for depression and anxiety at a national e-health research and implementation forum attended by a range of key health stakeholders; a public lecture in Canberra on the prevention of depression, and and an address entitled Prevention of depression: Policies and Challenges at the Australasian Society for Psychiatric Research Annual conference. Cuijpers also contributed to stakeholder discussions designed to provide feedback on a national 2020 vision of e-mental health and took part in a roundtable discussion with policy makers from the Department of Health & Ageing. Finally, he forged collaborative linkages with other researchers in Australia, co-developed a proposal for an international early career exchange program between centres of excellence in Internet health intervention research and delivery and provided mentoring to early career Australian researchers, particularly at the Centre for Mental Health Research.

Professor Cuijpers’ keynote presentations, lecture, and roundtable discussions provided important evidence to inform policy directions with respect to primary health care defined broadly and to general practice more specifically. In particular, he presented the results of meta-analyses showing that depression can be prevented. Across all conditions, preventive interventions reduced the incidence of mental disorders by 27 per cent (compared with control) and depressive disorders by 28 per cent. Cognitive behaviour therapy interventions resulted in a reduction of incidence of depression of 31 per cent. Moreover, Cuijpers demonstrated that depression can be prevented using self-help programs in general practice and that such interventions are more cost-effective than treatment as usual. Cuijpers emphasised the potential of the Internet as a means of maximising the public health impact of prevention programs.

Professor Cuijpers is a Professor of Clinical Psychology at the VU University Amsterdam (The Netherlands), and Head of the Department of Clinical Psychology. He is also Vice Director of the EMGO Institute for Health and Care Research and Vice-Dean of the Faculty of Psychology and Education at the VU University. Professor Cuijpers has published about 300 peer-reviewed papers, chapters, reports and professional publications. He specialises in examining the effectiveness of psychological interventions for common mental disorders, especially depression. Research on internet-based treatments of depression and anxiety disorders is one of his areas of research.

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Dr Julie Will

Dr Julie Will (Center for Disease Control, Atlanta, US)

The focus of the visit by Dr Julie Will in November 2009 was to explore evidence based approaches for improving access and equity in primary health care, with a particular emphasis on preventing and managing chronic conditions and health problems of people who are unemployed.  Dr Will is a senior epidemiologist in the Division for Heart Disease and Stroke Prevention at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. For the past 13 years, she served as the WISEWOMAN Team Leader, Acting Team Lead for the Applied Research and Translation Team, and Senior Epidemiologist for Health Services Research and Registry Team.

The program for Dr Will’s visit included a series of one-day seminars and workshops that targeted researchers, policy makers and practitioners working in the area of primary and community health. The seminars included presentations on programs and approaches with an explicit equity focus and workshops provided an opportunity to apply models in the design of prevention programs.

Dr Julie Will spoke about the WISEWOMAN program which targets low-income, underinsured, and uninsured women aged 40-64 years for screening and interventions aimed at reducing the risk of heart disease, stroke, and other chronic diseases.

The visit was co-hosted by a partnership of the Centre for Primary Health Care and Equity (CPHCE), University of NSW and the Department of General Practice, University of Melbourne.

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Prof Stephen
Campbell

Dr Stephen Campbell (National Primary Care Research and Development Centre, University of Manchester, UK)

Dr Campbell visited Australia from 3 to 23 October 2009, when he gave a series of presentations to policymakers, researchers, health care providers and consumers about the impact of financial incentives on the performance of primary care professionals.

Dr Campbell is a senior research fellow at the National Primary Care Research and Development Centre at the University of Manchester. He also holds a joint appointment at the Department of General Practice at the University of Heidelberg, Germany.

His visit focused on quality in primary care. In particular, it focused on quality improvement and development, and on clinical and organisational quality indicators. Dr Campbell was a keynote speaker at the Victorian Healthcare Association's Annual Conference, which runs from 22 to 23 October.

Dr Campbell’s research has directly influenced policymakers in the UK in terms of the development of the Quality and Outcomes Framework and Primary Medical Care Provider Accreditation. He has also co-led an 11-European country collaboration looking at the development and improvement of cardiovascular disease and has collaborated successfully with researchers from other countries, such as Austria, Belgium, Canada, France, Finland, Germany, Mexico, Netherlands, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland and USA. He is part of a European network of researchers called European Practice Assessment and a Board Member of its umbrella organisation called TOPAS EUROPE.

Prof Kurt Stange

Professor Kurt Stange (Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio, US)

Professor Stange was in Australia from 22 to 30 September 2009, when he a gave a series of presentations - at the Department of Health and Ageing, The Australian National University and The University of Melbourne - based on a series of editorials that appeared in the international journal Annals of Family Medicine, focusing particularly on understanding and organising health as a science of connectedness.

