THEN AND NOW: A few things I learnt about health over a long time of making mistakes and a few lucky breaks

A reflection on the realities of service delivery in resource-poor communities, the importance of good mentoring and life-changing moments, and the ability of effective  community-based research to change policy and delivery models. Most of all is the impact of meeting people along the way and being changed by that (for the better). Some thoughts on contemporary research paradigms (the innovation-crushing effect of peer review and the compartmentalisation of “health”), insights from Indigenous approaches to knowledge and practice and how “progress” is not always in the forward direction. Last, some insights from Hedgehogs and Foxes.

Robyn McDermott (BFA, MBBS, MPH, PhD, FAFPHM) is a public health doctor who worked as a clinician (and later as a population health researcher) in rural and remote parts of Australia, SE Asia and the Pacific including consulting roles with WHO, IOM, AusAID (DFAT), UNHCR, Save the Children, PWC, McKinsey and various state governments. She served as President of the Australasian Faculty of Public Health Medicine during AMC accreditation for the Faculty and later as Pro Vice Chancellor of Health Sciences at the University of South Australia (now Adelaide University), NHMRC Practitioner Fellow and on many NHMRC and NZHRC grant review panels.