The patient is more than a collection of diseases and conditions. Each patient is different from another. We come from diverse backgrounds, and we live, work and exist in our own unique social contexts, we respond differently to health conditions and we have different views on what is important and meaningful to us. Our research is focused on evaluating and integrating person-centred healthcare interventions and actively engaging with consumers, clinicians, health service managers, health policy makers and planners throughout the research process.

Our goals

Our research aims to ensure healthcare services, interventions and policies are designed and implemented to improve the well-being of individuals, and are tailored to their preferences, values and goals.  

We do this through our research to guide healthcare workers to understand the individual needs of patients, their preferences and values and, to create healthcare services and interventions that are flexible, adaptable and sustainable to meet the expectations and needs of each patient.  

Research strengths

  • Advance care planning and end of life decision making.

  • Enhancing shared care between primary health care and other services.

  • Supporting the development of community health workers, navigators and lived experience workers.

  • Enhancing care for populations who experience inequitable outcomes, including Aboriginal people, people from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds, people who experience mental illness or other disabilities.

  • Management of chronic disease in the context of multimorbidity.

  • Improving patient experience and the quality of healthcare delivery.

  • Research participation by older people with impaired decision- making capacity: a scoping review of consumers’ perspectives and experiences.

  • Quantitative Evaluation of the Uniting Household Model.

Our impact

  • We are developing ways to help health care services and workers to identify the needs, preferences and values of patients, and adapt their service delivery to address patient’s expectations and needs.

  • We partner with Local Health Districts (LHDs), Population Health Network’s (PHNs), specialist colleges and health professional organisations.

  • We conduct research, and evaluations. We devise and deliver professional development activities for health care workers and help write practice guidelines including,  devising new models of care, influencing health care policy and helping to create position statements.

  • We cocreate, implement and evaluate complex interventions in real-world healthcare settings, thereby creating impact during the research process.

Our experts

Head of Discipline of General Practice Joel Rhee
Head of Discipline of General Practice
Senior Lecturer (Integrated Care) Ben Harris-Roxas
Senior Lecturer (Integrated Care)
Scientia Professor of Public Health Rebecca Ivers
Scientia Professor of Public Health
Scientia lecturer Luna Xu
Scientia lecturer
Scientia Associate Professor of Implementation Science and Health Systems; Director of Research, School of Population Health Natalie Taylor
Scientia Associate Professor of Implementation Science and Health Systems; Director of Research, School of Population Health
Lecturer (Population Health) Zhaoli Dai-Keller
Lecturer (Population Health)

Innovation & impact

Ageing Futures Institute

UNSWs Ageing Futures Institute leads ground-breaking translational research to address the challenges of an ageing population enabling optimal ageing for all.
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UNSW Disability Innovation Institute

The Disability Innovation Institute is a world-first initiative, harnessing inclusive and interdisciplinary research with people with disability to seek innovative solutions.
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Our teaching

We pride ourselves on the nexus of our teaching and research. We do this in partnership with our communities, centres and institutes and health services.

Our research & impact

Our research and impact focuses on eliminating health disparities and improving healthcare for all people in Australia and worldwide.

Our strategy

Our Health 25 Strategy aims to improve the quality of life for all by tackling the complex and important health challenges of our times.
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