Ms Jesia Berry

Biography/ Background

BHSc(Hons), MPH.
Jesia has been previously employed as a project officer at:

• The Centre for Pharmaceutical Research at the University of South Australia in laboratory-based research for clinical drug trials;
• The Clinical Epidemiology Unit at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in the field of patient safety research; and
• The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) National Injury Surveillance Unit at Flinders University. Duties involved analysing national mortality and hospital morbidity datasets and producing AIHW reports and journal articles on injury-related topics.

 

Jesia’s thesis is entitled: ‘Postmarketing Vaccine Safety Surveillance Using Data Linkage: The Issue Of Consent.’ The PhD is funded by the Australian Research Council as one component of a Linkage Project grant entitled: Vaccine Assessment Using Linked Data (VALiD). Its objectives are to examine the feasibility and effectiveness of linking the Commonwealth’s Australian National Childhood Immunisation Register (ACIR) with national hospital and deaths data from selected jurisdictions. Jesia’s thesis topic involved the conduct of a randomised controlled trial in 2009 of 1,129 parents to examine whether it is feasible to obtain opt-in or opt-out parental consent for childhood vaccine safety surveillance, followed by a survey of 2002 South Australians about attitudes to data linkage and opinions on the need for consent. The thesis will be by publication and will comprise four publications submitted to peer-review journals.

Awards & Achievements

Student travel bursary award. $400 award given in recognition of exemplary abstracts. Australasian Epidemiological Association of Australia Conference ‘Combining Tradition and Innovation’; 2011 Sep 19-21; Perth.

RF Whelan Prize, 30th Annual Australasian Society for Clinical and Experimental Pharmacologists and Toxicologists (ASCEPT); 1996.

Teaching Interests

Casual tutor:

Introduction to Biostatistics (2012) and Biostatistics II (2011-2012) and Public Health 1A (2009-2010,2012) & 1B (2010) Discipline of Public Health, University of Adelaide

Epidemiology & Biostatistics (2004-2008), and Master of Clinical Rehabilitation (2007-2008), School of Medicine, Flinders University

 

Research Interests

Jesia’s goals after completion of her PhD are to continue working in data analysis for public health research, preferably using linked data or otherwise acquiring new skills in statistical analysis. She has broad areas of interest, including child health and vaccine safety surveillance, and injury surveillance in general.

Research Funding

Australian Research Council APAI scholarship.

Publications

Papers during candidature:

Harrison JE, Berry JG, Jamieson L. Head and Traumatic Brain Injuries among Australian youth and young adults, July 2000 – June 2006. Brain Inj 2012 (In press).

Berry JG, Ryan P, Braunack-Mayer AJ, Duszynski KM, Xafis V, Gold MS; Vaccine Assessment Using Linked Data (VALiD) Working Group. A randomised controlled trial to compare opt-in and opt-out parental consent for childhood vaccine safety surveillance using data linkage: study protocol. Trials 2011;12:1, doi 10.1186/1745-6215-12-1

Berry JG, Jamieson LM, Harrison JE. Head and traumatic brain injuries among Australian children, July 2000-June 2006. Inj Prev 2010;16:198-202.

Berry JG, Harrison JE, Ryan P. Hospital admissions of Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians due to interpersonal violence, July 1999 to June 2004. Aust N Z J Public Health 2009;33:215-22.

Professional Associations

Australasian Epidemiological Association (AEA)

Public Health Association of Australia (PHAA)

Entry last updated: Friday, 9 Mar 2012