Prof. Jane Gunn

Prof. Jane Gunn

MBBS DRANZCOG FRACGP FAHMS PhD

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Some other projects include:

• Elected Fellow of the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Science

• Inaugural Chair of Primary Care Research, University of Melbourne

• Deputy Dean of Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry, and Health Sciences, University of Melbourne

• Inaugural Visiting Professor to the Scottish School of Primary Care (2009-2012)

• Director of Dental Health Services Victoria Board

• Director of Eastern Melbourne Primary Health Network Board

• Past Director of Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre

• Served on NHMRC Research Committee (2009-2015)

• Served on NHMRC Borderline Personality Disorder Guideline Development Group

• Served on RACGP National Steering Committee for Research

• Served on Medicare Benefits Schedule Review Committee, Psychiatry Panel (2019)

• Chair of the Committee to review the NHMRC Partnership Grants Scheme

• Chair of NHMRC Mental Health Research Advisory Committee

• Co-leads national evaluation of national rollout of Stepped Mental Healthcare

• Profile in Research Data Australia

• Participant in OPUS

• Project Collaborator in projects for Centre of Research Excellence in Mental Health Systems Improvement

• Profile for RACGP: Ongoing research aims to reduce antidepressant use

• Chair of the NHMRC Mental Health Research Advisory Committee

• Member of the Mental Health Expert Reference Group undertaking the Review of Mental Health Programmes and Services

• Principal of NHMRC implementation of STOPS: A randomised trial of a STructured Online intervention to Promote and Support antidepressant de-prescribing in primary care

• GP17 Research keynote

• Participant in Australian Centre for Cannabinoid Clinical and Research Excellence (ACRE): Quality and Safety in the implementation of medicinal cannabis use in the community

• Profile in Australian Centre for Cannabinoid Clinical and Research Excellence

• Profile in The Conversation

• Article for The Conversation: Time for better chronic disease management in primary care

• Profile for University of Melbourne: Head of Department of General Practice appointed to Deputy Dean

• 2016 elected a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences “in recognition of her outstanding leadership in health and medical research

• Past President of the Australasian Association for Academic Primary Care

• Served on NHMRC Research Committee 2009-2015

• Director of the Board of the Eastern Melbourne PHN

• Director of the Board of the Peter MacCallum Cancer Hospital

• Past Visiting Academic to the University of Oxford, University of Hong Kong, University of Edinburgh, and the University of Warwick.

• Currently developing an app which incorporates a clinical prediction tool to provide tailored treatment recommendations for people experiencing depression. The app will link people to proven online eMental health and face-to-face treatments for depression

• Invited Inaugural Chair of the Board of the Northern Melbourne Medical Local Ltd., serving in this role until the role was replaced with PHNs

• Project leader of the Diamond Cohort study, one of the most influential studies into mental health involving massive datasets and international collaboration

• NHMRC project implementing STOPS: A randomised trial of a STructured Online intervention to Promote and Support antidepressant de-prescribing in primary care”

• Involved in 2011 NHMRC Committee’s development of clinical guidelines for borderline personality disorder

• Influenced the development of Beyondblue guidelines for use by GPs

• Led reforms to shared maternity care and cervical screening programs in Victoria through work with the Cancer Council and the Victorian State Government

• Influenced National Surveys of Mental Health and Wellbeing

• Worked with the National Prescribing Service to develop data extraction methods enabling continuous monitoring of the quality of GP care

Professor Jane Gunn is a distinguished academic general practitioner and inaugural Chair of Primary Care Research at The University of Melbourne where she is also Deputy Dean of the Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences.  Her leadership has raised the profile and rigour of primary care research in Australia. Jane’s trailblazing research into the complex interplay between mental and physical health led to her appointment as Inaugural Visiting Professor to the Scottish School of Primary Care (2009-2012) to be part of an international team investigating multiple long-term physical health problems (Multimorbidity). Her input into that work began the focus on mental-physical multimorbidity and has led to influential publications that have influenced policy.

Since beginning her academic career Jane has traversed the research-practice gap. She has played key leadership roles in reforming healthcare beginning with her work in shared maternity care (1992-2003) and cervical screening (1999-2006) programs which included award-winning programs spanning medical and nursing student training. Since then she has focussed her efforts on transforming mental health care in the primary care setting, focusing on depression and multimorbidity and establishing a successful multi-disciplinary research team to progress this work. 

Her research harnesses the patient experience in order to drive health care reform. To date she has over 200 peer reviewed publications and her research has attracted more than $44m in funding.  She has demonstrated scientific leadership establishing one of the largest and longest running cohort studies (diamond study) of people experiencing depressive symptoms in primary care which is unique in the way it encompasses the wide spectrum of depressive disorder and uses a social model of health to collect data crossing the biopsychosocial spectrum which forms the basis of much productive international collaboration. The diamond cohort has completed 10-year follow-up. This flagship research project has been funded continuously via NHMRC Project Grants. 

Jane has made a consistent and outstanding personal contribution to health services research and applied clinical research in the primary care setting. Her internationally acclaimed research program in depression in primary care has influenced the national rollout of Stepped Mental Healthcare and she co-leads the national evaluation of this.  Her creative approach to research has seen her develop successful collaborations with primary care researchers, social scientists, neuroscientists, software engineers and mathematicians from the UK, New Zealand, Canada, Hong Kong and the USA. This work has been at the cutting edge of research development in areas such as gene-environment interactions and the use of sophisticated data analytic techniques.  This research has provided a platform to develop a clinical prediction tool (CPT) which assists primary care to provide tailored treatment recommendations for people experiencing depression. This CPT has been tested in a NHMRC funded RCT and has formed the basis of a national trial funded by the Australian Government (Link-me) which sets the scene for transformation of the delivery of mental health care in the primary care setting. The promising nature of the Link-me trial is referred to in Draft Finding 5.1 of the recent Productivity Commission report.

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