With a commitment to equity, rigour and impact, Professor Joan Cunningham has worked to improve cancer outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people through collaborative research aimed at understanding and improving the performance of the health system.
Growing up as the youngest child in a very large family in Boston, Professor Joan Cunningham developed a strong appreciation of the importance of equity, fairness, and justice. In pursuing a career as a social epidemiologist, she combined her quest for social justice with a love of using data to understand the health and wellbeing of people and communities.
After moving to Darwin, Australia in 1994, Professor Cunningham began to apply her skills, experience and motivation to improve health equity for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Her work has spanned a broad range of diseases, but her central focus has been on understanding and improving the performance of the health system and making it more responsive to the needs of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and communities.
In the early 2000s, Professor Cunningham joined forces with a small group of colleagues to undertake collaborative work on cancer, which had previously been overlooked despite its growing importance. In Australia, cancer is now the leading cause of death for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, accounting for more deaths than diabetes, kidney disease and respiratory disease combined.[1]
‘A lot of cancers are treatable if they are found early and some are curable, so access to appropriate and effective health services is critical,’ said Professor Cunningham.
As part of Professor Cunningham’s Research Fellowship, she co-led, with Professor Gail Garvey, the DISCOVER-TT (2013-2018) and the TACTICS (2018-2023) Centres of Research Excellence (CREs)[2]. The CREs’ research on cancer prevention, early detection, diagnosis, treatment and supportive care helped put cancer firmly on the agenda as an important public health problem. It provided a robust evidence base for policymakers, service providers and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander organisations and communities and developed a new generation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander researchers.
Cancer is now considered a priority for federal and state health departments and for the National Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation (NACCHO) – the peak body representing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community-controlled health centres across Australia. Policymakers and healthcare services and providers have become increasingly aware of the importance of culturally safe, accessible and effective cancer care for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
‘Ultimately, if we can make health services work better for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people then we can reduce the burden of disease and death,’ said Professor Joan Cunningham.
Professor Cunningham hopes this research will lead to the development and implementation of health services that work better for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. This, in turn, should result in better, more equitable health outcomes.
Next steps
Professor Cunningham says more work is needed to co-design, implement and fund programs and services that are culturally safe, accessible and effective for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Having recently retired from the Menzies School of Health Research, she said she has spent over 35 years trying to do herself out of a job by helping to develop and support Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander research leaders to drive research that meets the needs of their communities. As she looks at the current Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health research workforce, she feels confident that she has succeeded in her goal.
Chief investigator: Professor Joan Cunningham
Administering institution: Menzies School of Health Research
Team members:
- Dr Monica Green
- Associate Professor Lisa Whop
- Dr Abbey Diaz
- Associate Professor Kalinda Griffiths
- Professor Gail Garvey
- Dr Bronwyn Morris
- Associate Professor Kate Anderson
- Dr Tamara Butler
- Professor Julia Brotherton
- Professor John Condon
- Professor Paul Lawton
Grant: Research Fellowship
Year: 2014–2023[3]
Funding amount: $646,339
[1] Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Performance Framework: https://www.indigenoushpf.gov.au/Measures/1-23-Leading-causes-mortality
[2] More information about the research undertaken through these two CREs can be found at: https://www.tactics-cre.com
[3] This report covers the period from 2014 to February 2023. Although the length of the Research Fellowship was 5 years, it extended to over 9 years due to part time hours.