PRMs Collaborative Conversation Series - Hannah Wechkunanukul

Associate Professor Hannah Wechkunanukul

Han­nah Wechku­nanukul
Asso­ciate Professor

Affil­i­a­tion: Pub­lic health Depart­ment, School of Health Sci­ence, Tor­rens Uni­ver­si­ty Australia

Han­nah is an aca­d­e­m­ic and health researcher at Tor­rens Uni­ver­si­ty Australia.

Q&A with Hannah

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

To ensure the evi­dence-based prac­tice (EBP) in health­care sys­tem, great inputs from clin­i­cian (Exper­tise & Expe­ri­ence) and researcher (Research evi­dence) are vital com­po­nents. The last com­po­nent of EBP, con­sumer engage­ment reflect­ing their needs and val­ues is a cor­ner­stone of suc­cess­ful and sus­tain­able health ser­vices and health outcomes. 

Util­is­ing PRMs has offered insights into spe­cif­ic needs and voic­es among diverse com­mu­ni­ties, par­tic­u­lar­ly dis­ad­van­taged pop­u­la­tions such as cul­tur­al groups, migrants and refugee, women, chil­dren, and aged pop­u­la­tion. It enhances the con­fi­dence in plan­ning, man­ag­ing, col­lab­o­rat­ing, and deliv­er­ing health pro­grams and research projects for these communities.

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

I have been work­ing on ​‘DRI­VE-CALD project’ aim­ing at improv­ing inequities and acces­si­bil­i­ty of health­care among cul­tur­al­ly and lin­guis­ti­cal­ly diverse (CALD) pop­u­la­tion. The evi­dence in eth­nic dif­fer­ences in seek­ing care and lack of cul­tur­al com­pe­tence has been established. 

The inter­ac­tive data map cor­re­lat­ing clin­i­cal data and pop­u­la­tion health areas has been cre­at­ed as a tool for detailed inves­ti­ga­tions. Cur­rent­ly, we are work­ing on par­tic­i­pa­to­ry project to col­lect PRMs among CALD groups and clin­i­cian to empha­sis con­sumer voic­es. The out­comes will be trans­lat­ed to a co-design dig­i­tal health inter­ven­tion to improve health inequity and acces­si­bil­i­ty and to empow­er CALD population.

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?

Approach­ing cul­tur­al groups is a sig­nif­i­cant chal­lenge. Cul­tur­al com­pe­tence, trust and con­nec­tion between researcher and com­mu­ni­ty have been con­sid­ered care­ful­ly, seri­ous­ly with­in a research plan. Col­lab­o­ra­tion with con­sumer have been organ­ised through exist­ing con­nec­tions and local com­mu­ni­ties. We are look­ing for­ward to broad­en­ing our col­lab­o­ra­tion to mul­ti­dis­ci­pli­nary stake­hold­er in forms of research part­ner­ship, con­sumer engage­ment, fund­ings and imple­ment­ing the program.

Con­tact Hannah

View oth­er pro­files in the PRMs Col­lab­o­ra­tive Con­ver­sa­tion Series.