South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute (SAHMRI)

Taylor Wilson was based in Adelaide, Australia for her international placement. She writes: "During my time at Wardliparingga (SAHMRI - Aboriginal Health Equity Theme) I had the personal learning goal of gaining experience around scientific knowledge translation (SKT) (effective verbal and non-verbal ways of communicating scientific knowledge to patients) and scientific literacy on lay perspectives of chronic diseases. Furthermore, to create a better understanding how health practitioners can better communicate to participants and community members in ways that maximise the participant’s ability to understand and advocate for their own health. I spent most of my time working with the Aboriginal Diabetes Study (ADS). The ADS emerged out of the need to understand the burden, natural history, and complication development of Type 2 diabetes amongst Aboriginal people in South Australia. The research study has currently gathered information from approximately 1200 Aboriginal adults 15 years and older across 19 population clusters in South Australia through a phenotypic assessment which collected data on demographics, psychosocial status, cardiometabolic risk, and clinical status. My role in the project was to evaluate how ADS research team members interacted with study participants in ways that provided brief intervention around scientific knowledge translation and health literacy during the time they spend in the clinic so that participants leave the clinic with as much information and knowledge as they want and need to then move on and advocate for themselves when they connect back to their local health care system."