Staff Profile

Associate Professor Vanessa McDonald is a research leader in the Priority Research Centre for Asthma and Respiratory Disease. She is a practicing academic clinician  in the Department of Respiratory and Sleep Medicine at John Hunter Hospital.   In February 2011 Vanessa was awarded her PhD from the University of Newcastle and by July 2013  was promoted to Associate Professor for outstanding performance in research.  During her PhD candidature Vanessa advanced a new project area of immense importance to patients and clinicians alike, developing a novel multidimensional assessment that comprehensively describes the symptoms, pathology, psychological status, educational and self-management needs of older people with asthma, COPD and asthma-COPD overlap, and she designed effective treatment approaches that significantly improved health status and biological outcomes.  Since then she has  established a new research grouping within the Priority Research Centre for Asthma and Respiratory Disease.  This Airways Disease Management Group investigates innovative approaches to the management of chronic airway diseases. This translational research programme links biomedicine, clinical effectiveness and health policy development.  The programme focuses on clinical trials of treatment interventions that are individualised and targeted to biomarkers, clinical, functional and self-management needs. Imperative to this programme is a strong interdisciplinary focus, as such she leads a multidisciplinary research team.

During her PhD Vanessa was supported by an NHMRC Centre for Respiratory and Sleep Medicine PhD Scholarship.  Complimenting this she received several other competitive PhD scholarships to support her research training, including the Cooperative Research Centre (CRC) for asthma and airways PhD scholarship, the University of Newcastle’s Barker PhD award and the Hunter Medical Research Institute’s (HMRI) PhD support grant .  In addition to the support awarded during her candidature she has received several other awards and prizes for international travel including the Japanese Respiratory Society Early Career Development award (2013), the TSANZ Dr Janet Elder International Travel Awards (2012), a CRC for Asthma and Airways Travel Scholarship (2011), and a HMRI Pulse Early Career Education Prize (2010).   On completion of her undergraduate degree she received the Royal College of Nursing Australia prize for the highest grade point average in the Bachelor of Nursing at the University of Newcastle.  She have been awarded prizes for the presentation of her research from the Thoracic Society of Australia and New Zealand (TSANZ) and the National Asthma Council (NAC); including the 2011 and 2012 TSANZ Prize for best COPD Presentation and on 3 occasions, the TSANZ Respiratory Nurses SIG prize for best presentation. 

Leadership and Contribution to Discipline

Since 2007 Vanessa has been a member of the Lung Foundation of Australia’s (LFA) National COPD Coordinating Committee and is Co-Convenor of the TSANZ COPD special interest group. She is also a member of the TSANZ research sub-committee.  In 2011-13 she contributed as a consultant and working party member to redevelop the 2013 Australian Asthma Management Handbook and is a representative on the working party to develop the new COPD-X companion guideline.  She is frequently invited to speak at national and state meetings and regularly act as a reviewer for several high impact international journals including the European Respiratory Journal, Thorax, Respiratory Medicine and the Cochrane collaboration.

Publications

Despite having only very recently been awarded her PhD, she have already established a track record as an effective researcher.  She has published over 30 peer reviewed journal articles (over 50% as first author), four book chapters, an economic impact national report, multimedia resources, over 60 peer reviewed abstracts from national and international meetings, and national patient education publications.  She has published in high impact journals including the Lancet, the AJRCCM, Thorax and the European Respiratory Journal.   

Funding Support

As an early career researcher Vanessa has established a successful track record in grant funding from a number of different sources including the NHMRC  and the Ramaciotti Foundation; for which she was independently awarded a prestigious early career establishment grant . She is the current recipient of the Lung Foundation’s of Australia COPD Research Fellowship.  This prestigious research fellowship is awarded annually to one researcher from any medical, scientific or allied health background at any stage of their career.  Altogether she has obtained research funding totaling over $1.5 million, of these she is CIA on over 80% of the successful applications.