Associate Professor Kym Rae

Principal Research Fellow (Second)

Mater Research Institute-UQ
Faculty of Medicine

Principal Research Fellow (Second)

Mater Research Institute-UQ
Faculty of Medicine

Overview

Associate Professor Rae received her PhD in 2007 in the area of reproductive physiology and has been working in the area of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander maternal and infant health and chronic disease since that time. She began as the Group Lead for the Indigenous Health Research group at the Mater Research Institute in a role that bridges the Mater, University of QLD and is actively growing partnerships with the Aboriginal community-controlled health sector in QLD. The importance of maternal health for Indigenous communities has been identified as a critical national research priority by Indigenous communities. Her work has had a multidisciplicinary nature and while always focused on the health of Indigneous Australians she has published in areas including pregnancy and birth outcomes, nutrition, psychosocial health, growth and development during infancy, the use of arts in health education to name a few.She has a particular passion for working in partnership to co-design research projects that support improving health outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders. Her specific focus has primarily been to develop programs that reduce chronic diseases which afflict Aboriginal people more commonly through early detection and diagnosis, health education, and developing a thorough understanding of risk factors that impact on this community. She has mentored her team of staff and students to co-produce and co-disseminate findings from these programs of work and to build research capacity for all team members including those who identify as Indigenous and for those from rural locations of research studies.

Prior to her role at Mater Research, she was the inaugaral Director of the Gomeroi gaaynggal program (2007-2019), which had two major programs of work 1. ArtsHealth for community engagement, health education and health promotion and 2. A Health research program for understanding the development of chronic disease in the Indigenous community through the Gomeroi gaaynggal cohort. Program 1 was successful in transitioning its funding to local Aboriginal community-controlled sector in Tamworth (2019). Prior to its transition, she led a community focussed ArtsHealth program to improve health knowledge, particularly in the areas of social and emotional wellbeing in the community, with the assistance of a team of beginning Indigenous researchers. Over 100,000 hours of community education were delivered through this program. 2. The Gomeroi gaaynggal cohort work has involved the recruitment and retention of a prospective longitudinal cohort of Indigenous women from pregnancy through until the infants are 10 years of age highlighting her expertise in working with Indigenous families during their antenatal and early childhood years. The importance of maternal health for this population is a critical priority to improving the life-long health of the Indigenous communities of Australia.

Research Impacts

Over the length of my career, Associate Professor Rae has been a contributing Chief Investigator on grant funds totaling $14,356,950, with $7,488,310 attained since her appointment to Mater Research Institute in 2020. She is was awarded an NHMRC Clinical Trial and Cohort Scheme grant ($4.7million) as CIA (2023) for the Strong Families Study which is a co-designed longitudinal study with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders. She currently holds a NHMRC TCR Nutrition Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders grant (2019) of $1.12 million which will utilise mHealth approaches with Indigenous women and their young families.

In testament to the national importance of her work as lead of the Gomeroi gaaynggal cohort, she was awarded Prime Minister and Cabinet funds of $1.5million to support her work in the areas of Social and Emotional Wellbeing of Indigenous women (2016) and again in 2019. More recently (2019) while she was awarded a further $1.47 million to see the continuation of its Social and Emotional Wellbeing through the arts program and continued data collection for the cohort of the Gomeroi gaaynggal program, and she successfully transitioned this to Aboriginal control to ensure the community can self-determine the future direction of programs.

She has received 13 personal awards to date and the Gomeroi gaaynggal Centre has the Vice Regal Patronage of both the past and current Governor General, His Excellency The Governor General David Hurley.

A/Prof Rae’s findings from the Gomeroi gaaynggal cohort has identified the significant burden of mental health symptoms suffered by Indigenous women during the antenatal period. Further her work has shown that Indigenous women have high rates of pregnancy complications including; preeclampsia, preterm delivery, low birth weight deliveries, symptoms of early renal disease, and gestational diabetes. Her work in nutrition with the same population has shown that many women in this population are failing to meet the Australian nutritional guide to healthy living, putting them at risk of development of chronic disease development. However, community based programs that incorporate culture and the arts are extremely well supported within Indigenous communities, and modern technologies such as mHealth approaches can also be designed to meet community needs.

Publications

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Supervision

  • Master Philosophy

  • Doctor Philosophy

  • Doctor Philosophy

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Publications

Book Chapter

Journal Article

Conference Publication

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Grants (Administered at UQ)

PhD and MPhil Supervision

Current Supervision