Associate Professor Leanne Monterosso
Chief Investigator Leanne Monterosso has a strong background in cancer and palliative care nursing research. She is the Associate Professor of Cancer Nursing, a joint appointment between the Western Australian Health Department’s Cancer and Palliative Care Network and Curtin University of Technology. This post is in recognition of her cancer palliative care research and previous academic appointments. A/Professor has a strong cancer and palliative care research track record, published widely and attracted funding from a number of competitive funding bodies including the NHMRC and ARC, and internationally from the Canadian Institute of Health Services. This work has led to her appointment as A/Professor where she works closely with 20 Cancer Nurse Coordinators employed by the Cancer and Palliative Care Network, the Director of Nursing (AI Platt) and the Clinical Lead (AI Hammond). Her leadership of this project will continue her contribution to the improvement of care for people affected by cancer and their families. Her work has been used to change health policy in paediatric palliative care and cancer, and clinical practice not only in Western Australia and the wider Australian community, but also internationally. A recent example is the use of A/Professor Monterosso’s research findings by the WA Department of Health to form the guidelines for the development of the first state-wide paediatric palliative care service in Western Australia that was recently launched in June 2008.
A/Professor Monterosso has previously led research teams at Edith Cowan University, Princess Margaret Hospital for Children’s Oncology Total Care Unit and a multidisciplinary multi-site NHMRC funded national paediatric cancer research team. A/Professor Monterosso has successfully supervised PhD, M Nursing and Honours students in the areas of cancer, palliative care, HIV Aids, involving paediatric and adult populations. During her career she has been was awarded numerous academic and leadership awards including the Edith Cowan University Research Medal and Faculty Medals for her doctoral work, and more recently Nurse Researcher of the Year (2005) by the WA Nurses and Midwives Board. In the past 10 years she has been successful in obtaining over $1,950,000 in grants and has published 24 refereed journal articles, 4 reports and was invited to write a book chapter. CIA Monterosso is regularly invited to present at national and international meetings on paedaitric cancer and palliative care and cancer nurse coordination. She has been invited to review NHMRC project grant applications. She was invited by Professor John Emery and Professor D’Arcy Holman to join’s their IRCO (Improving Rural Cancer Outcomes) trial (funded by the Cancer Council of Western Australia Crawford Rural Grant Scheme) research team to undertake a planned randomised controlled complex intervention study which aims to redress treatment delays and improve rural cancer outcomes, as well as the primary Care Cooperative Cancer Clinical Trials Group (PC4TG) funded by Cancer Australia.
