About
I started as a Tenure Track Fellow at the Liverpool Centre for Cardiovascular Science at the University of Liverpool in August 2019. My background is ageing epidemiology focusing on risk reduction and ways to improve health and quality of life for people living with dementia and/or people living in aged care homes.
I completed my BSc (Hons) in Biomedical Sciences in 2012, my MSc in Public Health and Health Services Research in 2013 and PhD in 2016, all at Newcastle University. My PhD research examined associations between cardiovascular health and cognitive decline in multiple cohort studies of people aged 85+. This included examining the use of cardiovascular risk prediction models and biomarkers to predict risk of cognitive decline and incident dementia. My first postdoctoral research post was in South Australia at Flinders University working for the National Health and Medical Research Council Cognitive Decline Partnership Centre (CDPC). At Flinders University I primarily focused on the INvestigating Services Provided In the Residential care Environment for Dementia (INSPIRED) Study at Flinders University which aims to examine different models of residential care for people with dementia in relation to outcomes such as quality of life. I then began working at the South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute (SAHMRI) in Adelaide where I was involved in the development and epidemiological analysis of the Registry of Senior Australians (ROSA). ROSA is a 'big data' data linkage project which aims to improve the health and health services of older people accessing aged care. At ROSA I completed a series of studies examining health and service utilisation of people with and without dementia living in aged care homes including trends in dementia prevalence, use of psychotropic medications and outcomes for people using respite services. My research has been cited in key policy documents including for the Pharmaceutical Society of Australia and for the Australian Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety.
I moved to the University of Liverpool to undertake my current post at the fairly newly established Liverpool Centre for Cardiovascular Science to assist with addressing the identified priority theme of 'Epidemiology and big data' with the aim to improve cardiovascular health of people living in Liverpool, nationally and internationally. My current role draws on my previous experiences of examining associations between cardiovascular health and cognitive function and conducting epidemiological analysis of large data studies.