Professor Fiona Stanley AC

Professor Stanley's career has focussed on the importance of using population data and research to provide significant health, social and economic benefits to the community.

Her research work involves conducting and supervising studies in maternal and child health. Main areas include

• record linkage and analysis of population data for epidemiological and public health research
• collaborations to link research policy and practice
• strategies to enhance health and well-being in populations
• the causes and prevention of birth defects and major neurological disorders particularly the cerebral palsies
• the causes and lifelong consequences of low birth weight and other pre- and postnatal problems
• patterns of maternal and child health in Aboriginal and caucasian populations.

In 1979 her group of researchers established the WA Maternal and Child Health Research Data Base. It is a unique collection of data on births from the entire state so that the research has a whole of population (and hence an unbiased) approach. It is an effective resource for describing trends in maternal and child health and the effect of preventive programs.

She is a Chief Investigator on the NHMRC Program Grant "Early developmental pathways linking health, disability, education, welfare and justice."