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Dr Lisa McHugh

NHMRC Emerging Leadership Fellow

School of Public Health
Faculty of Medicine
l.mchugh@uq.edu.au
+61 7 336 55393

Overview

Dr Lisa McHugh is an early career post-doctoral research Fellow at the UQ School of Public Health. As an early career research Fellow in the NHMRC funded APPRISE Centre for Research Excellence, Lisa's Fellowship Project is investigating the impact of influenza and whooping cough (pertussis) vaccinations recommended in pregnant First Nations women, and identifying key factors affecting their uptake in pregnancy. Lisa is also chief-investigator on a multi-jurisdictional NHMRC funded project called 'Links2HealthierBubs'. This Australian project has created the largest linked cohort of individual mother-infant pairs to investigate the uptake, safety and effectiveness of influenza and pertussis vaccines. The project is also examinng the geographical, ethnic and socio-economic influences of vaccine uptake.

Lisa is also co-investigator on a NHMRC funded, multidisciplinary project called COVID-19 Real-time Information System for Preparedness and Epidemic Response (CRISPER). The CRISPER project has recently developed an interactive dashboard that maps COVID-19 cases, and is being widely utilised by multiple state and terrirory public health users.

Lisa's research experience and interests include clinical midwifery, First Nations health research, infectious diseases and perinatal epidemiology, and maternal vaccination. She has been a menber of the Public Health Association of Australia (PHAA) since 2014.

Research Interests

  • Vaccines in pregnancy
    Influenza, pertussis and Covid vaccinations in pregnancy First Nations mother-infant pairs RSV Adverse perinatal outcomes STIs in pregnancy
  • Infectious disease epidemiology
    Influenza Pertussis Pneumococcal Gonorrhoea RSV COVID-19
  • Perinatal epidemiology
    Adverse pregnancy and birth outcomes First nations mother-infant pairs

Research Impacts

Prior to Lisa's research, there was minimal evidence about the safety of influenza and whooping cough (pertussis) vaccines in pregnancy, and minimal international evidence for the safety and effectivesness of both vaccines in pregnancy. As a recognised expert in her field, with existing First Nations collaborators, Lisa led an invited review describing the gaps in safety, equity and monitoring of maternal vaccination strategies for Australian First Nations women (published in Human Vaccines & Immunotherapies, 2020). Lisa's research has identified baseline epidemiology of influenza and pertussis infections and hospitalisations, and has identified key population and age groups at the highest risk of infection prior to the introduction of maternal vaccination programs.This fulfilled a critical gap in the local evidence base identified by WHO. Comparisons of pre- and post-implementation program data can now be made to determine the impact of vaccination programs on infection, pregancy and birth outcomes.

Lisa's contribution to the ‘FluMum’ prospective cohort study has provided unique methodological and clinical knowledge to national immunisation policy recommendations and to the international evidence base. The program sustained engagement with the Australian Colleges of Midwives, General Practice, obstetrics and gynaecology physicians, and hospital networks. With stakeholders engaged at all stages – from setting the vision, research priorities and governance structure, to translating research findings into policy and practice, the program brought a strong mandate to improve protection for pregnant women and infants against life-threatening respiratory infections. Data were presented at a Commonwealth level, convened by the Chief Medical Officer in Canberra (2017), with study findings related to uptake and safety informing a national campaign for maternal influenza vaccination (2018).

Qualifications

  • Certificate of Midwifery
  • Masters (Research), Australian National University
  • Doctor of Philosophy, Charles Darwin University
  • Bachelor of Applied Science (Nursing), University of Sydney

Publications

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Grants

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Supervision

  • Evaluating antenatal vaccines and vaccination programs: filling evidence gaps in uptake, safety, effectiveness and the future surveillance of maternal vaccinations in Australia- The VaxiMums evaluation project.

    Doctor Philosophy

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Available Projects

  • Antenatal influenza and pertussis (whooping cough) vaccinations in Australian pregnancies

    For vaccinations given in pregnancy, most safety and effectivness studies have excluded multiple pregnancies (twins and triplets), due to potential confounding factors related to multiple births (low birthweight, preterm births, small for gestational age, etc). Also, other studies have not had the power to investigate these adverse perinatal outcomes for multiple births due to small sample sizes.

    We have a large, linked cohort of mother-infant pairs from 3 Australian jurisdictions to investigate a number of projects:

    • The agreement/reliability of vaccination in pregnancy data collection methods (perinatal data collection versus immunisation registers)
    • The safety of inactivated influenza vaccine (IIV) and pertussis (dTpa) in a multiple pregnancy,
    • The effectiveness of IIV and dTpa given in a multiple pregnancy, against influenza and pertussis infections in pregnancy and early infancy
    • Building a dashboard to capture maternal vaccination status and influenza and pertussis notifications

    These projects would suit Masters students, or form part of a program of work towards a PhD.

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Publications

Featured Publications

Journal Article

Conference Publication

PhD and MPhil Supervision

Current Supervision

Possible Research Projects

Note for students: The possible research projects listed on this page may not be comprehensive or up to date. Always feel free to contact the staff for more information, and also with your own research ideas.

  • Antenatal influenza and pertussis (whooping cough) vaccinations in Australian pregnancies

    For vaccinations given in pregnancy, most safety and effectivness studies have excluded multiple pregnancies (twins and triplets), due to potential confounding factors related to multiple births (low birthweight, preterm births, small for gestational age, etc). Also, other studies have not had the power to investigate these adverse perinatal outcomes for multiple births due to small sample sizes.

    We have a large, linked cohort of mother-infant pairs from 3 Australian jurisdictions to investigate a number of projects:

    • The agreement/reliability of vaccination in pregnancy data collection methods (perinatal data collection versus immunisation registers)
    • The safety of inactivated influenza vaccine (IIV) and pertussis (dTpa) in a multiple pregnancy,
    • The effectiveness of IIV and dTpa given in a multiple pregnancy, against influenza and pertussis infections in pregnancy and early infancy
    • Building a dashboard to capture maternal vaccination status and influenza and pertussis notifications

    These projects would suit Masters students, or form part of a program of work towards a PhD.

This staff member is a UQ Expert for media in the following fields:

influenza and whooping cough vaccines in pregnancy, pertussis, epidemiology, maternal vaccnation

They are happy to lend their expertise to your articles or broadcasts and share their research discoveries and insights with the community via media channels.

For additional assistance with story ideas, general advice and information or help with seeking further experts, please email the UQ Media Team or telephone (07) 3365 1120.

Links

ORCID: 0000-0001-8580-9551

Scopus ID: 57198299371

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