Summary
Central Queensland Health embraces and encourages research opportunities, allowing important clinical work to inform evidence-based practice, and for staff to develop and grow their careers.
Dr Mohammad Rashidul Hashan has been awarded his PhD by CQUniversity, through working with Central Queensland Public Health Unit.
Dr Hashan was working as a medical officer in his home country of Bangladesh when his interest in clinical research was sparked.
In 2020 he received a scholarship through CQU, supported by Central Queensland Public Health Unit Director Professor Gulam Khandaker’s Queensland Advancing Clinical Research Fellowship program, and received an International Excellence Award.
While he was planning to fly into Rockhampton in March 2020, COVID-19 hit, and the borders closed.
Border closure was a minor speed bump and Dr Hashan started working from Bangladesh, crunching the numbers gathered by the CQ Public Health Unit, and meeting online.
The title of his thesis is: Tackling vaccine preventable infectious diseases among vulnerable populations in regional Queensland through public health unit to provide a best practice model.
Quite soon into starting the program, Dr Hashan got COVID himself, thankfully he recovered with mild to moderate symptoms.
The first paper towards his PhD was published in The Lancet eClinicalMedicine – a globally recognised, top-tier medical journal – underscoring the significance and quality of this work. This focused on the global epidemiology and clinical features of COVID-19 outbreaks within aged care facilities.
Dr Hashan is extremely grateful for the support of Prof Khandaker, and the Central Queensland Public Health Unit team.
“Without all their dedicated work collecting the data it would not have been possible. They really do excellent work, balancing busy operational tasks with wider research projects. I learned a lot with that team.”
He started working as a senior epidemiologist within the Public Health Unit and pulled everything together for his thesis. Five research papers were published in international peer-reviewed journals included in the thesis for PhD conferral.
Dr Hashan has enjoyed his research work but missed treating patients. His dream is to work as a scientist clinician with scope to do clinical work and time to do research as well.
He is working at Rockhampton Hospital to complete training requirements and secure general registration to work as a physician in Australia.
While he was relieved to hear that his PhD has been conferred, he’s now able to focus on clinical work.
His thesis explored to investigate the burden of several vaccine-preventable diseases (VPDs), including COVID-19, shingles, influenza, pneumococcal, pertussis, and RSV, among older adults among residential aged care facilities (RACFs) and examined how a coordinated public health response can improve outbreak preparedness and response times.
The research drew heavily on the work of the broader Public Health team, whose engagement with aged-care facilities, enhanced active surveillance, and timely intervention approaches have led to excellent outcomes across Central Queensland. This success reflects a collaborative team effort, with CQPHU staff balancing demanding operational responsibilities with a strong commitment to data-driven improvement and research. The vaccine-preventable disease (VPDs) surveillance have set an exemplary model to provide real-time evidence to devise strategies to reduce the burden of VPDs in RACFs in the regional Queensland.
Dr Hashan says the journey has been well worth the effort, and he’s loving life in Central Queensland. He says the keys to success are: “Dedication, passion for work, supportive leadership and a positive mindset.”