Professor Stange is a practicing family physician, scholar, an award-winning clinical researcher and Professor of Family Medicine, Epidemiology & Biostatistics, Oncology and Sociology at Case Western Reserve University. He holds a clinical research professorship for the American Cancer Society (2007-2012) and has held the Gertrude Donnelly Hess Professor of Oncology Research since 2002.  Stange was awarded the cancer hall of fame award in research by the American Cancer Society Cuyahoga County Unit (2006) and in 2005 received the Maurice Saltzman Award for ‘work of national or international importance to the health interests of our community’. He has been the Professor at the Centre for Clinical Investigation Division of General Medical Sciences since 2006 and editor of the Annals of Family Medicine since 2002. 

In 2004, Stange was awarded the Charles Kent Smith Faculty award for encouragement of professional development and promotion of faculty. He was elected to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences (1999) and received the Society of Teachers of Family Medicine Award for best peer-reviewed research paper in 1999 and 2001. Professor Stange was awarded the most outstanding paper at the 14th Annual Ohio Academy of Family Physicians research day in 1996. Between 1994 and 1998 he held the position of Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Generalist Physician Faculty Scholar. 

Professor Stange was a fellow of the American College of Preventative Medicine in 1994, received the Kenneth G. Reeb, M.D. Award for Excellence in Teaching (1990), and a Certificate of Merit from the US Secretary of Health and Human Services for a proposal for ‘An Innovative Approach to Health Promotion and Disease Prevention’ (1988). In 1986, he received The Mead Johnson Award for Graduate Study in Family Medicine and in 1983 the Anna Perkins Award in Family Medicine. During 1985-1986 Stange held position of Chief Resident, Dukes-Watts Family Medicine Program.

Professor Stange’s visit was also supported by the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners.

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Prof Debra Humphris

Professor Debra Humphris (University of Southampton, UK)

Professor Humphris visited Australia in August 2009 to meet with researchers and policy advisers to discuss the need to educate and train health professionals to work together.

Professor Humphris is Pro Vice–Chancellor of Education and Professor of Health Care Development at the University of Southampton, UK. She has expertise in inter-professional education and health workforce planning. Professor Humphris led the Health Care Innovation Unit which was established in 2003 to take an innovative and leading role in the development of the health and public sector workforce. It focuses on inter-professional learning and brings together health, social care and education practitioners working in the area of children and families service. The work of the Unit includes the ground-breaking New Generation Project which has seen the integration of inter-professional learning in all health and social care programs within the University of Southampton and the University of Portsmouth. 

During Professor Humphris' visit to Canberra, she was interviewed by ABC 666 Canberra radio presenter Alex Sloan about the impact of teamwork development within primary health care in the UK and its implications for the way services are delivered in Australia. She also gave a public lecture at ANU titled "Working together for a better primary health care system", which can be podcasted through the ANU website.

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Dr Lee Ritterband

Dr Lee Ritterband (University of Virginia Health System, US)

Dr Ritterband visited Australia from June to August 2009 to share the research findings on the effectiveness of his interactive and tailored web-based system for treating insomnia called Sleep Healthy Using the Internet (SHUTi).

He is an Associate Professor at the University of Virginia Health System and Director of the Behavioral Health and Technology program area.  With degrees in clinical psychology and computer science/technology, Dr Ritterband specialises in the development and testing of behaviorally-based treatment programs delivered via the web.  Specific areas of focus include adult insomnia, pediatric encopresis and diabetes. Over the past 10 years, Dr Ritterband has established himself as one of the leading researchers in internet health interventions. He is an International Visiting Fellow of the Australian Primary Health Care Research Institute and the Centre for Mental Health Research.

Dr Ritterband was interviewed by ABC 666 Canberra morning presenter Genevieve Jacobs about SHUTi and his visit to Australia and the Sunday Canberra Times reported on his Canberra public seminar, which was held on 9 July 2009 at the John Curtin School of Medical Research, ANU.

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Dr Tikki Pang

Dr Tikki Pang (The World Health Organization, Geneva)

During Dr Pang's visit to Australia in July 2009, he gave a keynote address titled “Driving change in our region- responding to the challenge of health security” at the General Practice and Primary Health Care Research Conference in Melbourne. He also gave public lectures at ANU in Canberra and the University of Sydney.

The main message he delivered during his visit was that primary health care plays a key role in an efficient health system. Primary health care research needs to be strengthened and innovative mechanisms should be put in place for translating knowledge into policy and practice, especially in the setting of low- and middle-income countries.

Dr Pang is the Director of Research Policy & Cooperation at the World Health Organization (WHO), Geneva, Switzerland. He is also Secretary of the WHO Research Ethics Review Committee and Advisory Committee on Health Research. Prior to joining the WHO, he was Professor of Biomedical Sciences, Institute of Postgraduate Studies & Research, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Dr Pang is a Fellow of the Royal College of Pathologists (UK), Institute of Biology (UK), American Academy of Microbiology (USA), Academy of Medicine of Malaysia and Academy of Sciences for the Developing World (TWAS), and a Member of the International Molecular Biology Network (IMBN). He holds a PhD in Immunology-Microbiology from the Australian National University, Canberra, Australia.

