Our approach
Our research aims to improve healthcare delivery and health outcomes in rural and regional communities. We engage extensively with consumers, health services and health professionals in the region to initiate and support locally relevant research, apply evidence in health settings and create meaningful improvements in healthcare delivery and health service management.
Several of our researchers are embedded within health services, which enables seamless collaboration and comprehensive capacity building. Many of our projects reflect the ongoing needs of health services to adapt to the ever-changing health landscape, including the recent COVID-19 pandemic.
A selection of our key projects is listed below. You can also refer to our Chronic disease prevention and management projects page where most projects also have a strong health services research component.
Evaluation of telehealth services for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People in the primary healthcare setting
Due to COVID-19, Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisations (ACCHOs) rapidly adopted telehealth (including telephone and videoconferencing) to continue delivering primary healthcare services to Aboriginal people. In collaboration with Budja Budja Aboriginal Cooperative (Halls Gap, Victoria), this research evaluates the acceptability of telehealth for Aboriginal people.
Period: 2020–2021
Funding: Western Alliance Academic Health Science Centre
DRH team members: Mrs Hannah Beks, Associate Professor Vincent Versace, Mrs Fiona Mitchell, Dr Andrea Hernan, Associate Professor Kevin Mc Namara, Associate Professor Anna Wong Shee
Investigating the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the health and wellbeing of staff in rural health services
The aim of this project is to explore the experiences of rural health service staff to generate recommendations for intervention and actions that will contribute to preserving the health and wellbeing of staff in rural health services in Western Victoria, Gippsland and Mildura.
Period: 2020–2021
Funding: Western Alliance
DRH team members: Associate Professor Vincent Versace, Associate Professor Anna Wong Shee
Geographical equity in a pandemic
RAHDaR has been used to provide regular hospital reports, and in numerous research projects and peer-reviewed publications. RAHDaR will now use the existing framework and governance mechanisms to provide agile and timely COVID-19 surveillance data
Period: 2020–2021
Funding: Western Alliance
DRH team members: Associate Professor Vincent Versace, Associate Professor Anna Wong Shee
Evaluation of the expansion of telehealth through primary care in Australia
In Australia, access to telehealth consultations through primary care has been limited. With many Australians disadvantaged by distance or lack of capacity to easily leave the house, there has been a long recognised need to shift to greater use of telehealth. As a response to COVID-19, the Federal Government initially opened up a Medicare item for selected telehealth consultations for those requiring
COVID-19 isolation in early March, and has now moved to offer much wider rebates on telehealth consultations. This unique situation provides an opportunity to evaluate a model of broad access to telehealth for primary care. The Institute for Health Transformation and its partners have the capacity to assess this change in health care delivery across the key areas requiring evaluation: quality of care, efficiency of service, equity of access, patient outcomes, patient experience, health worker experience, and health costs.
Period: 2020–2021
Funding: Western Alliance Academic Health Science Centre
DRH team members: Associate Professor Vincent Versace, Associate Professor Kevin McNamara, Dr Andrea Hernan
Attitudes and practices towards the COVID-19 pandemic in Australia
The aim of this research study is to investigate whether concerns about COVID-19 community transmission and adherence to social distancing rules and hygiene practices differ depending on infection rates in different geographical locations in regional, rural and remote southern Queensland.
Period: 2020
DRH team members: Associate Professor Vincent Versace, Associate Professor Kevin McNamara, Ms Meg Murray
Budja Budja – mobile health clinic
This is a community-driven initiative, delivering outreach services via a mobile clinic across the Grampian region of western Victoria to improve access to culturally appropriate care for Aboriginal communities. It is the result of our collaborative partnership with Budja Budja Aboriginal Cooperative (ACCHO), based in Halls Gap.
In 2018 a formal agreement was reached to co-fund a mobile clinic to deliver outreach services to outlying areas of the Grampians. Deakin Rural Health has provided support for the development of this service, an evaluation (one of the initial barriers to having the van funded), and facilitates clinical placements for undergraduate health disciplines. The project involves other regional stakeholders such as East Grampians Health Services and Stawell Regional Health.
Period: 2019–ongoing
Funding type: Deakin University, Indigenous Affairs (Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet) and Budja Budja Aboriginal Cooperative
DRH team members: Associate Professor Vincent Versace, Professor James Dunbar, Mrs Hannah Beks, Associate Professor Kevin Mc Namara, Mrs Fiona Mitchell
Identifying research priorities to optimise allied healthcare
Informed by consumers: a modified Delphi study
In health service research, it is vital that we address questions that are important to patients and that the research meets a health service need or gap in the evidence. This project brings together consumers, who can identify areas for improvement based on their experiences, allied health professionals, who understand the public health system, and academics, with research expertise, to identify and prioritise research needs for allied health practice in the Grampians region.
Period: 2019–2020
Funding type: Western Alliance
DRH team members: Associate Professor Anna Wong Shee, Associate Professor Vincent Versace, Associate Professor Kevin McNamara
DCMedsRec: reducing hospital readmission by enhanced My Health Record use in community pharmacy
This project describes a new and systematic method of supporting patients at discharge, reducing the risk of medication related readmissions by referring at-risk patients to community pharmacists post-discharge for medicines reconciliation and education. A randomised controlled trial methodology has been designed to evaluate its impact. It is the relatively recent widespread implementation of electronic health records that enables both the project to be delivered and a novel method of evaluation to be used.
Period: 2018–2019
Funding: Australian Digital Health Authority
DRH team members: Associate Professor Kevin Mc Namara
Partnered pharmacist medication charting program
An economic and implementation evaluation
Medication errors are a major source of adverse events in hospitals, which has negative impacts on both patient health, costs of treatment and length of stay. The initial Alfred hospital RCT of the Partnered Pharmacist Medication Charting (PPMC) model of care - whereby patient medications are charted by a pharmacist in ED upon admission with physician collaboration and sign-off - resulted in considerable reductions to the rate of medication errors. The same PPMC model was then trialled in seven metropolitan and regional hospitals to determine the likely feasibility of scaling this up across Victoria, impact on length of stay, and the cost-effectiveness of the model overall compared with usual care.
Period: 2016–2018
Funding type: Department of Health and Human Services (Victoria)
DRH team members: Associate Professor Kevin McNamara, Mrs Hannah Beks
Meeting national targets and indicators to reduce mortality from chronic illness in general practice
This is a longitudinal study in general practice of changes to practice performance in the area of cardiovascular disease risk screening before, during and after the implementation of a patient-centred quality improvement initiative. While monitoring the performance, we're undertaking qualitative evaluation to understand the processes and intervention components that promote patient-centeredness and sustainability of performance.
Unique features of this intervention will be its co-design approach to intervention, a focus on sustainable health service interventions, and in-depth service mapping at baseline to explore current screening processes.
Period: 2017–2022
Funding type: Internally funded by Deakin University and Kardinia Health
DRH team members: Ms Mary Malakellis, Associate Professor Kevin Mc Namara, Associate Professor Vincent Versace, Dr Andrea Hernan, Ms Meg Murray
Contact us
For more information about this research, please contact theme lead Associate Professor Anna Wong Shee.
Associate Professor Anna Wong Shee
Clinical Associate Professor
Faculty of Health
Email A/Prof Wong Shee