Professor Susan Sawyer holds the inaugural Chair of Adolescent Health, Department of Paediatrics, The University of Melbourne (2005-), which was endowed in 2015 as the Geoff and Helen Handbury Chair of Adolescent Health. She is Director of the Centre for Adolescent Health at the Royal Children’s Hospital (2005-), a World Health Organization Collaborating Centre for Adolescent health.
The subject of a personal profile in The Lancet (2007), she was inducted into the Victorian Women’s Honour Roll in 2013 in recognition of her contribution to adolescent health and medicine. She was awarded the Victorian Premier’s Award for Excellence in Mental Health in 2011. In 2016, she was the recipient of the University of Melbourne Engagement Award (Department of Paediatrics) in recognition of sustained community engagement, policy impact and public advocacy and the recipient of its Postgraduate Teaching Award in 2018.
She is president of the International Association for Adolescent Health (IAAH) (2017-21).
A paediatrician by training, she has helped develop the field of adolescent health, both nationally and internationally. She is the current president of the International Association for Adolescent Health. Nationally, she was instrumental in establishing the Royal Australasian College of Physician's committee on adolescent health and was its inaugural chairman from 2002-2007. This work established the framework that led to the accreditation of Adolescent and Young Adult Medicine as a specialist field of medical practice in Australia. She currently chairs the RACP Advanced Training Committee in Adolescent and Young Adult Medicine (2019-).
Her research interests focus on health services for adolescents, with interests in health care quality, developmentally appropriate models of care (eg transition to adult health care) and chronic disease management in adolescence. She has expertise in both quantitiative and qualitative research methods.
With over 270 peer review papers and an H-index of 64, she is highly sought after as a teacher and mentor.
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Projects
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Project Types
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Research Contracts
10
Research Grant
Scholarly Works
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Honours, Awards and Fellowships
Citation
Constance Stone Award
Travelling Scholarship
Travelling Scholarship
Travelling Scholarship
Allan and Hanbury's Travelling Fellowship
Post-graduate Research Scholarship
Advanced trainee prize
Post-graduate Research Scholarship, 1991 -1993
Mitsui Education Foundation Scholarship
Inaugural Ken Grice Prize (Dux, 4th year medicine)
FSAHM - Fellow of the Society (US) of Adolescent Health and Medicine
FRACP - Fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians
Credentials
Positions
Geoff & Helen Handbury Chair In Adolescent Health
Paediatrics Royal Children'S Hospital
Honorary
Melbourne School Of Population And Global Health
Fellow
Royal Australasian College of Physicians
Member
AMA- Australian Medical Association
Fellow
US Society for Adolescent Health and Medicine
Regional Vice Preseident (Oceania)
International Association of Adolescent Healht
Member
Thoracic Society of Australia and New Zealand
Education
Doctor of Medicine
University of Melbourne
Bachelor of Medicine & Bachelor of Surgery
University of Melbourne