Researcher

Keywords

Fields of Research (FoR)

Infectious Diseases, Respiratory Diseases, Epidemiology, Public Health and Health Services

Biography

I am an Early Career Fellow of National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia and a Senior Lecturer with the Discipline of Paediatrics, School of Women’s and Children’s Health at UNSW Australia. I also hold an honorary Research Scientist position within the respiratory department of Sydney Children’s Hospital, Randwick. I am a medically trained respiratory epidemiologist with more than 12 years working experience in the field...view more

I am an Early Career Fellow of National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia and a Senior Lecturer with the Discipline of Paediatrics, School of Women’s and Children’s Health at UNSW Australia. I also hold an honorary Research Scientist position within the respiratory department of Sydney Children’s Hospital, Randwick. I am a medically trained respiratory epidemiologist with more than 12 years working experience in the field of epidemiological and population health research in both low- and high-income countries. Prior to coming to UNSW, Sydney I have worked as an Assistant Scientist, Centers for Communicable Diseases at the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh (icddr,b). I have  expertise in wide range of research methodologies from outbreak investigation, designing and establishing surveillance, application and analysis of record-linked administrative health data ("big data"); to the design and conduct of randomised controlled trials, clinical surveys, diagnostic studies and longitudinal studies, systematic reviews and meta-analyses. My current work centres around understanding and modifying the intersection between early childhood respiratory infections and chronic respiratory conditions in high-risk populations through epidemiological and health system research. I am also keenly interested in research that influence health services to better address social inequalities and inadequate access to care. 

 

 


My Grants

1. Title:

CARE FROM HOME: Comprehensive community-based care coordination for management of childhood asthma

Chief investigators:

Nusrat Homaira

Role in Project:

Design and implement the study.

Source and Scheme:

Asthma Australia

Commencement date:

January 2021

Duration:

2 year

Total Amount AUD$:

100,000

 

2. Title:

Transplacental transfer of RSV (respiratory syncytial virus) antibody and its

impact on respiratory infections in Aboriginal Children: RSV ReACh study

Chief investigators:

Nusrat Homaira

Role in Project:

Design and implement the study.

Source and Scheme:

The Sydney Partnership for Health, Education, Research & Enterprise (SPHERE)

Commencement date:

1 November 2019

Duration:

1 year

Total Amount AUD$:

75,000

 

 

 



3.          

Title:


Improving health care delivery services for children with asthma through an enhanced school-based influenza vaccination strategy


Chief investigators:


Nusrat Homaira


Role in Project:


Design and implement the study.


Source and Scheme:


NHMRC Early Career Fellowship (APP1158646, category 1)


Commencement date:


1 January 2019


Duration:


4 years


Total Amount AUD$:


327,192

 




4.            

Title:


Enhanced integrated community-based asthma management pathway for children


Chief investigators:


Nusrat Homaira , Mei Chan and Adam Jaffe


Role in Project:


Design and implement the study and provide overall supervision.


Source and Scheme:


The Sydney Partnership for Health, Education, Research & Enterprise (SPHERE)


Commencement date:


1 January 2019


Duration:


6 months


Total Amount AUD$:


25,000

 

 




5.          

Title:


Improving the health outcomes of children with asthma in New South Wales


Chief investigators:


Nusrat Homaira, Melinda Gray, Christine Burns and Adam Jaffe


Role in Project:


Design and implement the study and overall supervision. Research group consist of supervision of one research assistant and 4 research students


Source and Scheme:


Rotary club of Sydney Cove (Donation)


Commencement date:


1 June 2016


Duration:


3 years


Total Amount AUD$:


310,000


 




6.            

Title:


Identification of indoor localisation solutions for tracking patients in hospital environments to minimise cross-infection


Chief investigators:


Mark Whitty and Nusrat Homaira


Role in Project:


Conceptualise and design the study and overall supervision


Source and Scheme:


CRC for Spatial Information  Research Grant (Category 2)


Commencement date:


15 September, 2016


Duration:


4 months


Total Amount AUD$:


25,541


 

 

 


My Qualifications

MBBS, MPH , PhD


My Awards

Travel fellowship, 11th International Symposium on Respiratory

syncytial virus held in Ashville, USA

2018

Sanofi      Pasteur      Awards      for      Communicable      Disease Epidemiology at the 18th International Congress on Infectious

Disease

2018

Travel fellowship, 10th International Symposium on Respiratory

syncytial virus

2016

Fellowship, Croucher Summer Course on Vaccinology hosted by

the University Hong Kong

2016

Travel  Award,  9th      International Symposium on Respiratory

syncytial virus, South Africa

2014

World Health Organization’s travel fellowship, Incidence,

Severity and Impact conference , Germany

2012

The Macrae Group Young Investigator Award and Travel Grant,

The    Wellcome    Trust,    XIII   International    Symposium    on Respiratory Viral Infections, Rome, Italy

2011

International Research Award, Options VII for the Control of

Influenza, Hong Kong

2010

Fellowship, European Educational Program, Florence, Italy

2009

Fellowship, Johns Hopkins Fall Institute In Public Health Policy

And Management, Barcelona, Spain

2009

International Development Grant for Young Women Physicians, Scientists and other health care providers, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, 13th International Conference on Infectious

Disease (ICID), Bangkok, Thailand 2008

2008

Travel award, The American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, 56th annual meeting, Philadelphia, USA

2007

Travel     Fellowship,    Fourth    Asia    Pacific    Conference    on Reproductive and Sexual Health and Rights, Hyderabad

2007

 


My Research Activities

My career as a public health professional started in 2006 as a Senior Medical Officer for the Maternal Neonatal and Child Health Program of BRAC where I was providing technical expertise for developing community based model of care. I was also involved in developing international health programs of BRAC specifically for Pakistan. In 2007 I joined icddr,b an international research organization based in Bangladesh. The first couple of years of my tenure at icddr,b, I was providing technical assistance to the Government of Bangladesh for outbreak investigations. I was also involved in conducting and facilitating different training workshops for Government health professionals at different levels, developing health policy documents and actively took part in developing the national hospital-based communicable disease surveillance system. In 2009, I took the lead of two of major surveillance projects for childhood respiratory illness. I was responsible for designing, implementation and overall supervision of the projects, analysing the data , dissemination of the results and drafting of the manuscripts.

