By Jen Barwick
Kristin Carson’s career path hasn’t been the most orthodox, nor the most glamorous, but it is one driven by passion and determination.
At a ceremony at Adelaide Oval last November, the 30-year-old medical researcher was awarded Young South Australian of the Year and is one of the youngest senior medical research scientists at The Queen Elizabeth Hospital, responsible for the research activities of more than 25 staff and around 70 projects.
World-renowned universities, Oxford and Harvard, have offered her study placements, but Kristin says there is plenty of opportunity to make a real difference and have a meaningful career here in South Australia.
Earlier this year, Kristin completed her PhD. Quite an achievement for someone who almost didn’t pass her HSC and who had never attended a university until starting her PhD.
“I did no science subjects at high school. In my final year, I worked part-time as a lifeguard and Video Ezy manager and played sport six times a week. Hence, I ended up two points shy of failing my HSC,” she said.
“When I started TAFE, I wanted to be a fitness instructor but I also saw a course for Certificate 3 in Lab Skills. I thought I quite like microscopes, so signed up.”
Kristin Carson (right) on ABC’s Radio National.
While studying, Kristin got a job taking blood at the Women’s and Children’s Hospital – mostly from babies and mothers-to-be.
“I realised I was quite good at it, I could often get the blood from the little ones without tears and could even get a smile at times. I enjoyed the work and the people, it was only then that I genuinely started to think this could be a career,” she said.
She was encouraged to look into research, so Kristin took up a position helping on a gastroenterology trial – moving from taking blood, to collecting poo and vomit.
After almost three years and as Kristin continued her studies, this time a Diploma in Laboratory Medicine, she applied for a research position in respiratory health at The Queen Elizabeth Hospital.
Kristin got the position and began working on a research trial she regards as a career highlight and that still generates positive results today.
“It’s called STOP (Smoking Termination Opportunity for In-Patients) and involved 392 patients over three hospitals. The project recruited patients who were smokers but had come to hospital because of a heart attack or vascular disease,” she said.
“There was already data that showed only around 3% would stop smoking on their own but the trial offered a combination of stop smoking medication (Champix) and phone counselling. In the first 12 months we got 31% to quit.”
Kristin with Health Minister Jack Snelling.
The STOP program continues and Kristin is currently working on a paper that will reveal results collated over 24 months.
Respiratory medicine, with a particular emphasis on Indigenous health, remains the chief focus for Kristin and her team of researchers at the Basil Hetzel Institute for Translational Health Research.
Currently there are almost 70 trials and projects under way – and a number of those trials are incorporating revolutionary new ways of using social media and web-based applications.
“One of our PhD students is looking at youth tobacco prevention in Indigenous youth. Based on a website I designed for my own PhD, she’s now working with gaming developers and positive role models like Adam Goodes, members of the Port Adelaide Football Club and Jessica Mauboy to design games that will help influence positive health behaviour in young people,” she said.
“It will also look at alcohol, nutrition, physical activity, responsible partying. But at a population level, we know that if we can reduce tobacco prevalence by 8% the spin-off benefits are huge – from increasing life expectancy, quality of life to significant cost reductions on our health system.”
Another research project is helping develop electronic resources around the treatment of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease, combining ‘augmented reality’ technology and an ‘app’ based platform.
“It will allow important information updates to be disseminated much quicker and offer doctors better ways to deliver advice to patients – things like correct inhaler techniques,” she said.
“Health should be at the forefront of medical innovation, and innovation in general, but in many cases it’s really not. Just look at our record keeping and health information, which is still mostly paper-based… supermarkets went digital years ago.”
Kristin believes South Australia’s health sector is finally heading in the right direction with its Transforming Health plans and innovations such as the proposed EPAS [Enterprise Patient Administration System].
“There are some great ideas out there, as part of the Transforming Health agenda, but the execution has to be right to get them to work,” she said.
“It needs to happen and I see part of my role now is to inform the Transforming Health process, to help provide a path forward using our research and trials.
“The work we’re already doing has helped get patients out of hospital quicker, reduce readmissions, improve patient care and improving cost-effective delivery of service. What we’re doing now will help inform the next phase of Transforming Health and that’s really exciting and definitely worth staying around to be a part of.”