Our research

With a focus on public health and infectious diseases, our national research program focuses on enhancing health and well-being and eliminating health inequities across the diverse Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in remote and regional settings in Australia. Our research is co-led by community coalitions, and draws on expertise across disciplines, including Indigenous epidemiology, social and behavioural research, modelling, geographical information science and health promotion, to address public health issues for specific populations in impactful and transformative ways.

The Research Alliance for Urban Goori Health (‘the Alliance’) was established in 2021 to accelerate and transform Australia’s progress towards closing the gap in life expectancy for urban First Peoples in greater north Brisbane by ensuring the whole-of-health care system is responsive to the health and wellbeing needs of First Peoples. The Alliance is a partnership between the Institute for Urban Indigenous Health (IUIH), Metro North Hospital and Health Service and UQ Poche for Indigenous Health, and will lead world-class research and evaluation, and knowledge translation pursuits, alongside a focus on building research capabilities and capacity within the health care system.

Through these activities, the Alliance will enable a health care system to deliver high value, person-centred healthcare and quality of life for First Peoples who access health care, and who live within the region. It will support MNHHS and IUIH to provide evidence-based outcomes to enable integrated and culturally appropriate health care to First Peoples of Queensland across the primary, secondary and tertiary health care systems. Concurrently, the Alliance will contribute to evidence to inform urban-based health systems reforms for First Peoples nationally and internationally.

Our research group works with Indigenous and other peoples in diverse international settings, and adopts decolonising approaches in international public health research to transform the social and political structures that create health injustices and inequities. Over the next five years, we will collaborate with and learn from Indigenous researchers and organisations around the world, undertaking research that contributes to Indigenous peoples’ demands for self-determination, health equity and social justice.

We analyse, improve, reorient and transform health programs and services to better meet the needs of Indigenous peoples, improve health and wellbeing outcomes, and reduce health inequity.

Working in partnership with health services and community coalitions, we ensure Indigenous data governance, support local data-informed decision making, and respect communities’ capacities to design and evaluate systems of care that protect, incorporate and promote cultural knowledge and expertise.

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Our research examines how health institutions, systems, policies, structures and processes produce and sustain health inequity and undermine Indigenous health and wellbeing. This work is situated in ongoing and historical experiences of colonisation and a holistic view of macro-level determinants of health. We use methodologies that focus on Indigenous worldviews and lived experiences of racism and injustice to:

• Document how health systems can be restructured in ways that meaningfully rebalance relationships of power between Indigenous peoples and the state
• Identify benefits that arise through Indigenous community control and ownership of health systems and policy making

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Our social public health research focuses on the social worlds and lived experiences of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in Australia and Indigenous peoples internationally. Working in collaboration with communities, community-controlled organisations and other health care providers we use qualitative, participatory and Indigenous methodologies to build understandings of:

• Indigenous people’s experiences of health and wellbeing
• The social and political structures that produce and maintain longstanding health inequity
• The relationships and practices that are integral to Indigenous community action, activism and resistance to demand social justice and transform health inequities

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At UQ Poche, we use research to influence policy making at national, state and territory levels, with the aim of improving the health and wellbeing of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, leading to changes in healthcare practices.

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UQ Poche offers activities designed to contribute to the expertise of research partners within academic, health service and community settings. We also encourage ongoing learning about how research and evaluation can address health issues of greatest importance to Indigenous peoples in Australia and other international settings.

Through supervision and mentoring, delivering research workshops, and providing opportunities for on-the-job training, we are strongly committed to nurturing the talents of community, undergraduate and postgraduate students and early career postdoctoral researchers working in Indigenous health.

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In collaboration with health service and community partners, we analyse data from multidisciplinary research approaches – including genomics research, health services research, health geography and geographic information systems, large scale epidemiological studies, and behavioural and social sciences – to identify and evaluate interventions that tackle health inequity and enhance community health and wellbeing.

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We use innovative qualitative, ethnographic and participatory methodologies – including semi-structured and thematic interviews, group yarns, participant observation, mobile walk and talk sessions, community and social network mapping, and participatory photography and film – to reveal and prioritise Indigenous people’s lived experiences, knowledges, worldviews and priorities across a range of health issues and community-centred solutions. We are committed to mentoring and training community, doctoral and early career researchers in rigorous qualitative research.

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We undertake rigorous mixed-methods research to systematically assess the strengths, weaknesses and effectiveness of implementing health interventions, policies, programs or innovations in real-life settings, in terms of improved service use and quality of care, acceptability and feasibility, and population health outcomes.

Through action-oriented, systems-thinking approaches centred around Indigenous knowledges, our aim is to generate context-specific policy and practice-based evidence to enhance health equity and outcomes in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

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We draw on interdisciplinary expertise – across psychology, sociology, economics, epidemiology and policy studies – to understand and interpret the impact of human behaviours on health outcomes. We use this knowledge to reduce health risks, identify health service improvements, increase service use, frame health promotion efforts and improve the health of Indigenous peoples.

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We use clinical trials with experimental and quasi-experimental designs to generate evidence-based data on the efficacy of interventions to improve health for Indigenous peoples. Given the challenges of random allocation of interventions in Indigenous health settings, we blend the design components of clinical effectiveness randomised clinical trials and implementation research. 

Quasi-experimental and pragmatic study designs include pre-test – post-test quasi-equivalent groups; interrupted time series; and stepped wedge cluster randomized trials.

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We use electronic health information from large, routine administrative databases to generate contemporary, precise, longitudinal evidence on the health status of Indigenous peoples, determinants of health, and strategies of optimising interventions to improve health.

Data linkage of multidisciplinary administrative databases and surveys is used to identify determinants of health including socio-economic and behavioural, geographical and genomic factors. 

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We undertake quantitative survey research methods with Indigenous populations to understand people’s understandings, thoughts, feelings, attitudes, practices and behaviours related to health issues at particular points in time and to explore changes over time.

Our survey work is governed by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples’ expertise, prioritises Indigenous ways of knowing and doing, and is undertaken in partnership with Indigenous communities and community-controlled organisations.

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We work with partner organisations and skilled community researchers to develop qualitative monitoring and evaluation research processes to support community-driven decision making, centred in community needs, priorities and expertise. These approaches enable communities to tell stories of change over time, celebrate success and identify areas for improvement.

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Drawing on qualitative and quantitative research techniques, and working in partnership with local communities, rapid assessment procedures are a cost-effective, pragmatic and rigorous way of gaining a comprehensive, contextually-rich understanding of a specific health issue affecting specific populations in local settings.

The aim is to inform preliminary decisions for the design, development, implementation or evaluation of public health programs.

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