Derrick is a research data specialist with interests in cardiovascular epidemiology, health services research, pharmacoepidemiology (medicines use evaluation), ageing and frailty, and impact of temperature extremes on human health.  He has experience working with various data types including aggregated data, cohort data, trial data and administrative data.  He has over 11 years’ hands-on experience working on large person-level linked health datasets relating to patient use of medical services like hospital, emergency, mortality, cancer, pharmacy dispensing, and medical benefits scheme.  He continues to build his expertise through involvement with data-intensive research projects within the Cardiovascular Epidemiology Research Centre at The University of Western Australia (UWA), and through collaborations with the Medicines Intelligence Centre for Research Excellence and Australian Cardiovascular Data Linkage Interest Group.  He supervises students on their research projects and is involved in teaching linked health data courses at UWA and Swansea University (Wales).  In addition to data-intensive quantitative research projects, he has experiences in conducting randomised control trials (RCT), qualitative studies, process evaluation and scoping reviews.

• Impact of temperature extremes on health conditions including cardiovascular disease, rheumatological conditions, mental health.
• Randomised control trial (RCT): Comparative and cost effectiveness of different protocols of Pentosan Polysulfate Sodium in osteoarthritis: repurposing an old drug
• Cardiovascular disease epidemiology
• Medicines utilisation studies (pharmacoepidemiology)
• Medication safety during extreme heat

Current professional involvement

• Editor, International Journal of Population Data Science
• Member, Medicines Intelligence Centre for Research Excellence
  
• Member, Australian Cardiovascular Data Linkage Interest Group (previously National Stroke Data Linkage Interest Group)

Leadership role

• Co-lead, Methods and Data portfolio, Medicines Intelligence Centre for Research Excellence (2023-2024)

Service roles to Universities

• Examiner for Honours and Masters’ dissertations for UWA and other Universities.
• Early-mid-career researcher co-ordinator, School of Population and Global Health, UWA (2020-2021)
• Social media co-ordinator, Centre for Health Services Research, UWA (2015-2019)

Other service roles

• Organising committee and session co-chair for the 2022 National Stroke Data Linkage Interest Group virtual symposium
• Organising committee and session co-chair for the 2021 Medicines Intelligence Centre for Research Excellence Annual Research Symposium and Policy Forum
• Organising committee for the 2018 Annual Scientific Meeting of the Australasian Epidemiological Association

Supervision and mentoring

• Doctor of Medicine (MD) student research projects
• Master of Public Health (MPH) student dissertation project

Peer review involvement

I have reviewed for various journals such as BMC Health Services Research, BMC Nephrology, BMJ Open, Cancer Epidemiology, Health and Aging, Health and Quality Life Outcomes, Heart Lung and Circulation, International Journal of Population Data Science, Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, Maturitas, Medical Journal of Australia, and The Journal of Nutrition.  I have also reviewed abstracts for various national and international conferences.

Engagement

• Provided epidemiological expertise to the Australian Urban Research Infrastructure Network (AURIN) on their “Heat health vulnerability index” project (2021-2023).

• Introductory Analysis of Linked Health Data, UWA and Swansea University (Wales)
• Advanced Analysis of Linked Health Data, UWA and Swansea University (Wales)

• School of Population and Global Health seeding grant 2024-2025: Chief Investigator A.  Developing novel epidemiological models to evaluate the impact of heat extremes on human health in the urban setting. $9,600.
• Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences research grant 2019-2022: Chief Investigator A.  Process evaluation: Real-world data to evaluate the implementation of a randomised control community pulmonary rehabilitation trial for people with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). $24,950.
• Western Australian Department of Health Research Translation project 2017-2020: Chief Investigator A.  Pilot study to determine cost effectiveness of extending the community pulmonary rehabilitation phase 3 program beyond the initial 10 weeks. $239,440
• National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Centre for Research Excellence (CRE) in Medicines and Ageing 2017-2018: Chief Investigator A. Identifying barriers and priority areas for building workforce capacity in pharmacoepidemiology research. $27,774
• UWA Research Collaboration award 2016: Chief Investigator B. Comparative analyses of coronary heart disease epidemiology in Australia and England. $11,480
• NHMRC 2014-2017: Associate Investigator. Long-term use and cost-effectiveness of secondary prevention medications for heart disease in WA seniors. $729,513
• NHMRC PhD Scholarship 2004-2008

Research Fellow, Western Australian Centre for Rural Health, The University of Western Australia (2012-14)