- Diseases Prevention and Control Programs

- Sexual Health

- Blood-borne Viruses

- Primary Health Care

- Migrants' Health

I am an epidemiologist with interest in evidence-based diseases prevention and control programs. My research examines the effectiveness and acceptability of diseases prevention and control programs and strategies. I have worked for more than 12 years in the areas of primary health care delivery and diseases prevention and control programs management. I am a Curriculum Convenor for the MAE Program and a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and have extensive experience in teaching and learning leadership in tertiary education in public health areas. I am a convenor for The Australasian Epidemiological Association (AEA) Teaching and Learning special interest group.

My students are saying I help them to learn. In 2022 and 2023 I received College of Health and Medicine Dean’s Commendation for Excellence in Education for Excellence in Supervision. This are what my students said about me:

"Davoud has a strong adherence to ethical standards that he imparts to his students and ensures high-quality reputable research. Davoud provides outstanding support for his students through regular meetings, valuable timely feedback, and maintaining a flexible empathetic approach for students experiencing hardships or complex needs."

"Davoud exemplifies excellence in supervision.  He provided me with a constant trickle of constructive advice that, rather than steering my MAE journey in any particular direction, watered the seeds of thought that allowed me to find the path myself."

COVID-19 vaccines and Migrants:

Publications:

Summary of results of migrants’ information needs about COVID-19 vaccines survey.

“They said we're all in it together, but we were kind of separated”: Barriers to access, and suggestions for improving access to official information about COVID-19 vaccines for migrants in Australia.

“And a huge factor is …, the people around them”: Sources of information about COVID-19 vaccines among migrants in Australia.

Factors associated with COVID-19 booster vaccine willingness among migrants from the Eastern Mediterranean living in Australia: a cross-sectional study.

Teaching and Learning Projects:

Enhancing Applied Epidemiology Education through Real-World Scenarios. ANU Strategic Learning and Teaching Grants, $15,000, (Project lead)

Decolonisation and Indigenisation of the Master of Philosophy (Applied Epidemiology) Program Curriculum. ANU Strategic Learning and Teaching Grants, $56,000, (Project team member)

• Barriers to and enablers of participating in the Bowel Cancer Screening. This project is open to Bachelor, Honours, Masters and PhD / MPhil students.
• Migrants and health system literacy. This project is open to Bachelor, Honours, Masters and PhD / MPhil students.
• Understanding perceived information needs and information gathering capacity about cancer screening programs among migrants. This project is open to Bachelor, Honours, Masters and PhD / MPhil students.
• Elimination of viral hepatitis viruses as a public health threat among migrants in Australia. This project is open to Bachelor, Honours, Masters and PhD / MPhil students.

• Applied Epidemiology in a multicultural society

If you think I am a right person to support your study please do not hesitate to contcat me. I am also open to new ideas. I preferr students' projects to be in the areas of migrants' health, sexual health and applied epidemiology (work of epidemiologists at Health Departments or Public Health Units).

PhD: Migrants and health system literacy in Australia

Master of Philosophy in Applied Epidemiology, 2023. 1) Investigate the characteristics of community acquired CPE infections in Victoria, 2) Establishing a plan for a national surveillance system for CPE, 3) Modelling the impact of whole genome sequencing (WGS) on CPE surveillance in Victoria. Completed CPE surveillance learning with Charlie from MDU. 

Master of Philosophy in Applied Epidemiology, 2023. Projects include: 1) evaluation of EPIWATCH Syndromic Surveillance, 2) use of open source epidemic intelligence to investigate laboratory incidents. 

Master of Philosophy (Applied Epidemiology)

Applied Epidemiology of Communicable Diseases in the Australian Capital Territory. Projects include: 1) Epidemiology of sexually transmissible infections and blood-borne viruses in the ACT, 2013-2022, 2) Investigation of an outbreak of Salmonella Agona at a kebab shop in Canberra, ACT, 3) Evaluation of the ACT Adverse Events Following Immunisation Reporting System, 4) Gonococcal infections in the ACT and risk factors for reinfection, 2017-2022. Australian National University. (Primary Supervisor)

