Alison Laycock (DipT, BEd, BFA, PhD) is a research fellow at the University Centre for Rural Health, University of Sydney. She has led knowledge translation programs for two quality improvement research networks funded by Australia’s National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) – the Centre for Research Excellence: Strengthening Systems for Indigenous Health Care Equity (CRE-STRIDE) and the Centre for Research Excellence in Integrated Quality Improvement (CRE-IQI). The focus of her health services research and evaluation work is improving the translation of evidence into practice, using participatory methods to strengthen care systems and improve health and wellbeing outcomes. Alison has worked collaboratively with health service, community and research partners to develop quality improvement tools and training resources, and guides for health promotion practice and health research in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander primary healthcare settings. Prior to joining academia, she worked in policy and program coordination roles in public health, health promotion and primary health care.
Ross Bailie (MD, MBChB, FAFPHM) is Professor of Rural Health with the University of Sydney School of Public Health and the University Centre for Rural Health, based in Lismore, Northern NSW. Ross’s research has been centred on increasing availability of information for policy and service planning for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health and for rural and remote communities. He has built practice-based research networks to support quality improvement in Indigenous primary health care over more than two decades. In his role as scientific director for the Centre for Primary Health Care Systems at the Menzies School of Health Research, Ross established the National Centre for Quality Improvement in Indigenous Primary Health Care (One21seventy). He is co-lead for the Rural and Remote Theme of the Healthy Environments and Lives (HEAL) National Research Network and co-lead of the NHMRC-funded Centre for Research Excellence: Strengthening Systems for Indigenous Health Care Equity (CRE-STRIDE). Ross has worked in South Africa, New Zealand and Australia.
Lynette O’Donoghue (GradDipIndigHProm, BSc) is a proud Yankunytjatjara and Warumungu-Warlpiri woman, and a research fellow at the University Centre for Rural Health, University of Sydney. She has contributed significantly to Indigenous leadership of the NHMRC-funded Centre for Research Excellence: Strengthening Systems for Indigenous Health Care Equity, advocating meaningful engagement of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities and services in the design, implementation and translation of research activities. Lynette has a wealth of experience in quality improvement research and practice, health promotion, primary healthcare program evaluation, participatory research approaches with health service partners, and mentoring non-Indigenous colleagues in culturally safe practice. She had a key role in pioneering participatory quality improvement approaches in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander primary health care and has facilitated many workshops and training opportunities in continuous quality improvement and community-based health promotion.
The authors have long worked together in quality improvement and primary healthcare projects and have been recipients of an Australian Evaluation Society Award for Excellence in Indigenous Evaluation. This work has always been part of a wider team effort.
Positioning ourselves as authors is essential in this space. We write as one Aboriginal and two non-Indigenous authors, drawing respectfully on the work of many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and non-Indigenous colleagues. We acknowledge the dominance of Western research and knowledge traditions in academia and recognise the strength and authority of Indigenous research and knowledge traditions.