Leading population health research
by Michèle Nardelli
When Professor John Lynch decided to return to Australia after a distinguished 20-year career working in North America and Europe, it wasn’t about chasing status. What South Australia offered was that rare opportunity to work in a research environment that was truly collaborative.
Collaborative beyond university corridors, to an environment of cooperation that extends out into the wider sphere of government, people and practice.
And seven months in, Prof Lynch is starting to assemble all the right elements to further build a powerful research base in the State that will focus on population health – the factors and combinations of factors in a population that are indicators and influencers of good and bad health over generations. Last month he secured one of the most significant acknowledgements from Australia’s leading health research funding body, the National Health and Medical Research Council – a $4m Australia Fellowship that will strengthen a vital new research cluster at UniSA in Population Health.
"South Australia has the right elements in place to create an incredibly valuable environment for population health research as it moves from being a science of observation to becoming intervention-focused and more powerful in solving health problems across the life course," Prof Lynch said.
"There is a unique situation in this State with the coming together of highest-level political support (such as the Health in All Policies initiative). There’s been tremendous leadership from government agencies in backing population-wide data links and innovative service delivery in health; early life intervention and education; a wide spectrum of local academic expertise across the State’s three universities; and a climate of goodwill and honest collaboration across sectors – it all makes South Australia a very desirable place to lead significant population health research."
Prof Lynch’s research will build on strong collaborative research-policy partnerships with government agencies such as SA Health to develop better evidence for improving the health of the population in SA and nationally.
A particular focus for Prof Lynch is the importance of early life interventions for improved population health.
"One of our key research questions is how does a good start in life help to ensure better social, emotional, educational, workforce and health outcomes in later life?" he said.
"As research in this field evolves, the opportunity to work in a supportive political environment and excellent levels of collaboration across health, education, social services, and the research community is rare. We will be focused on the development and evaluation of effective interventions, and integrating that research evidence into the way services and programs are delivered."
Pro Vice Chancellor UniSA Division of Health, Professor Robyn McDermott says the Fellowship will help to spearhead significant population health research at UniSA and in SA, and build on a developing specialisation in this field.
"In the past 18 months we have recruited some of the top researchers in this field and we are increasing our PhD level research in a range of areas related to population health and developing a multidisciplinary approach to that research," Prof McDermott said.
"We have excellent networks across state and federal government to ensure that our research is relevant and will have long term benefits for health planning both locally and for populations around the world."
Professor Lynch believes SA will evolve as one of a handful of places in the world where health researchers can work with program and service providers to develop scientifically innovative population health research platforms.