Robyn McDermott is Professor of Public Health Medicine at the Centre for Chronic Disease Prevention James Cook University, Senior Clinical Research Fellow (Queensland),  NHMRC Practitioner Fellow and Professor of Public Health in the School of Population Health (UniSA) and the Sansom Institute for Health Research (South Australia).

Robyn previously served as Professor of Public Health Medicine at JCU in Cairns from 2002-4 and prior to that, as Medical Epidemiologist in the Cairns Tropical Public Health Unit from 1995. She has been a Research Fellow at the Menzies School of Health Research in the NT and spent many years working as a clinician and health services manager in rural and remote Australia, and in refugee health in South East Asia in the 1980’s and 90’s.

From 2000 to 2004 she served as Vice President, then President of the Australasian Faculty of Public Health Medicine and numerous advisory committees to state and commonwealth governments. Robyn has worked as a consultant for WHO, AusAID, the World Bank and State and Commonwealth governments and others, in health services and Public Health.  Her research interests are in chronic disease epidemiology, clinical quality improvement and disease prevention. She has chaired NHMRC Grant Review Panels for Projects, Fellowships and Capacity Building Grants and has had continuous NHMRC funding as lead investigator since 1998, totalling more than $12 million.

Robyn has co-ordinated and taught Masters level courses in Epidemiology and Health Economics while in the Northern Territory, and a new masters course in chronic disease and public health at James Cook University, as well as contributing to undergraduate teaching on the new JCU Medical Course.

Qualifications: MBBS University of Sydney 1978, FAFPHM The Royal Australasian College of Physicians 1990,MPH Harvard University 1993, PhD University of Sydney 2002

Interests

Research

• Robyn's research interests include the epidemiology of chronic disease and health transition, and how primary health care can improve outcomes in resource-poor settings. Her work on improving diabetes care systems in remote far north Queensland resulted in major changes to policy and practice, and was recognised by the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) as one of the “best 10” projects in 2006 More recently her focus has been the effective translation of research evidence into clinical and public health practice, with attention to systems issues including funding models, policy environment, information systems, workforce development and quality improvement in primary care settings Although coming late to the formal research world, she has earned more than $7 million in NHMRC research grant funding as lead investigator and more than $8million as co-investigator.

Research Disciplines

• Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health and wellbeing (4504)
• Health services and systems (4203)
• Nutrition and dietetics (3210)

These are the most recent publications associated with this author. To see a detailed profile of all publications stored at JCU, visit ResearchOnline@JCU. Hover over Altmetrics badges to see social impact.

