Equity, Primary care, Implementation and Community (EPIC) Research Unit

We empower community organisations and researchers to work together to improve equity and quality of primary care. We are a team of primary care researchers who are experts in real-world implementation and translation of evidence-based innovations into policy and practice.

Learn more about us and what we do below. We are keen to partner with community organisations, please contact Nilakshi Gunatillaka for more information (nilakshi.gunatillaka@monash.edu)

Our team

• Liz Sturgiss, Director
• Nilakshi Gunatillaka, Program Manager
• Jenny Advocat, Research Fellow
• Kimberley Norman, Research Fellow
• Binh Ta, Research Fellow
• Divya Ramachandran, Adjunct Research Fellow
• Pallavi Prathivadi, Adjunct Senior Lecturer
• Naomi Macpherson, Research Officer
• Lin Chai, Research Officer
• Akma Yunus, PhD Scholar
• Kellie West, PhD Scholar
• Neha Giri, Doctor of Physiotherapy candidate
• Talina Bayeleva, Research Assistant

Working with us

We welcome enquiries from community organisations and partners on the issues that matter to them most.

• To discuss partnerships and how we can collaborate with your organisation, please contact Nilakshi Gunatillaka (nilakshi.gunatillaka@monash.edu)
• If you are a researcher who is interested in collaborating with our team, please contact Liz Sturgiss (liz.sturgiss@monash.edu)
• We are keen to grow the next generation of primary care researchers. If you are a Higher Degree by Research (PhD) candidate, Honours or Masters candidate, please contact Liz Sturgiss (liz.sturgiss@monash.edu). You can also see some of the current opportunities for research supervision online

Current projects

• The REACH Project - Alcohol harm reduction by increasing the use of brief interventions in primary care
• The Real 5As - Clinician education skill building to support patients with lifestyle change or treatment adherence
• The Change Program - A GP-delivered weight management program for use in general practice
• The ECLIPSe Project - Video taping real-life general practice consultations to explore what makes an ideal consultations from the perspective of low-income patients who are living with obesity
• The Deep End Living Lab - Within the National Centre for Healthy Ageing, we are working towards health and social care integration for priority populations, including people experiencing unstable housing
• CRISP - Consensus Reporting Items for Studies in Primary Care - an international, interprofessional, interdisciplinary initiative to help improve the reporting of primary care research.
• Therapeutic alliance in general practice - a quantitative survey to measure the strength of the working alliance between a GP and patient.

Research webinars

June 2023

Homelessness and healthcare research: insights from “The Deep End” movement in Scotland and Australia.

Join us for an insightful webinar on the Deep End movement in Scotland and Australia, which brings together GPs and others working in primary care to deliver better care for people experiencing significant disadvantage, including homelessness. Find out about our research and advocacy outcomes, as well as our planned work.

November 2022

Alcohol harm reduction in pregnancy: practical approaches for frontline clinicians.

Prof Carl May- May 2022

Qualitative studies of innovations in treatment, organisation, and delivery of healthcare care services: how the normalization process theory coding manual can help.