An EconoTimes perspective

Magnolia Cardona-Morrell

Doctor, UNSW Australia Dr Magnolia Cardona-Morrell has a background in Medicine from Latin America with Australian postgraduate qualifications in Public Health (MPH) and Applied Epidemiology (Grad Dipl Appl Epid and PhD). She has worked with international aid agencies, at State Health Departments and Universities. Her research interests are patient safety, end-of-life care, health services research, health program evaluation, chronic disease prevention (diabetes, cardiovascular disease, cancer), international health, pharmacoepidemiology and evidence-based health policy. At The Simpson Centre for Health Services Research she is currently leading a program of research to improve end-of-life care for patients, families and health profesisonals (https://newsroom.unsw.edu.au/news/health/sense-ending). Central to this is the development, implementation and validation of a checklist for identifying terminal patients and facilitating doctor's conversations with patients and families about end-of-life care preferences. See CriSTAL project page, available at: https://swscs.med.unsw.edu.au/project/validation-cristal-criteria-screening-and-triaging-appropriate-alternative-care In consultation with doctors, nurses and health service managers she has also designed the evaluation of an initiative to provide a safer environment in acute hospitals through the introduction of continuous monitoring of vital signs among patients admitted to general wards: See the Vigilance with Vital Signs project (VVS) page. The ultimate goal is to prevent unplanned admissions to intensive care and reduce avoidable in-hospital deaths.