Dr Shandell Elmer

Biography

Shandell Elmer is Adjunct Associate Professor in the Department of Health and Medical Sciences at Swinburne University of Technology. Since commencing her career as a Registered Nurse working in oncology, Shandell has had a diverse work history in the academic, health care and community sectors. She has gained extensive experience in the areas of quality improvement and health service design and evaluation. She has a keen interest in fostering the development of community-based health services in accordance with primary health care principles.

A strong advocate for primary health care, Shandell's research focuses on helping health service providers to identify and respond to health literacy needs and overcome inequity of access to healthcare. She has previously led a variety of health literacy projects focusing on former refugee communities (medication safety), cardiac rehabilitation, compensable injuries (physiotherapy), young adults (presentation to emergency department), and organisational health literacy (health and community services).  Dr Elmer has a particular interest in fostering the development of children’s health literacy and co-developed HealthLit4Kids, a primary school-based health literacy program.

Dr Elmer is currently managing a major health literacy project in partnership with the Gippsland Regional Integrated Cancer Services which aims to identify the factors that influence Gippsland residents’ engagement with health and health care services (particularly those related to cancer prevention, early detection and treatment). This project will use the Ophelia (Optimising Health Literacy and Access) approach to develop health literacy profiles and co-design interventions to improve the health literacy responsiveness of services.