My PhD research was focused on estimating the burden of childhood severe respiratory diseases and identifying risk factors at a population level using linked "big-data". The data generated provided comprehensive burden of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) diseases in children of Australia including burden of hospitalization and economic burden.  I also conducted a prospective study into the risk of preterm infants acquiring nosocomial RSV infection in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) during their birth hospitalization. This was the first time a study has been done in Australia which has documented the prevalence of RSV and potential sources of nosocomial RSV transmission within NICU in the absence of an outbreak.

I am currently working on several projects which are investigating the association between respiratory viral infections in early childhood and the subsequent risk of chronic respiratory morbidity and the variation in care for children with asthma. I am also involved in developing and implementing community based effective model for management of childhood asthma in NSW.

As part of my collaborative work with The George Institute for Global health I am involved in developing a clinical decision support system for assessing unknown dyspnea in primary care setting.


My Research Supervision


Areas of supervision

Chidlhood infectious diseases

Chidlhood viral respiratory illness

Childhood Asthma


Currently supervising

One Medicine ILP student and One Honours Student ( Australian National University)

Two Medicine ILP students starting in 2022

1 PhD student starting in February 2022

Available for supervision


My Engagement

APPOINTMENTS:

 

The Sydney Children’s Hospital network

Member; The Sydney Children’s Hospitals Network Scientific Advisory Committee

Review the scientific merit of the research proposals submitted for ethical clearance

2017- present

The Sydney Children’s Hospital

Team member; Aiming for asthma improvement in children (AAIC)

Design and implement research component of the program

2017-present

The Sydney Children’s Hospital Network

Asthma quality improvement project, Kids GPS Integrated Care

Team member. Take part in monthly meeting to evaluate ongoing activities and provide technical feedback on quality improvement.

2017-present

Australian Paediatric Surveillance Unit (APSU)

Surveillance for Congenital Cytomegalovirus Infection

Co-Investigator. Provide intellectual feedback for the overall surveillance design and take part in regular investigators’ meeting.

2016-present

Respiratory unit, The George Institute for Global Health, Sydney, Australia

Honorary Academic Fellow

Take part in ongoing research activities within the respiratory unit.

2016-2018

UNSW, Sydney

Grand Challenge on Refugees and Migrants, UNSW

Focal point for Faculty of Medicine.

2016-2018

Perinatal Society of Australia New & Zealand (PSANZ)

Maternal Smoking Cessation Position Statement Working Party

Member. Active player in developing a policy statement on cessation of maternal smoking.

2016-2018

PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS:

Year

Organization

2019-present

National K2A childhood to adult chronic illness alliance ( executive committee member)

2018-present

Franklin Women (women in health and medical research)

2018-present

EpiCore: a virtual community of health professionals using innovative surveillance methods to verify outbreaks of infectious diseases.

2018-present

Immunisation Biostatistics and Epidemiology Special Interest Group (i- BESIG), National Centre for Immunisation Research and Surveillance

2017-present

Team member, Infection, Inflammation and Immunity Theme (Triple I) Early life determinants of health (ELDoH) and Respiratory, Sleep and Environmental & Occupational Health and Chronic illness in childhood Streams of Sydney Partnership for Health, Education, Research and Enterprise (SPHERE)

2017-present

Collaborator, secure cloud-based spatial mapping tool (ArcGIS Online) project, Community Paediatrics, Sydney Local Health District (SLHD)

2017-present

Member, The Thoracic society of Australia New Zealand

2017-present

Member, The Lung Foundation Australia

2016-present

Randwick Paediatric Research Committee, Sydney Chidlren Hospitals Network

2014-present

RSV Global Estimates Network (RSV GEN)

2014-2017

Perinatal Society of Australia and New Zealand

2010-2014

American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene

 

 


My Teaching

  • 2016: Visiting lecturer for courses on outbreak investigation and infectious disease epidemiology at School of Public Health and Community Medicine, UNSW Australia.
  •  2010-2013: Visiting lecturer for the course on Infectious Diseases Epidemiology of Master of Public Health (Pneumonia 101 102) at the James P. Grant School of Public Health, BRAC University.
  • 2010-2013: Section Editor, Journal of Health, Population and Nutrition
  • 2008-2013: Lecturer for the certified course on Clinical Epidemiology organized by Institute of Epidemiology, Diseases Control and Research (IEDCR) of the Government of Bangladesh.
  • 2011-2012: Mentoring of research fellow for scientific development with research design, implementation and data analysis at icddr,b
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Location

Level-8, Centre for Child Health Research and Innovation (ChERI)
The Bright Alliance
Cnr of Avoca and High Streets
RANDWICK NSW 2031


Contact

+61 (2) 9382 5526

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