PRMs Collaborative Conversation Series - Dr Tamara Crittenden

Dr Tamara Crittenden image

Dr Tamara Crittenden

Research Coordinator the SALHN Department of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery at Flinders Medical Centre

Affiliations:

  • SALHN Department of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery
  • Flinders Medical Centre; Academic Status Holder
  • College of Medicine and Public Health, Flinders University
  • Member of the CEIH Patient Reported Measures (PRMs) South Australian Generic PROM Selection Sub-Committee

Q&A with Tamara

What inter­est­ed you about patient report­ed mea­sures research and/​or projects?

The pri­ma­ry focus of the projects I co-ordi­nate is the col­lec­tion and inter­pre­ta­tion of evi­dence to sup­port con­tin­u­ous improve­ment activ­i­ties and in the prac­tice of evi­dence-based med­i­cine to deliv­er qual­i­ty clin­i­cal man­age­ment and best out­comes for patients under­go­ing recon­struc­tive surgery. Patient-report­ed out­come mea­sures (PROMs) are wide­ly used in these projects across sev­er­al key areas of this spe­cial­ty includ­ing recon­struc­tive breast surgery, head and neck can­cer, cleft lip and palate, skin can­cer, and hand surgery. PROMs con­tin­ue to play an inte­gral role in these stud­ies for obtain­ing valu­able health-relat­ed qual­i­ty of life and health out­comes data from the patient’s perspective. 

I am cur­rent­ly involved in sev­er­al key inter­na­tion­al col­lab­o­ra­tions using PROMs includ­ing the OECD Patient-Report­ed Indi­ca­tors Sur­veys (PaRIS) ini­tia­tive for breast can­cer patient out­comes, and with lead­ing researchers at McMas­ter Uni­ver­si­ty (Cana­da), Memo­r­i­al Sloan Ket­ter­ing Can­cer Cen­ter and Har­vard Uni­ver­si­ty (Unit­ed States). 

What is your biggest achieve­ment in rela­tion to patient report­ed mea­sures research, or the appli­ca­tion of research into prac­tice?

In 2020, I com­plet­ed a PhD which cen­tred on the use of PROMs to demon­strate the clin­i­cal- and cost-effec­tive­ness of breast reduc­tion surgery in the Aus­tralian health care sys­tem. One of my biggest achieve­ments was being award­ed the High­er Research Degree Stu­dent Research Impact Prize as a recog­ni­tion of the qual­i­ty and impact of this research. Impor­tant­ly, this work pro­vid­ed the high-qual­i­ty evi­dence to suc­cess­ful­ly inform state and nation­al health­care pol­i­cy and cir­cum­vent the loss of this impor­tant sur­gi­cal pro­ce­dure for women from the Aus­tralian Medicare system. 

Ref­er­ences:

  1. Crit­ten­den TA, Rat­cliffe J, Wat­son DI, Mpun­du-Kaamb­wa C, Dean NR. Cost-util­i­ty analy­sis of breast reduc­tion surgery for women with symp­to­matic breast hyper­tro­phy. The Med­ical Jour­nal of Aus­tralia. 2022;216(3):147 – 52. 
  1. Crit­ten­den TA, Wat­son DI, Rat­cliffe J, Grif­fin PA, Dean NR. Out­comes of Breast Reduc­tion Surgery Using the BREAST‑Q: A Prospec­tive Study and Com­par­i­son with Nor­ma­tive Data. Plas­tic and Recon­struc­tive Surgery. 2019;144(5):1034 – 44.

How do you approach col­lab­o­ra­tion with con­sumers, car­ers and com­mu­ni­ty? Or how do think we can work togeth­er to keep mak­ing advance­ments in this space? 

In addi­tion to the col­lec­tion of the patient per­spec­tive through PROMs, we recog­nise the impor­tance of col­lab­o­ra­tion with con­sumers, car­ers, and the com­mu­ni­ty. I am involved in con­sumer groups for sev­er­al of our projects includ­ing the breast recon­struc­tion and the hand surgery con­sumer group forums. These meet­ings pro­vide an oppor­tu­ni­ty to part­ner with con­sumers and gain valu­able feed­back to inform qual­i­ty patient-cen­tred care. 

Con­tact Tamara

Email: tamara.​crittenden@​sa.​gov.​au

View Tamara’s pro­file via the Flinders Uni­ver­si­ty web­site: https://​research​now​.flinders​.edu​.au/​e​n​/​p​e​r​s​o​n​s​/​t​a​m​a​r​a​-​c​r​i​t​t​enden.

View oth­er pro­files in the PRMs Col­lab­o­ra­tive Con­ver­sa­tion Series.