Latest News and Blogs

Healthy Primary Care wishes our team lead A/Prof Lauren Ball congratulations on her 2020 Griffith University Vice Chancellor Research Excellence Award. Lauren won the award for Individual Mid-career Researchers who have demonstrated an outstanding record of achievement in research. Lauren was nominated by Griffith University's Pro Vice Chancellor (Health) Professor Sheena Reilly after winning thee 2019 Pro Vice Chancellor Excellence in a Mid-Career Researcher Award.    "This award is extra special this year, in what has been a tough year for us all" says A/Prof Ball. "The award shows me that what we are doing in our team is working, we are continuously improving the reputation of Griffith University with regards to research". Lauren has previously won another Griffith University Vice Chancellor Research Excellence Award, for the category of Early…

A/Prof Lauren Ball has commented on the recent calls for Australians to receive COVID19 'clearance certificates' from their doctors. The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners has called this activity 'nonsense' and a waste of time. Read the full article here. A/Prof Ball and PhD Candidate Bryce Brickley have also contributed to Griffith University's Health Check, for Men's Health Week (15th to 21st June). Lauren discussed the benefits of men embracing the kitchen, and Bryce broke down three common food and nutrition myths.

By A/Prof Lauren Ball I am a passionate primary care researcher, and I love to communicate my research with other people. But I face a problem – most people do not have a good understanding of what 'primary care’ is. The Australian Medical Association states that ‘primary health care’ is the front line of the health care system and usually the first level of contact for individuals, their family and community with the national health system. Some people interpret primary care to mean ’general practice’, i.e. visiting the doctor. However, the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare says that the primary care workforce is vast and diverse, and includes general practitioners, nurses, and a range of allied health professionals such as chiropractors, optometrists, pharmacists and physiotherapists. These definitions are helpful…

Team lead A/Prof Lauren Ball has written an article for The Conversation. Lauren explains that the research world is feeling a sudden loss since the outbreak of COVID19. Researchers not currently working on COVID19 treatments are faced with the challenges of social distancing. The outbreak means many researchers are falling behind in their work because of funding cuts, cancelled conferences and restricted access to their work. However it's not all bad news! Lauren argues that "the pandemic is also providing opportunity for future university leaders to understand university management, funding and governance decisions." Lauren also explains that Healthy Primary Care are doing their best to stay relevant in the current crisis. Healthy Primary Care is "helping plan the first online conference for Australian primary care to improve access to relevant research…

The start of 2020 has been challenging for the higher education sector. Students are unable to enter Australia, teachers have adapted to online learning quickly, and 'hands-on' learning has halted altogether. All thanks to the growing chaos of the COVID-19 pandemic.     I lead Griffith University's Healthy Primary Care team. We are 18 researchers, 12 of whom are PhD students. Our funding, made possible through success in the first round of the NHMRC Investigator grants, started on January 1st; right when COVID-19 made its entrance. My team promotes healthy living and wellness in primary care to benefit people with chronic diseases. However, with our primary care workers already overwhelmed by COVID-19, it turns out this year is not the time for showcasing our focus on non-communicable diseases in primary care.    What to do when your research suddenly seems less relevant?  Conducting our research in the current health care system suddenly became unimportant. To combat this challenge and avoid a drop in team motivation, I decided business should continue as usual, and kept consistent with all…

  Choose your supervisor/s very carefully It sounds obvious, but your PhD supervisor/s are extremely important for the success of your PhD. They are your main support network for the next 3+ years so be strategic and choose them wisely. Think carefully about the skills you want to develop as a researcher and select someone who you believe has those skills. For example, are you interested in health economics? Don’t pick someone who has absolutely no skills in this area. Or perhaps you are interested in furthering your statistical skills? A statistician with a research focus would be perfect! It is also important that you get along with the person and can see yourself building a friendly, professional relationship together in the future. Start networking early Active networking is vital to your…

