Opening the email containing the AIHW's Sexual and Reproductive Health Monitoring Framework and Data Strategy like it is a gift for me 🎁 So excited to progress national level surveillance of important indicators of quality and access to SRH!!! 🎉
They are now clear they only fund research for terminal illness. Important stuff! And donors can choose what they support, but it does makes me think about the palatability of young people's sexual autonomy. It's a challenge that we still have roads to go in Aust, not in research but society broadly
Sometimes I think about the time my project proposal led to a children's health research grant updating their guidelines. My proposal was improving awareness and access to sexual and reproductive health services through peer support. Not what they wanted!!
I had to add two more... Okay I better stop now, save it for the meeting
Am I TOO passionate about data visualisation, I wonder after creating 10 options for presenting the same data with detailed critiques about how it could be interpreted compared to what we might want to emphasise
An indirectly, soon after my residency, I used my honed journalism and communication skills to launch new research with Lucy Barbour - which lead to over 30 appearances in other media and millions of views across the country! www.abc.net.au/news/2024-12...
Here are some of the things I got to do as a direct result of the program!
A segment for The Health Report I produced with supervision from Tegan Taylor www.abc.net.au/listen/progr...
A feature on The Health Report about my research on period tracking apps www.abc.net.au/listen/progr...
ABC Top 5 applications are now open!!! Last year I was part of the top 5 science, doing a residency at the ABC Sydney headquarters. If you have a PhD and are interested, go for it (or hit me up to chat)
www.abc.net.au/about/media-...
And the fact that research expertise is just one of MANY kinds of expertise that is valued. It really takes away from the hierarchy and competitiveness so ingrained in that research academia culture. It's so refreshing to have that true collaboration with peers in policy, health promotion & medicine
I still get to collaborate with academic researchers (helloooo 📩), conduct research, publish papers. But I am placed somewhere were I can directly support and influence practice and policy. It has been so rewarding, and still very challenging (but let's be real I need that)
Another thought I have about post-academic life is that by their metrics, I'm an 'early career researcher'. But the dynamics are so different on the other side, I'm no longer infantilised. I'm not a junior/novice researcher - I have an expertise that is highly valued and am only 1 of 2 PhDs at work
Working outside of academia in a translational research space embedded with non-researchers has been amazing. I haven't had the scale of "traditional outputs" while I've been adapting, but I have contributed to some really influential decisions that make me so proud.
Cliché opening to a speech/presentation 30 years ago: "Oxford dictionary defines..."
Cliché opening to a speech/presentation today: "I asked ChatGPT to tell me..."
I'm giving side eye!!! 👀 The system is broken, yet it is still so vital that we publish. I accept it's hard to negotiate this tension but far out...
Dr Emma on ABC Radio National!? I'm locked IN 🎧
"I think we should all be more concerned about finding methods of contraception that women do feel comfortable with, rather than trying to persuade them to be more comfortable with what we’ve got" end thread 🧵
They are eager to understand how their bodies work because their education was lacking this, and apps pretend to provide this. I love the quote by Dr Janet Barter finishing off the Guardian article. It sums up where we need to be, listening and taking action (see next & final post)
When we meet people where they are at, we discover systemic issues in contraceptive choice. These systemic issues are being profited on by app companies who claim a silver bullet solution. Some people feel ignored, out of options, and desperate for something else.
This prompts concern and shock for those people using less effective contraception that is failing them. This spirals into Discourse™ about the anti-hormonal contraception sentiment from social media. A reliable blanket blame for a seemingly insurmountable problem.
This kind of statement has VERY HIGH stakes for the user - but the constant condemnation from experts and medical professionals isn't stopping people from using them. This adds to a new study whose press release exclaims the rise of fertility apps in abortion seekers (www.scimex.org/newsfeed/ris...
🧵 Fertility smartphone apps - we love to hate them! But shaming women just digs the hole even deeper 🕳
A new report in the Guardian covers a study examining the tidal wave of false claims that these apps are effective at preventing pregnancy. www.theguardian.com/technology/2...
Scientific diagram of a uterus with a copper IUD inside. Text at the bottom reads "abandon all hope ye who enter here"
Cartoon diagram of someone inserting their finger into the vagina to check a uterus string. Text at the bottom reads "there's no such thing as too much bling!"
An x-ray image of the pelvis with an IUD visible. The text reads "I am on my way to bionic womanhood"
Got my IUD a year ago today and I love it. I made these pics nervously before the Big Moment.
Messaging on Teams is so 2022. We are over here sending text and pics in a shared PowerPoint file
Heaps important. I'm giving it a listen this morning. Great work!
New Father John Misty album came out riiight when I have a big deadline which calls for heaps of time sitting at my desk lost in the numbers. So blessed so grateful
Got to do my fave thing today: making data visualisations that people NEED AND USE, and getting good feedback on it #ChartArt 📈💅
I LOVE a little walk-and-talk-to-myself-break because I am not great 'on the spot' so I like to work out what I think or respond with
Just joined 🫡 science girlie searching for people to follow who post about: reproductive health & rights, menstrual health, sex education, fertility, femtech, big data in health, abortion, contraception, sexology, menopause, cervical/vaginal health and anything adjacent!!