Congratulations, Associate Professor Darshini Ayton

Associate Professor Darshini Ayton Congratulations to the newly titled Associate Professor, Darshini Ayton! One of the Health and Social Care Unit’s (HSCU) Deputy Heads, Assoc. Prof Ayton leads the Unit’s ageing and health services research work, and is a National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Emerging Leader Fellow, with multiple Category 1, 2, and 3 funding under her belt, including with the Medical Research Future Fund and National Centre for Healthy Ageing.

HSCU Head, Professor Helen Skouteris, said she was "thrilled" to announce Assoc. Prof Ayton’s "well-deserved promotion".

"Darsh is an inspiring, passionate researcher and leader. Her program of research links acute care to the community and residential aged care and encompasses dementia prevention, innovative diagnostics for dementia and sector-spanning models of care to improve quality of care and quality of life," Prof Skouteris said. "Darsh is also driving qualitative research across the Faculty of Medicine with a waiting list of people eager to take part in her Qualitative Research Methods course. Our whole team just love working with and learning from Associate Professor Ayton."

We sat down with Assoc. Prof Ayton for a Q&A on her career to date:

How do you feel to be given this recognition?

It is surreal but I also feel very thankful. I have had the privilege of working on a number of innovative and significant projects under the supervision and mentorship of leading academics. This included learning clinical trials and patient-reported outcome development from Professor Anna Barker, clinical quality registries from Professor Susannah Ahern and health services research from partnering with colleagues across Alfred Health, Monash Health, and Peninsula Health. However, I also felt I was one of the few academics advocating for qualitative research to be embedded in our public health and health services research programs. I created, and coordinate, a short course for qualitative research methods that has been running for almost 10 years! We have had over 1,000 participants attend with many leaving the course appreciating the power and value of qualitative research. Being recognised for my knowledge and skills in research methods through this promotion has been really rewarding.

What are the highlights of your career so far?

There are many! Lots of small and big wins along the way. December this year will be 10 years since I graduated with my PhD. I started as what is now called an education focussed academic and was teaching about 60-70 per cent of my time during the first few years post-PhD. While I enjoyed teaching immensely, my heart was always in research. My career highlight has been transitioning from teaching to a research-only role, which has been a massive amount of work to build my publication and funding track record to meet the research metrics. The pinnacle of this highlight was being awarded my NHMRC Emerging Leader Fellowship. It was my fifth attempt at applying for a fellowship. When I logged into the NHMRC system I read the outcomes wrong and thought I hadn't been funded. I felt really bereft for about 30 minutes, until I got an email from our Head of School, [Professor] Sophia Zoungas, saying 'congratulations'! I re-logged onto the system, and with the help of my husband, navigated to the correct area to see that I had been funded after all. It was an emotional rollercoaster, to say the least!

What do you enjoy most about the work you do?

My work is very relational. I love spending time working alongside stakeholders across health and social care to understand what is happening. I learnt a phrase from one of my health service stakeholders. She calls it 'walking the floor'. As academics, it can be easy to be disconnected from what is happening on the ground in practice. I appreciate being invited onto the ground of aged care and health services and that my research approaches enable time to be spent "walking the floor" talking to people from patients and clients, to front line staff, to executives. Each stakeholder brings different perspectives and lenses to what the problem is and what the solutions can be.

What are your goals for the coming years?

I have many! I have a vision to break down the silos between consumers, aged care, health services and researchers. We all operate in our own worlds, and I want to develop systems to bring us together in conversation and knowledge generation. My other vision is to push the envelope for innovative models of care across health and social care. To disrupt what we think is possible and normal and to create change in a system that is overworked and underfunded. I don't know the answers yet... and it is complex and will take many different approaches – but that is what makes this work interesting and exciting!

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