Helena Britt BA, PhD (Director)

Helena is Associate Professor and Director of the Family Medicine Research Centre. She is a psychologist but her Doctorate is in general practice. She has worked in general practice health services research for over thirty years. Her major interests are in methodological development, data quality, classification and the development of data standards. Her philosophy is that dirty data are worse than no data.

Graeme Miller is an Associate Professor and Medical Director of the FMRC. A general practitioner and Fellow of the RACGP, he was a principal in a large group general practice in Sydney for over 20 years and subsequently Director of the Department of General Practice at Westmead Hospital. He was a member of the RACGP Council for over 10 years including terms as Chairman of Council and Honorary Secretary. He was Director of Standards Development for the College for two years. He is a member of the Wonca International Classification Committee and chair of its Terminology and EHR Structure Working Group.

Joan has a degree in Health Information Management [BAppSc (HIM) HONS 1] (March, 2000), and a PhD (Medicine) (March, 2008), both from the University of Sydney . She has been employed with the FMRC since January 1999. For most of that time, her main responsibilities were co-ordination of SAND, questionnaire design and liaising with ethics on stakeholders' behalf. In January 2008 she was appointed to academic staff as a senior research fellow and continues to work at the Centre.

Jan Charles has worked in general practice research since 1987 and is project manager of BEACH, co-ordinating various aspects of the research process. She has also developed and maintained CAPS (Coding Atlas for Pharmaceutical Substances), the system used to classify the medication data gathered in the BEACH program.

Lisa Valenti is a senior analyst for the FMRC. She joined in May 2000, having previously worked in London on a European study of Toxoplasmosis, and in Newcastle NSW on the worldwide MONICA study of cardiovascular disease. Current research interests include questionnaire design and overweight and obesity.

Ying has worked in FMRC since October 2000. She used to work as a research assistant in National Centre in HIV Epidemiology and Clinical Research (NCHECR). Now her major duties are providing statistical reports for SAND – the sub-study of BEACH project and generating standard/non-standard reports for stakeholders or relevant organisations. Her research interests are antibiotic prescribing and children's health.

 Christopher Harrison joined the University of Sydney's Family Medicine Research Centre (FMRC) in March 2002. He has both a Bachelor of Psychology (with Honours) and Masters of Social Health from Macquarie University and was a registered psychologist for several years. Currently a PhD candidate investigating the effect of the ageing population on general practice. Mr Harrison's study interests include the effect of vaccinations and the prevalence and patterns of multimorbidity.

Allan Pollack MB BS (Hons), MBiomedE, FRACS (Orth) (Research Analyst)

Allan joined the FMRC in April 2012, after working as an orthopaedic surgeon in Sydney for more than 20 years and then further studies in Public Health.

Clare has a degree in Health Information Management [BAppSc (HIM) Hons] from the University of Sydney. She has worked for the FMRC since 2002. She is responsible for the coordination of SAND, questionnaire design and liaising with ethics on stakeholders' behalf. Her duties also include the coordination and editing of the BEACH reports. She is currently enrolled in a PhD relating to the quality of pathology ordering by Australian general practitioners.

 Julie has worked at the FMRC since 2002. She has an Honours degree in Health Information Management from the University of Sydney. Her role centres on the co-ordination of classifications and terminologies at the Centre, particularly ICPC-2 and ICPC-2 PLUS. She is currently enrolled in a PhD relating to the application of the SNOMED CT reference terminology in the Australian primary care setting.

Carmen Zhang BHS, MHI (Research Officer)

Carmen joined the FMRC in January 2009. She has a Bachelor degree in Health Science and a Masters in Health Informatics from the University of Sydney. Carmen's role centres on ensuring data quality, training of coding staff and general research assistance to the BEACH program. She is also involved in classifications and the maintenance of ICPC-2 PLUS.