TTRA Webinars Highlight Key Elements of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Research
02 December 2022
MTPConnect’s Targeted Translation Research Accelerator (TTRA) program will open Round 3 of its Research Projects funding opportunity in early 2023 to support diabetes and cardiovascular disease projects that address the unmet health and medical needs of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in rural, remote, regional, and urban centres.
A prioritisation project to determine the Indigenous-specific priority areas for this round is currently underway, led by the Lowitja Institute, a community-controlled organisation and Australia’s National Institute for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Research.
In anticipation of the round, MTPConnect is hosting a series of webinars to highlight key elements of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health research that potential applicants should consider when building their projects and teams.
The first webinar in the series, ’Principles of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health research and engaging meaningfully with community’, took place this week and included three outstanding Indigenous researchers, all dedicated to ensuring that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health research is conducted by community, for community with a long-lasting impact on health and wellbeing.
The panellists were Professor Alex Brown – Professor of Indigenous Genomics at Australian National University and Telethon Kids Institute, Dr Michelle Kennedy – Executive Manager of Research and Knowledge Translation at Lowitja Institute, and Ray Kelly – Accredited Exercise Physiologist/Research and the creator of Too Deadly for Diabetes.
Indigenous Health Research – Getting it Right
Professor Alex Brown is an Aboriginal man who grew up on the south coast of New South Wales (NSW) with family connections to Nowra, Wreck Bay and Wallaga Lake, on the far south coast of NSW. Professor Brown’s career has been focused specifically on Aboriginal health. His transdisciplinary program of research spans public health, quantitative clinical epidemiology, mixed-method health service research, qualitative research, implementation science, infectious diseases, chronic disease care, health care policy and novel clinical trials in cardiometabolic disease within Indigenous communities.
A Professor of Indigenous Genomics, as part of a strategic partnership between Perth's Telethon Kids Institute and The Australian National University (ANU), he recently formed the National Indigenous Genomics Consortium. Along with roles on several national committees, Professor Brown also co-chairs the Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF) Indigenous Health Research Fund.
Professor Brown outlined the reasons why further research into diabetes and cardiovascular disease is needed and its effects on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders, including inequalities, premature onset and mortality, aggressive phenotypes, and intergenerational transmission. His presentation illustrated how colonisation has resulted in intergenerational trauma and ongoing issues for Indigenous communities in Australia.
He also shared resources available for researchers including a Code of Ethics for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Research, the Blackfulla Test – 11 reasons that Indigenous health research grant/publication should be rejected, key factors to ensure Indigenous research is done in the right way, Indigenous data sovereignty, and an honest appraisal of why community engagement is not optional for Indigenous research.
Delivering Meaningful Research to Improve Indigenous Health
Dr Michelle Kennedy is a Wiradjuri woman who has grown up on Worimi country, Australia. Dr Kennedy is an NHMRC early-career researcher, partnering with Aboriginal communities to place the power in their hands and address priority areas to improve Indigenous health. She brings many years' experience working with Aboriginal communities and Indigenous ways of knowing, being and doing to the health research space to deliver health research that is appropriate, engaging and meaningful for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Dr Kennedy is leading a national study Murru Minya exploring the conduct of research with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and communities.
Dr Kennedy is the Assistant Dean Indigenous Strategy and Leadership for the College of Health Medicine and Wellbeing at the University of Newcastle, the Executive Manager of Research and Knowledge Translation at the Lowitja Institute, and the Vice President Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander for the Public Health Association.
During the webinar Dr Kennedy touched on the importance of community to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples, social and cultural positioning, understanding strengths and limitations of intervention and evaluation research conducted with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples, factors that can enable effective intervention and evaluation research and consequently can help improve Indigenous health and wellbeing outcomes. She also emphasised the usefulness of the Blackfulla Test.
‘Too Deadly for Diabetes’ Impact
Ray Kelly is a proud Gamilaroi man and one of Australia’s leading health professionals, with decades of experience in the health and sports industries and holds advisory positions with multiple advocacy and industry groups. He is an award-winning Accredited Exercise Physiologist with a Master of Teaching (PDHPE) and a Bachelor of Research, where he focuses on the reversal of type 2 diabetes in the Indigenous community. He is currently completing his Doctor of Philosophy in ‘analysis of the factors contributing to successful reversal of type 2 diabetes through lifestyle change by Indigenous people in Australia.’
Currently, Mr Kelly provides research-based training and education to GPs, nurses and other health professionals working in Aboriginal health services. As he explained during the webinar, his ‘Too Deadly for Diabetes’ program provides support for these health professionals to embed changes within current treatments. People with diabetes taking part in the program have experienced decreases in blood pressure, HbA1c and the associated co-morbidities. Often, they also see a reduction in their need for medications such as insulin. Mr Kelly described how the program has evolved and improved through his ongoing collaborations with the communities the program is intended to benefit.
Mr Kelly recently co-hosted the 3-part SBS television series Australia’s Health Revolution, about remission of type 2 diabetes, alongside Dr Michael Mosley.
More TTRA webinars in this series to come in early 2023
The first webinar in the series generated substantial interest from researchers in the diabetes and cardiovascular disease research space, researchers interested in finding out more about collaborating with Indigenous communities in research projects, and other health researchers.
In early 2023, TTRA will hold further webinars in this series to highlight more key elements of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health research that potential applicants should consider when developing research projects and building their teams, as well as an information session for Round 3 Research Projects funding.