Dr Joemer Maravilla

Research Fellow

School of Public Health
Faculty of Medicine

Overview

Joemer’s main research area is on adolescent health epidemiology and program evaluation.

Joemer focuses on pragmatic approaches in epidemiology to identify social determinants and mental health risks in adolescents including young mothers. Apart from applications of modelling techniques on cross-sectional and panel data, he has expertise in conducting evidence synthesis including meta-analytic methodologies.

Joemer also has an extensive experience in monitoring and evaluation of health and social programs. He previously worked as a research fellow and health systems consultant in government agencies and international NGOs focused on adolescent health and reproductive health services at local and national contexts. Now, he is involved with evaluation of programs targeting young people with complex mental health issues and those who are victims of domestic and family violence.

Joemer has strong research interests on contextualizing adolescent reproductive health through mental health risks, and mental health integration in primary care in low resource settings.

Research Interests

  • Adolescent Health Epidemiology
    My aim is to identify the social determinants of reproductive health using pragmatic approaches in epidemiology. Specifically, my work has focused on mental health risks and outcomes of adolescents including young mothers. I also have strong research interests in contextualizing adolescent reproductive health using psychosocial perspectives, and investigating the effects of mental health integration in primary care in low resource settings.
  • Monitoring and Evaluation
    I have extensive experience in the monitoring and evaluation of health and social programs. I previously worked as a research fellow and health systems consultant in government agencies and international NGOs, where I focused on adolescent health and reproductive health services. I was involved in the design and implementation of evaluation initiatives for programs targeting young people with complex mental health issues and those who are victims of domestic and family violence. I am currently involved in the evaluation of the distribution of take-home naloxone in Australia, as well as the implementation of urban health programs in the Philippines.
  • Evidence Synthesis
    I am involved in a number of systematic reviews in the field of reproductive health, mental health, pharmacy, and health service research. I apply meta-analytic methods to quantify evidence consensus and identify study characteristics affecting results.
  • Big Data Epidemiology
    I currently use multi-site datasets to analyse trends of common public health issues such as adolescent pregnancy, intimate partner violence and opioid use. With these datasets, I implement modelling techniques on cross-sectional and panel data to determine correlates and factors at individual and aggregate levels. I have started expanding my portfolio by exploring machine learning techniques such as natural language processing (NLP). I use NLP to analyse social media posts, clinical notes and other free texts data to detect risks of suicide and domestic and family violence.

Qualifications

  • Doctor of Philosophy, The University of Queensland
  • Bachelor (Honours) of Nursing Science

Publications

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Grants

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Publications

Journal Article

Conference Publication

Other Outputs

Grants (Administered at UQ)

PhD and MPhil Supervision

Completed Supervision