Teesside University links up with leading Australian academic

Healthcare research at Teesside has received an international boost with the founder of a leading Australian research centre visiting the University to find out more about the work that goes on.

A partnership has been struck up with the Joanna Briggs Institute, (JBI), based at the University of Adelaide, in South Australia.

JBI is an international, not-for-profit, research centre which works with over 80 collaborating centres worldwide to assist in the improvement of global healthcare.

Professor Alan Pearson, who founded JBI in 1996, was welcomed to Teesside University by academics from the School of Health & Social Care and during his visit he talked to them in-depth about their various research projects.

Dr Sharon Hamilton, a Reader in Nursing in the School of Health & Social Care, hosted the visit. She was recently awarded a Winston Churchill Memorial Trust Fellowship and later this year will travel to Australia to see first-hand how Australian clinical staff approach the issue of patient safety.

'I have been particularly impressed to learn about some of the research that takes place at Teesside University – it fits in very well with the work we do at JBI,' explained Professor Pearson.

'I have been told about some very interesting research on obesity, pain management and the relationship between obesity and chronic pain.'

Teesside University’s School of Health & Social Care is bidding to become a collaborating centre of JBI which will help to provide international research opportunities.

There are just three collaborating centres in England, with Teesside University bidding to become the fourth.

Professor Paul Keane OBE, Dean of the School of Health & Social Care, believes that becoming a collaborating centre will be a huge boost for the School of Health & Social Care and the University as a whole.

He said: 'It will raise the profile of our research, nationally and internationally, and expand the research base of our Health and Social Care Institute.

'Becoming a collaborating centre will also help us to attract research grants and bring more international students to Teesside University. It really will have a significant impact.'

Dr Hamilton said: 'I have visited JBI centres in Australia and England and am incredibly excited about the prospect of Teesside University becoming a collaborating centre.'

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