Dr Louise Causer

Louise is a medical epidemiologist and senior lecturer at The Kirby Institute. She has interest and experience across a number of international public health issues, primarily those with an infectious disease focus including HIV, sexually transmissible infections (STIs) and malaria.

Louise completed her  PhD in 2016 at the Kirby Institute UNSW and her work focuses on evaluations of point-of-care (POC) diagnostics for STIs. Louise was a co-investigator on the NHMRC-funded TTANGO trial [Test, Treat and Go] – a large, multisite, randomised controlled trial to evaluate the impact, cost-effectiveness, feasibility and acceptability of a new molecular based point-of-care (POC) test for chlamydia and gonorrhoea in remote community across Australia. The TTANGO2 program builds upon the findings of the trial and is now underway, scaling up POC testing for STIs in remote and regional communities across 4 jurisdictions in Australia.

Prior to joining UNSW, Louise held positions as a medical epidemiologist and Epidemic Intelligence Service Officer (EIS) at the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), medical officer to the polio eradication program at the World Health Organisation (Bangladesh), and research assistant at the UK National Heart Forum and European Centre on Health for Societies in Transition (ECOHOST). Louise completed her clinical medical training with positions in Australia and USA.

Research Interests
Louise has a long standing interest and passion working and conducting research in the field of infectious diseases (including malaria, tuberculosis, HIV and other STIs). Her focus in recent years has been on STIs, including syphilis, chlamydia and gonorrhoea and the potential role and impact for POC tests in remote communities across Australia, PNG and other resource limited settings.

In order for POC tests to be considered for programmatic implementation they must demonstrate accuracy, reliability, acceptability and cost effectiveness in the required setting. Current and future collaborative work with colleagues in Australia and in the Asia Pacific region will evaluate new POC diagnostic platforms for STIs including syphilis, chlamydia, gonorrhoea and trichomonas and investigate the feasibility and scale up of their use in a variety of settings.

Broad Research Areas
Global Health, Infectious Diseases, HIV, STIs, POC diagnostics, operational research, implementation science

Qualifications
MBBS, MScPH, DTM&H, PhD

Specific Research Keywords
STI diagnosis; Point-of-care testing; syphilis; chlamydia; gonorrhoea; Indigenous health; remote Australia