Researcher biography

Saira is a Research Fellow in the Research Alliance for Urban Goori Health (RAUGH) team at the UQ Poche Centre for Indigenous Health. She has an academic background in pharmacy and public health. Before joining the UQ Poche Centre, she worked at the Centre for Health Service Research and Dermatology Research Centre.

She has research collaborations with the Psycho-oncology Co-operative Research Group and Queensland Centre for Gynaecological Cancer. Saira’s main research interests are mental health, psycho-oncology, cancer survivorship, health system and evaluation. She has been involved with quantitative and qualitative analysis of different clinical trials and epidemiological research projects on mental health, early detection and treatment of cancer, health service outcomes, and cancer survivorship cares.

As a team member of RAUGH, her current research focus is to close the gap in life expectancy and achieve health equality for urban First Peoples in greater North Brisbane through applied research in priority areas in healthcare pathways - across the continuum of care and the lifespan.