With more than 400 publications and over $40 million in grants funding under her belt, Professor Johanna Westbrook is no stranger to success.

As Director of Macquarie’s Centre for Health Systems and Safety Research within the Australian Institute of Health Innovation (AIHI), Professor Westbrook’s research is changing the way governments and healthcare providers – both in Australia and internationally – approach patient care and healthcare delivery. 

Now Professor Westbrook’s remarkable impact on healthcare has been recognised by the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC), with the Council honouring her with a coveted Elizabeth Blackburn Award for Leadership in Health Services Research at their annual Research Excellence Awards in Canberra.

(Macquarie’s Professor Wendy Rogers was a recipient of the NHMRC’s Ethics Award at the same awards in 2018.)

Professor Westbrook’s award is named in honour of Tasmanian-born Nobel Laureate Professor Elizabeth Blackburn, a molecular biologist who received the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 2009.

It has been awarded in association with a $2.5 million NHMRC Investigator Grant, funding Professor Westbrook and her team to look at ways to improve medication safety in hospitals.

“Our research has demonstrated the enormous potential of electronic medication management systems to reduce medication errors – in some cases halving the rate of errors in hospitals,” Professor Westbrook says.

“Our next crucial step is to understand how to optimise these systems – to increase their effectiveness and safety, and to better integrate them into the everyday work of clinicians, each with their own unique work patterns, needs, preferences and professional cultures.”

Interested in Professor Westbrook’s work?

Read her recent interview in The Lighthouse, where she explains how  electronic medication support technology can reduce drug errors in children’s hospitals by as much as 40 per cent.