Associate Director, Research

Professor Harriet Hiscock is Associate Director of Research at the Centre for Community Child Health, Consultant Paediatrician and NHMRC Practitioner Fellow. She is Director of the Royal Children’s Hospital Health Services Research Unit, Group Leader of Health Services at the Murdoch Children's Research Institute, Director of the Australian Paediatric Research Network, and Principal Fellow, Department of Paediatrics, University of Melbourne. 

Her research focuses on common child health conditions, in particular (i) developing and trialling integrated care models, to reduce hospital burden; (ii) reducing low value care (i.e. unnecessary imaging, pathology testing and medication); (iii) optimising care for common mental health conditions such as ADHD and anxiety. She is also interested in improving child health outcomes through paediatric, secondary care-based research including e-health. She is driving this research through the Australian Paediatric Research Network – a research network of 550 paediatricians. She is assisted by a team of about 15 researchers and students.

Professor Hiscock has translated her research into practice including the rollout of her Infant Sleep program to 1200 Victorian maternal and child health nurses, for which she was awarded the 2010 Early Years Minister's Award for Partnerships with Families and Communities. The program has been translated into eight languages and informed content of the federal government-funded Raising Children Network parenting site. She was funded by the Victorian government to extend this training program to 150 GPs in 2011/12 and by the Sleep Health Foundation to develop an online version of the training program in 2013. She has co-authored a report which led to inclusion of a child mental health measure in the Victorian School Entry Health Questionnaire that enables earlier detection and management of child mental health problems.

Awards

• 2014-2017: Career Development Fellowship - National Health and Medical Research Council
• 2012: Fellow's Contribution Award ($150,000),The Royal Australasian College of Physicians
• 2011: Mentors Award - special commendation, The Royal Australasian College of Physicians
• 2010: Early Years Minister's Award for Partnerships with Families and Communities for Infant Sleep Program, Victorian government
• 2010-2013: Career Development Award, National Health and Medical Research Council
• 2009: Rising Star award for excellence in research less than 10 years post doctorate, Murdoch Childrens Research Institute
• 2009: Rue Wright Memorial Prize for best community child health research at the Annual Scientific Meeting, Royal Australasian College of Physicians
• 2007: Centre for Community Child Health Jeffrey Mahemoff Travel Scholarship
• 2001: Young Investigator Award at the Annual Scientific Meeting, Royal Australasian College of Physicians
• 2001: Public Health Scholarship, National Health and Medical Research Council

Contact

Email:  harriet.hiscock@rch.org.au

Project Assistant: Stephanie Newman         
Email:  stephanie.newman@mcri.edu.au
Phone: +61 3 9936 6094