Meet MCCC’s Research Team

MCCC Research Unit

Members of the MCCC Research Portfolio come from a variety of backgrounds to inform research across the organisation. In late 2018, a research committee was also established and members developed a Research Strategic Plan which is now being executed.

MCCC Research Portfolio Team: Duncan Howard, Christine Bottrell, Nicole White.

MCCC Research Committee Members: Gerard Ingham, Meredith Temple-Smith, Mark Burgemeister, Manisha Fernando, Angelina Salamone, Greg McMeel, Hilda Jessop, Karen Aarons, Eldon Lyon, Paul Grinzi.

Dr Duncan Howard

Research – Education Portfolio Team Leader

Duncan is a general practitioner working in Brunswick, inner northern Melbourne.  He has been involved in GP training for many years, starting as a Trainee Research and Development Officer (TRADO, now known as RRADO) in the Family Medicine Program.  He worked as an area Medical Educator, GP Supervisor, and is now Director of Research at MCCC.

Duncan has a Master of Medical Anthropology from the University of Melbourne and an ongoing interest in people’s lived experience of health and illness including beliefs and practices.  He believes that a good GP has some of the characteristics of a good anthropologist, including curiosity, respect and reflexivity.

Duncan is the Principal Investigator of the Metamorphosis project which maps the journey of the GP Registrar using a narrative inquiry approach. He is also part of the research team for the ‘Video Clubs as a Professional Development Activity for GP Supervisors’ project. As Director of Research Duncan is passionate about developing the research capacity of MCCC, focusing on outcomes that increase research literacy, promote research engagement and inform the delivery of high-quality GP education.

Dr Christine Bottrell

Senior Research Fellow

Christine joined MCCC in 2018 as a Senior Research Fellow on the ‘Metamorphosis’ project which maps the journey of the GP Registrar. The methodology for this project, which was conducted in partnership with EVGPT, has been designed to reflect the lived experience of a cohort of GPT1 registrars through audio reflections which develop a conversation about GP training and experience from the inside. Christine’s PhD involved both statistics as well as naturalistic data gathering and analysis. Valuing both allows her to apply them for authentic research in the complex area of medical education and the inspiring individuals and teams involved.

In addition to research with MCCC Christine’s lifework moves across research in postgraduate education, through social policy research, education, education and community capability building, creativity, professional learning and corporate learning & development design. Christine’s role as Senior Research Fellow aligns with the MCCC Research Strategic plan and Research Committee which includes a focus on the identification and development of research priorities and research policies of MCCC, contributing to evaluation across the organisation together with connecting strategies & planning to build on the existing research culture across MCCC.

Nicky White

Research Support

Nicky joined MCCC in 2016 as a Training Support Officer. In this role, over time, she has a developed a deeper comprehension of the life cycle of a registrar and aspects of registrar assessment and progression. A former teacher, Nicky built on her education background through the completion of a Graduate Certificate of Health Professional Education in 2017 and becoming a member of Journal Club. It was through this interest in research and health education that she became involved in her first research project – a collaborative action research project involving three RTOs (EVGPT, GPTT and MCCC) titled, ‘The evidence-base, collaborative action research, and a real-time experience’. Nicky was one of four workshop presenters at GPTEC in 2017 sharing findings from this research.

In 2018 she accepted the role of Research Assistant in an RACGP ERG, ‘Supervision of High Risk Early Consultations’. Nicky is co-author on three journal articles written; one is under review and one published: Gerard Ingham, Kayty Plastow, Rebecca Kippen & Nicky White (2019) Tell me if there is a problem: safety in early general practice training, Education for Primary Care, 30:4, 212-219, DOI: 10.1080/14739879.2019.1610078. Nicky presented on a specific feature of this research at GPTEC 2019.

In her more recent role as Research Support Officer, Nicky is involved in many aspects of the MCCC Research Unit, providing support to members of the unit and the MCCC Research Committee, assisting with the creation and maintenance of processes and documents to support the MCCC Research Strategic Plan.