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Professor Anthony Shakeshaft

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Professor Anthony Shakeshaft's principal research interest is improving the impact and efficiency of clinical health services and population-level programs. He has led the design and implementation of methods and processes that facilitate the embedding of research into the routine delivery of Indigenous and non-Indigenous treatment services, prevention programs and large-scale policy initiatives. This includes the co-design and co-evaluation of models of care and prevention programs that are both best-evidence practice and highly adaptable to the specific characteristics and needs of different service delivery ecosystems. In addition to individual services and programs, he has pioneered methods of partnering with Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities to more effectively co-ordinate service delivery across whole communities and measure the impact of more co-ordinated services using routinely collected, population-level administrative data sets. 

His completed evaluation trials include:

* The cost-effectiveness of alcohol brief interventions delivered in community-based counselling settings

* The use of patient driven computers for screening and intervention in primary care (UK, Canada and Australia)

* Improving the appropriateness of red blood cell transfusions in metropolitan hospitals

* A national evaluation of pharmacotherapies for opioid dependence

* Increasing the provision of screening and brief intervention through Aboriginal Medical Services

* An RCT of brief interventions delivered in hospital-based emergency departments

* A family-based approach to drug and alcohol treatment for Aboriginal Australians.

 

His current trials include:

* Improving integrated care for clients with drug and alcohol and mental health co-morbidity

* A cost-benefit evaluation of NGO-delivered programs for high-risk young people

* A partnership to improve outcomes for clients of Indigenous drug and alcohol residential rehabilitation services, and quantify their benefits and costs

* A cost-benefit evaluation of a therapeutic approach to reducing rates of out of home care in NSW

* The impact of safe spaces in reducing drug and alcohol-related harms experienced by highly vulnerable young people

* Improving the cultural competence of non-Indigenous drug and alcohol services

* Improving GPs' prescribing of pharmaceutical opioids

* RCT evaluations of quit smoking strategies for low-SES smokers.

 

Broad Research Areas:
Population health, community health, Indigenous health, health services, substance misuse and harms, intervention trials, health economics, evaluation designs and measures.

Qualifications:
BA, MA, PhD

Society Memberships & Professional Activities:
Reviewing for international journals and granting agencies; post-graduate and post-doctoral supervision; expert member on a number of professional committees and review panels; Member of the Council of the NHMRC for the 2012-2015 triennium.

Specific Research Keywords:
Population health, intervention, substance misuse and harms

University role: 
Visiting Professorial Fellow
Research
Socio-economic Objective (SEO) tags: 
Substance Abuse
Public Health (excl. Specific Population Health)
Teaching & Supervision
Supervision keywords: 
drug and alcohol treatment outcomes
aboriginal drug and alcohol
rural health
young people at high risk of harm
Supervision: 
ILP
PHD