Dr Pang’s visit attracted interest from the media. During his time in Canberra, he was interviewed by WIN News and ABC 666 morning radio presenter Alex Sloan about the role the WHO plays in assisting countries develop health policy in response to global crises. The Canberra Times wrote an article about Dr Pang’s ANU lecture titled “Global perspectives on health policy development: from evidence to practice”. In Melbourne, he was interviewed by journalists Virginia Trioli and Barrie Cassidy on ABC2 Breakfast about the delivery of a swine flu vaccine and the need for strong primary health care systems in developing countries. Dr Pang was subsequently quoted in articles by Australian Associated Press and the Ballarat Courier.

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Prof Frank Sullivan

Professor Frank Sullivan (Scottish School of Primary Care, UK)

In July 2009, Professor Sullivan visited Sydney, Melbourne, Warrnambool, Hamilton, Adelaide, Canberra and Perth where he met researchers, policy makers, general practitioners and other groups involved in primary health care. His areas of expertise are e-health records in primary care and setting up primary care research networks. Professor Sullivan is Director of the Scottish School of Primary Care and NHS Tayside Professor of Research and Development in General Practice and Primary Care at the University of Dundee. He has published over 120 peer reviewed articles on aspects of primary care research. Professor Sullivan and his colleagues from the Scottish School of Primary Care won the 2008 British Medical Journal research paper of year for their article about a simple and affordable treatment for Bell’s palsy. He works as a General Practitioner in Arthurstone Medical Centre in Dundee one day each week which serves a very deprived inner-city population.

During Professor Sullivan's visit to Canberra, he met policy advisers at the Department of Health and Ageing and gave a seminar titled "E-health: one giant leap for the health system" at ANU. He was in Canberra for the release of the National Health and Hospitals Reform Commission (NHHRC) and provided commentary on the report's recommendations for a national e-health strategy, which was reported in the Canberra Times.

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International Visiting Fellows 2008

Dr Eric Larson

Dr Eric Larson (University of Washington, US)

Dr Eric Larson’s visit to Australia in November 2008 was to foster innovative workforce research into the development and implementation of the (American equivalent) Physician’s Assistant (PA) role. This will set a baseline for ongoing evaluation of the PA during its implementation phase. Dr Larson is a Senior Research Scientist and Information Technology Manager at MEDEX Northwest University’s Division of Physician Assistant Studies in Seattle, Washington, United States.

Dr Larson has over 19 years experience in rural health services research.  Before joining MEDEX in 2006, he was Associate Director of the WWAMI Rural Health Research Centre where his research interests included access to perinatal care, rural perinatal outcomes, surgical outcomes in rural hospitals, methodological issues in rural health research and rural health workforce research.  His research activities at MEDEX include studies of emerging specialty roles for physician assistants.

Prof James Buchan

Professor James Buchan (Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh, UK)

Professor Buchan visited Australia in November 2008 to discuss his research about innovative solutions to the serious shortage of health workers in both Australia and world wide. Professor Buchan is Professor of Social Sciences and Health Care at the Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh, UK.  Professor Buchan is an associate fellow at the Kings Fund, London; an Associate at the World Health Organization (WHO) European Observatory on Health Systems; and a Visiting Professor at the Faculty of Nursing, Midwifery and Health at the University of Technology, Sydney.

Professor Buchan has 20 years experience of practice, policy research and consultancy on human resources and workforce strategy and planning in the health sector.  He has extensive experience from the United Kingdom, the National Health Service and WHO, and has international work experience providing policy advice in a number of countries in Europe, Africa, Asia, and the Americas. 

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Helen Parker

Judith Smith

Helen Parker (Health Services Management Centre, Birmingham, UK) and Judith Smith (Health Services Research Centre, Victoria University, New Zealand)
           
The focus of Parker and Smith’s visit to Australia in late August and early September 2008 was the development of models of comprehensive primary health care. This important area of health services development within Australia is a priority for APHCRI.

Parker has a clinical and senior management background within the National Health Service (NHS) with a specific interest in primary health care systems and policy. She joined HSMC in 2005 following three years as a consultant to health and social care organisations. Her NHS career spanned clinical and senior management posts in both acute and primary care settings. Parker was an expert member of the Department of Health Change Agent team and has had substantial experience of redesigning services within the reform agenda. Experienced in working within the voluntary sector and currently a Trustee for a city centre hostel for the homeless, she is an experienced coach with a particular interest in clinicians moving into health service management. She represents the University of Birmingham on the Council of Governors of the Heart of England NHS Foundation Trust. Dr Smith is a Visiting Senior Research Fellow, based in joint posts between the Health Services Research Centre, Victoria University of Wellington and the New Zealand Ministry of Health. With over 13 years developing research in health services, Dr Smith’s interests include the organisation, management and development of primary health care, primary care organisations, commissioning and procurement in health care and international health policy. Current and recent projects include a study of chief executives of NHS organisation in England; policy analysis regarding the nature of effective health commissioning; the editing of a major international textbook on health care management; and writing a book on lessons to be drawn from the international move towards managed primary care. Dr Smith teaches, writes and presents regularly and has contributed to Public Money and Management, the British Medical Journal, the British Journal of General Practice, the Health Service Journal, and numerous other journals.

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