Associate Professor Magnolia Cardona

Associate Professor in Implementati

School of Psychology
Faculty of Health and Behavioural Sciences

Overview

Dr Magnolia Cardona is Associate Professor of Implementation Science at the School of Psychology. She joined in 2023 to lead a series of social connectedness interventions for youth and older people into the community. She has over two decades’ experience in coordinating, monitoring, teaching and leading evaluation of programs in a range of countries using multiple methodologies. Magnolia's research has been implemented in emergency departments, hospital wards, aged care services, general practice and the community in Australia and internationally in Australia, Europe and the US. She is a trained doctor with post-graduate qualifications in public health, Applied Epidemiology and has a PhD from Sydney University.

The past 15 years have been focused on gathering of primary and secondary data to build evidence for practice change in several health systems, with a focus on gerontology, chronic disease and prevention of overtreatment. Her research/evaluation experience spans quantitative research (cohort studies, randomised trials, cross-sectional surveys, retrospective data analysis, systematic reviews) and qualitative research (focus group discussions, nominal group techniques) and engagement in consumer co-design.

Magnolia has published 95 articles, 3 book chapters, one book and many technical reports, and attracted over $2.9 million in competitive research funding. Magnolia has presented at many local, national and international conferences. She is committed to coaching, publishing, and disseminating researhc findings at key stakeholder meetings and lay audiences, as well as feeding back relevant beneficiary groups.

Research Interests

  • Implementation Science and Evaluation
  • Health and Community services
  • Public Health and Health Services
  • Gerontology

Research Impacts

Dr Cardona developed a screening tool to identify older people with comorbidities who are in their last few months of life. Its predictive validity is high as demonstrated in several hospital studies covering over 7,000 patients and earned her quality awards and competitive grants for its translation into practice. Clinicians in Australian and Denmark, England, Ireland, USA and Spain have used it to ascertain applicability. Her Triage tool to assist clinical decision-making during pandemics and period of healthcare resource shortages was also welcome by doctors in New Zealand and Brazil. Clinicians and students have also benefited from the applicability of findings to their work and research projects.

Qualifications

  • Doctor of Philosophy of Public Health, University of Sydney

Publications

View all Publications

Publications

Book Chapter

  • Cardona-Morrell, Magnolia, Zimlichman, Eyal and Taenzer, Andreas (2017). Continuous monitoring for early detection of deterioration on general care units. Textbook of rapid response systems. (pp. 277-287) Cham, Switzerland: Springer International Publishing. doi: 10.1007/978-3-319-39391-9_26

  • Cardona-Morrell, Magnolia and Hillman, Ken (2017). Dying safely. Textbook of rapid response systems: concept and implementation. (pp. 289-299) edited by Michael A. DeVita, Ken Hillman, Rinaldo Bellomo, Mandy Odell, Daryl A. Jones, Bradford D. Winters and Geoffrey K. Lighthall. Cham, Switzerland: Springer International Publishing. doi: 10.1007/978-3-319-39391-9_27

  • Cardona-Morrell, M., Nicholson, M. and Hillman, K. (2015). Vital signs: from monitoring to prevention of deterioration in general wards. Annual update in intensive care and emergency medicine. (pp. 533-545) Heidelberg, Germany: Springer. doi: 10.1007/978-3-319-13761-2_39

Journal Article

Conference Publication