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Australian Journal of Primary Health Australian Journal of Primary Health Society
The issues influencing community health services and primary health care

Editorial Structure

Acceptance of papers for the Australian Journal of Primary Health is managed by the Editorial Panel and supported by an Editorial Board.

The journal regularly publishes special issues that examine themes of interest. For these issues the Editors engage guest editors who specialise in the area.

Editors-in-Chief

  • Virginia Lewis holds a Research Chair in Community Health at the Australian Institute for Primary Care & Ageing and is Head of the Centre for Health Systems Development at La Trobe University. Virginia´s academic training was focused on social psychology, concerned particularly with attitude measurement and attitude-behaviour theory. Virginia is a health services researcher and evaluator with more than 25 years of experience. She has a special interest in evaluation of policies and programs implemented within complex systems. Virginia’s current research is focussed on how health systems, particularly comprehensive community-based primary health care, can meet the needs of vulnerable populations. Virginia has been Editor-in-Chief of the AJPH since 2015 following four years as an Associate Editor.
  • Liz Sturgiss is a clinical general practitioner and primary care researcher in the School of Primary and Allied Health Care at Monash University, Melbourne. Liz is an NHMRC Investigator who leads an emerging research program on complex and chronic disease management in primary care that focuses on the translation of guidelines into real-world practice and the implementation of innovative interventions. Her research is based on theoretical principles from behaviour change and implementation science. She is a specialist general practitioner in Canberra and has previous clinical experience in forensic medicine and sexual health. Liz has been co-Editor-in-Chief of the AJPH since 2023 following four years as an Associate Editor. 

Executive Officer

  • Jenny Macmillan is a senior project manager with the Australian Institute for Primary Care and Ageing at La Trobe University. Her project work focusses on qualitative research in evaluation and health systems development. Jenny has a long association with the journal and also convenes the National and Victorian Primary and Community Health Networks.

Editorial Panel

  • David N Blane is a general practitioner and Clinical Research Fellow in General Practice & Primary Care at the University of Glasgow. His main research interests are in the role of primary care in mitigating health inequalities and the interface between primary care and public health. He is the academic lead for the Deep End GP Project in Scotland, a collaboration between academics and front-line practitioners working in areas of concentrated economic disadvantage.
  • Jessica Botfield is a clinician-researcher with research and clinical expertise in sexual and reproductive health. She is a Research Fellow with the SPHERE NHMRC Centre of Research Excellence in Sexual and Reproductive Health for Women in Primary Care at Monash University, and a Senior Research Officer at Family Planning NSW. Jessica's research interests focus on promoting equitable access to contraception, pregnancy options and abortion care; task-sharing and nurse- and midwifery-led models of care; and health services research and evaluation.
  • Bradley Christian is a public health practitioner and specialist public health dentist. He holds a PhD in Public Health from the Melbourne School of Population and Global Health. He is currently Senior Lecturer Population Oral Health at the University of Sydney and Deputy Director (Honorary), Australian Centre for Integration of Oral Health. Prior to these roles, he was the Director of Research for the Western NSW Local Health District, a large government health service of approximately 8000 staff and 38 hospital facilities.
  • Amy Kirkegaard is a dietitian and Research Fellow at the Centre for Community Health and Wellbeing, The University of Queensland. Amy applies theories and methodologies from the complexity and system sciences to improve our understanding of problems facing the Australian healthcare system. Amy is currently leading research in community health and primary care where she develops and evaluates solutions, in collaboration with stakeholders, to improve health outcomes.
  • Kathleen O’Brien is a clinical general practitioner, and primary care researcher and lecturer in the Academic Unit of General Practice at the Australian National University. Her research interests include children’s health, social determinants of health, and preventive health.
  • David Paul is the Associate Dean, Aboriginal Health in the School of Medicine Fremantle at the University of Notre Dame Australia. His research interests include building the capacity of future health professionals to work more effectively with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, factors which influence health and health care disparities, Aboriginal community control in Aboriginal health and primary health care.
  • Annette Peart is a Research Fellow in Addiction Studies at the Eastern Health Clinical School, Monash University. Annette works at Turning Point, part of Eastern Health, leading an emerging area of research in telephone and online services for people experiencing addiction. Annette is also a registered occupational therapist. Her research interests lie in access to care, relationship-centred care, and realist approaches to research and evaluation.
  • Robyn Preston is Senior Lecturer, Public Health at CQUniversity and Adjunct Senior Research Fellow, College of Medicine and Dentistry at James Cook University. Robyn’s main areas of research interest are: 1) Access to health services for under-served communities (Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples, refugees; rural and remote peoples; 2) Socially Accountable Health Professional Education; and 3) Health Promotion in the tropics.
  • Deepika Ratnaike is a Research Fellow at the Australian Institute of Primary Care and Ageing. Her current work is focused on the design, implementation and evaluation of mental health, primary care and social welfare programs. Prior to this role, Deepika held executive positions in national mental health not for profits. Her interests include mental health promotion, prevention and early intervention, suicide prevention, system design and interprofessional development.
  • Anna Williams is a Professor of Ageing at Western Sydney University and has expertise in the implementation and evaluation of complex interventions within primary health care, primary health care workforce development, the assessment and management of lifestyle risk factors by clinicians, chronic illnesses prevention and management, aged and Dementia care, and person-centred care models in both community and acute care settings.

Editorial Board

  • Lauren Ball, Griffith University, Australia
  • Fran Baum, Southgate Institute of Health, Society and Equity, Flinders University, Adelaide
  • Philip Davies, Chair, International Foundation for Integrated Care, Oxford, UK
  • Sarah Dennis, University of Sydney and South Western Sydney Local Health District
  • Angela Durey, School of Population and Global Health, University of Western Australia, Perth
  • John Furler, Melbourne Medical School, University of Melbourne
  • Elizabeth Halcomb, School of Nursing, University of Wollongong
  • Lisa Jamieson, Australian Research Centre for Population Oral Health, University of Adelaide
  • Amanda Kenny, La Trobe University, Bendigo
  • Sarah Larkins, James Cook University, Queensland
  • Vivian Lin, Executive Associate Dean, Faculty of Medicine, University of Hong Kong
  • Chaojie (George) Liu, School of Psychology and Public Health, La Trobe University, Melbourne
  • Geoff Spurling, University of Queensland and at the Southern Queensland Centre of Excellence in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander primary health care
  • Hal Swerisson, La Trobe University, Melbourne

Social Media Editor

  • Liz Sturgiss, School of Primary and Allied Health Care, Monash University

Committee on Publication Ethics

Call for Papers

We are seeking contributions for Special Issues. More

Call for Reviewers

We are seeking reviewers to join the team. More

Call for Reviews

We welcome the submission of high quality review articles. Selected reviews will be offered free open access. More

Best Oral Paper Prize AAAPC 2023

Deidre McGowan has been awarded the Best Oral Paper Prize for 2023.

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