Applied Epidemiology in Infectious Diseases and Environmental Health in the Australian Capital Territory. Projects include: 1) Assessment of Severity and Symptom Characteristics between SARS-CoV-2 Omicron (B.1.1.529) and Delta (B.1.617.2) Variant Infections in the Australian Capital Territory, Australia: A Cross-Sectional Study, 2) Outbreak investigation of SARS-CoV-2 Beta variant (B.1.351) variant in hotel quarantine, Australian Capital Territory, March 2021, 3) Evaluation and Establishment of an Improved Surveillance System for Salmonellosis in the Australian Capital Territory, 4) Investigating the association between air pollution and asthma-syndrome-related emergency department and community health centre presentations in the Australian Capital Territory, 2015-2019. Australian National University. (Associate supervisor)

Water, wastewater, vaccines and priority populations: Field epidemiology in Victoria, Australia during the COVID-19 pandemic (2021-2022). Projects include: 1) Investigation of a COVID-19 outbreak at an Aged-Care Facility, 2) Estimating the test accuracy of wastewater surveillance for detecting SARS-CoV-2 infected people, 3) Interrupted time series segmented regression analysis for detecting waterborne disease outbreaks by syndromic surveillance, 4) Establishment of a syndromic surveillance of waterborne disease outbreaks, 5) COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy among racial/ethnic minorities. Australian National University. (Primary Supervisor)

From Drug Resistance to Donuts: Applied Epidemiology in the Australian Capital Territory Projects: 1) an outbreak of the B.1.617.2 (Delta) variant of SARS-CoV-2 in a high school setting, 2) a food-borne gastroenteritis outbreak associated with donuts from a single bakery; 3) an epidemiological investigation into factors associated with a willingness to receive a COVID-19 booster vaccine among migrants in Australia born in the World Health Organization's Eastern Mediterranean Region; 4) design of a surveillance system to add the multidrug-resistant organisms carbapenemase-producing Enterobacterales (CPE) as a notifiable condition in the ACT; 5) a descriptive and spatial analysis of hepatitis C notifications in the ACT over a ten-year period. (Primary Supervisor)

Health, Healing and Empowerment. Epidemiology for community policy makers. Projects: 1) investigation of an outbreak of COVID-19 in a predominantly culturally and linguistic diverse group, 2) Exposure to the Family Wellbeing program and associations with empowerment, health, family and cultural wellbeing outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, 3) Evaluation of Yorgum 8 L’s Assessment Tool. Australian National University. (Primary Supervisor)

Applied Epidemiology of Communicable Diseases in Australia. An investigation of the first equine case of Hendra virus in the Hunter Valley region; investigation of a measles outbreak in fully vaccinated adults in HNELHD; an epidemiological study of measles-specific antibody levels in Australian blood plasma donors; a data analysis of invasive group A streptococcal laboratory specimens in HNELHD from 2008 to 2019; and a surveillance evaluation and epidemiological study of invasive meningococcal disease mortality in NSW from 2009 to 2018. (Primary Supervisor from October 2020)

Investigating vaccine preventable diseases and the COVID-19 pandemic. COVID-19 Schools Study. Analysis of national measles notifications, hospitalisations, and deaths from 2012 to 2019. Analysis of two decades of national diphtheria notification, hospitalisation, and mortality data (1999-2019). Evaluation of the COVID-19 and Paediatric Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome-Temporally Associated with SARS-CoV-2 (PIMS-TS) components of the Paediatric Active Enhanced Disease Surveillance (PAEDS) system. (Primary Supervisor from October 2020)

Applied Epidemiology of Communicable Diseases. The projects include investigations of a COVID-19 outbreak commencing at a restaurant in southeast Queensland, a human salmonellosis outbreak associated with live backyard poultry in Australia, the establishment and evaluation of a SARS-CoV-2 test surveillance system used to identify SARS-CoV-2 resident testing in aged care facilities in Queensland, an analysis of site-specific chlamydia notifications in Queensland between 2000 to 2019, and an analysis to assess the effects of pneumococcal vaccination on invasive pneumococcal infection in Queensland between 2000 to 2020. (Primary Supervisor from October 2020)

PhD: Investigating mental health outcome and social functioning in ecstasy and methamphetamine users: analysis of a seven-year longitudinal study. School of Public Health, UQ. Associate Supervisor. One of the publications can be found here.

Honours: Injecting drug use opportunities and reasons for choosing not to inject: A population-based study of Australian young adults who use stimulants. School of Public Health, UQ. Associate Supervisor.