Becoming an independent clinician-researcher is a journey. There are ups and downs and twists and turns. Since the age of 14 years, Professor Redfern strived to be a Physiotherapist. Her research journey started when she completed her undergraduate degree with first class Honours. Since then, she has becoming one of the world’s most well know researchers working to prevent heart disease. Professor Redfern’s research has always had a focus on people living with heart disease, bettering their lives and improving efficiency of the system that enables more effective care. From giving patients actual choice in how to manage their health to co-designing and testing digital health strategies, Professor Redfern’s work has impacted the lives of many. Early text messaging research has seen simple and scalable programs delivered to over 30,000 people with all sorts of health conditions across the world. Supporting people with breast cancer, heart disease and back pain.
In recent years, we see a shift in better utilisation of data to drive quality of care and health systems reform. This work is being rolled out across Australia. Data does not lie and does not have biases. We can do better at improving access to high quality care for everyone. Professor Redfern will share health systems thinking at scale and share her journey in the field of heart disease prevention. The ultimate goal is to improve the lives of people living with heart disease, keep them from having repeat heart attacks. The research is ‘deceptively simple’ and complexity due to Australia’s state/territory-acute care versus federal primary care systems means people and programs fall through the cracks. Professor Redfern’s Professorial Lecture will showcase how developing capacity of others to succeed while driving innovation offers solutions to one of our biggest health challenges – preventing heart attacks.
Biography:
Julie Redfern is a Professor of Public Health, NHMRC Leadership Fellow and a Physiotherapist. Professor Redfern currently holds a NHMRC Investigator Grant Level 2 for which she won the NHMRC Elizabeth Blackburn Award for Health Services. In May 2024 she as Director of the Institute for Evidence-Based Healthcare at Bond University. She also recently won the NSW Woman of Excellence Award, a University of Sydney Vice Chancellor’s Award for Leadership and Mentoring and an Australian Cardiovascular Alliance Award (ACvA) for Mentoring. She has been Chief Investigator on research grants totalling $30M in the past 5 years and has published over 260 manuscripts. She is currently a member of the World Heart Federation and Cardiac Society of Australia and New Zealand Science Committees, Chair of the Australian Cardiovascular Alliance Scientific Advisory Committee and is co-Director of the Implementation and Policy Flagship. She has over 15 years of experience developing, testing and implementing scalable strategies to close evidence-practice gaps and improve health outcomes for people with chronic and cardiovascular disease.