Journal Articles

• Cairns A, Geia L, Kris S, Armstrong E, O'Hara A, Rodda D, McDermott R and Barker R (in press) Developing a community rehabilitation and lifestyle service for a remote Indigenous community. Disability and Rehabilitation,
• Thompson F, Russell S, Harriss L, Esterman A, Taylor S, Quigley R, Strivens E and McDermott R (2022) Using health check data to understand risks for dementia and cognitive impairment among Torres Strait Islander and Aboriginal peoples in northern Queensland—a data linkage study. Frontiers in Public Health, 10.
• Leonard D, Buettner P, McDermott R and Makrides M (2021) The iron content of healthy diets for one day for breastfed babies and young children. Nutrition and Dietetics, 78 (4). pp. 415-423
• Mann J, Thompson F, McDermott R, Esterman A and Strivens E (2021) Impact of an integrated community-based model of care for older people with complex conditions on hospital emergency presentations and admissions: a step-wedged cluster randomized trial. BMC Health Services Research, 21 (1).
• Mann J, Thompson F, Quigley R, McDermott R, Devine S and Strivens E (2021) Beyond multimorbidity: primary care and the older person with complex needs. Australian Journal of Primary Health, 27 (3). pp. 194-201
• Barr E, Barzi F, Rohit A, Cunningham J, Tatipata S, McDermott R, Hoy W, Wang Z, Bradshaw P, Dimer L, Thompson P, Brimblecombe J, O'Dea K, Connors C, Burgess P, Guthridge S, Brown A, Cass A, Shaw J and Maple-Brown L (2020) Performance of cardiovascular risk prediction equations in Indigenous Australians. Heart, 106 (16). pp. 1252-1260
• Berger M, Taylor S, Harriss L, Campbell S, Thompson F, Jones S, Makrides M, Gibson R, Amminger G, Sarnyai Z and McDermott R (2020) Cross-sectional association of seafood consumption, polyunsaturated fatty acids and depressive symptoms in two Torres Strait communities. Nutritional Neuroscience, 23 (5). pp. 353-362
• Leonard D, Beuttner P, Thompson F, Makrides M and McDermott R (2020) Early childhood anaemia more than doubles the risk of developmental vulnerability at school-age among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children of remote Far North Queensland: findings of a retrospective cohort study. Nutrition and Dietetics, 77 (3). pp. 298-309
• Merone L, McDermott R, Mein J, Clarke P and McDonald M (2020) Primary prevention of cardiovascular disease in minority Indigenous populations: a systematic review. Heart, Lung and Circulation, 29 (9). pp. 1278-1291
• Mobegi F, Leong L, Thompson F, Taylor S, Harriss L, Choo J, Taylor S, Wesselingh S, McDermott R, Ivey K and Rogers G (2020) Intestinal microbiology shapes population health impacts of diet and lifestyle risk exposures in torres strait islander communities. eLife, 9.
• O'Loughlin M, Mills J, McDermott R and Harriss L (2020) Exploring the measure of potentially avoidable general practitioner-type presentations to the emergency department in regional Queensland using linked, patient-perspective data. Australian Health Review, 45 (1). pp. 90-96
• Paltridge M, Smith S, Traves A, McDermott R, Fang X, Blake C, Milligan B, D'Addona A and Hanson J (2020) Rapid progress toward elimination of Strongyloidiasis in North Queensland, tropical Australia, 2000-2018. American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, 102 (2). pp. 339-345

More

ResearchOnline@JCU stores 151+ research outputs authored by Prof Robyn McDermott from 2002 onwards.

Current and recent Research Funding to JCU is shown by funding source and project.

Advisory Accreditation: I can be on your Advisory Panel as a Primary or Secondary Advisor.

These Higher Degree Research projects are either current or by students who have completed their studies within the past 5 years at JCU. Linked titles show theses available within ResearchOnline@JCU.

Current

• Experimental Hookworm Infection in Humans with Metabolic Disease (PhD , Secondary Advisor/AM)
• Long term Predictive and and Protective Factors of Dementia in the Torres Strait and Cape (PhD , Primary Advisor/AM/Adv)
• Health Care Homes in Cairns: a mixed methods study exploring the experience of adults living with chronic conditions to inform the new model of primary health care (PhD , Secondary Advisor)
• Features of Primary Health Care Services in Remote Indigenous Communities that Contribute to Hospital Avoidance for Ambulatory Sensitive Chronic Conditions (PhD , Secondary Advisor)

Completed

• Helminth infection and metabolic disease: Strongyloides stercoralis infection and type 2 diabetes mellitus in an Aboriginal community (2018, PhD , Primary Advisor)
• Evaluation of a pragmatic community-tailored physical activity program with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people (2018, PhD , Secondary Advisor)
• Biological endophenotypes of prodromal psychosis and depression (2018, PhD , Secondary Advisor/AM)
• Anaemia among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and their mothers in Far North Queensland (2020, PhD , Primary Advisor/AM/Adv)
• Improving diabetes care and management in Torres Strait remote primary health care settings (2017, PhD , Primary Advisor)
• Older Persons Enablement and Rehabilitation for Complex Health Conditions (OPEN ARCH): Evaluating the efficacy of an integrated model of care for community dwelling older Australians (2022, PhD , Secondary Advisor/AM)

The map shows research collaborations by institution from the past 7 years.
Note: Map points are indicative of the countries or states that institutions are associated with.