Academia is very different than it was 20 years ago. In the digital world, academic authors now get multiple chances to create and put out their own messages. So why not turn your article into a blog post that might engage more readers or that media outlets might even pick up? It’s easy to do following these steps: STEP 1: Cut down the Introduction section In the blog context, you do not need to provide a comprehensively referenced literature review in your Introduction. Just write a short summary in 3 or 4 lines that details why the research is interesting and important.Don’t be afraid to express yourself with easier words so people understand what it’s about.Your task here is to evoke interest, and give readers a good narrative steer that attracts…

In academia, we often talk about “writer’s block”. This is when you find it difficult to figure out what you want to say to your audience. Something that is not as commonly discussed is “editor’s block”. This can be just as frustrating. It happens when you have finished the first draft of a paper and you cannot figure out how to edit it so it can reach its fullest potential. One editing strategy that I find useful when I get “editor’s block” is to write out a –reverse outline. Let’s look at this in more detail. What is a reverse outline? A reverse outline is what happens when you take away all of the supporting writing and are left with each paragraph’s main points/ideas in a bullet-proof view.Begin by placing…

What is nutritional genomics? How can we predict which diets will work for which patients? Nutritional genomics may be able to help in the future. Nutritional genomics is the science that looks at the relationship between our genes, nutrition and health. The techniques of this science can help categorise optimal nutrition for various groups and individuals. This may be useful in promoting the development of food treatments and functionally enhanced foods that will help achieve optimal health. Should I tell my patients to follow a DNA-diet? While this is definitely an exciting time for nutrition science, we cannot yet look at someone’s genes and advise of an exact diet. There is definitely a growing body of evidence regarding gene-nutrient interactions, however less is known about how we translate this research into…

As a researcher, academic or PhD student, it can be difficult to completely disconnect with your work without feeling guilty about it. Rest is extremely important for productivity and mental health. The question of how to “switch off” from work was posed in our online journal club this week (please let me know if you would like to join us!). I thought this would be a great space to share the tips and tricks that were discussed among fellow researchers and PhD students from a variety of disciplines: 1. Have a switch off time during the working week (eg. 6pm) where you cease to check/respond to emails and undertake any work. Promise yourself one FULL day off on the weekend (no emails and no reading or writing for work). Look…

When Tamika Heiden (Twitter handle @KTAustralia) left academia five years ago to start KTAustralia (Knowledge Translation Australia), her goal was to provide academics with the support they needed to frame their academic research in terms of translation or impact. Research impact in Australia is a hot button topic and one that is near and dear to Tamika’s heart. This year, KT Australia celebrates their fifth year of helping academics with a new name that aligns better with the sector she serves. Let’s give Tamika and the Research Impact Academy a big hand!   What Is Research Impact?   To understand what Tamika and Research Impact Academy does, you first need to understand what research impact means. Gone are the days when researchers required funding to gain knowledge for knowledge sake.…

Opportunities for GPs to learn about nutrition are increasing! I have recently been fortunate enough to be involved in the development of one of Australia’s first dedicated CPD (continuing professional development) opportunities for nutrition. Click Here to view the full article. We have outlined below the major factors involved and we want to hear from you if you are of the same belief. Below are 3 main reasons to take this study into consideration I feel fortunate that most of the content is aimed at addressing the gap our team has identified that GPs have insufficient knowledge, skills and attitudes towards nutrition. Some dietitians actually discourage other health professionals to learn about nutrition.  They want to be the only ones who are seen to have expertise, which is not patient-centred.…

Dr. Lauren Ball is the  Executive Member of the Australasian Association for Academic Primary Care and in this week’s newsletter, the following reading recommendation was provided. CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE FULL ARTICLE This high level article talks about influencing policy through research, which is something we all strive to achieve. The recommendations seem quite basic, but we seem to have been presented with somewhat of a conundrum. After recently being involved in providing advice to the Queensland Government roadmap for reducing obesity,  the advice was commissioned through a third party and did not involve any real-time discussion with named people in government, nor did they know my name, only my label as an expert academic in the field.  This raises the question of how academics can better communicate with…