About the Project
The World Health Organization refers to obesity as a global epidemic. It is an issue across all ages, but the cost becomes far greater in older years and thus the value for addressing it is greatest in children. This research will collaborate with leading experts from Health & Wellbeing Queensland to build new data platforms, using obesity data as an exemplar, across the life course and linking it with clinical data from hospital care (from Queensland’s new EMR implementation) as well as population health and community data. It will involve attention to the careful curation of data from different Government departments and services.
This project will look at case studies across three diverse settings – urban, rural and remote, to determine what datasets are useful in describing population health; what predictive modelling techniques are useful in describing the current and future state of communities and individuals within the community; and how to best engage and impart information to and with clinicians – from primary through to tertiary care institutions – to utilise the knowledge to drive precision prevention practice change that will meet and overcome the growing burden of chronic disease in our society.
About the Team
This project commenced in April 2022 with the recruitment of PhD researcher Hechuan Wen who is based at The University of Queensland. Hechuan will have the opportunity to collaborate closely with leading experts in Health & Wellbeing Queensland to apply predictive modelling to datasets for useful insights into communities to drive innovation and change in clinical settings. The supervisory team is led by Affiliate Investigator Dr Rocky Chen, Associate Professor Hongzhi Yin, Professor Andrew Burton-Jones, Professor Shazia Sadiq from UQ, and Partner Investigator Dr Li Kheng Chai from Health and Wellbeing Queensland.
project researchers
Prof Shazia Sadiq
A/Prof Hongzhi Yin
Dr Rocky Chen (Principal Advisor)
Dr Li Kheng Chai
Mr Hechuan Wen (PhD Researcher)
partner investigator
