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Biography

Dr Katrina Giskes is a GP Registrar and is currently undertaking an academic research post through the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners. She is working on a project examining atrial fibrillation screening using opportunistic self-screening stations in general practice.

Dr Giskes completed her medical training at The University of Sydney (2015). Prior to her medical studies, Dr Giskes trained as a dietitian/nutritionist and worked as a research fellow in public health for over 10 years in Australia and internationally. Her PhD (completed in 2003) was the first population-based study in Australia to document socioeconomic inequalities in diet. She was awarded an NHMRC Sidney Sax international post-doctoral fellowship (2004-2008) and worked on various projects relating to socioeconomic health inequalities at Erasmus University in the Netherlands.

She has also lectured in research methods and nutrition and dietetics, and has supervised a number of PhD students to completion. Dr Giskes is keen to apply her research skills in the primary care setting to develop screening opportunities and systems to detect asymptomatic atrial fibrillation in older adults, and thereby reduce the incidence of avoidable strokes.

Projects

Collaboration with researchers in Toyama (Japan) to investigate the incremental yield of annual screening

Patient self-screening using a smartphone ECG to identify recurrence of postoperative atrial fibrillation after non-cardiac surgery and medical admissions in Concord Hospital, Royal Perth Hospital, and Gosford Hospital

Collaboration with the Poche Centre to screen for atrial fibrillation in Indigenous Australians in remote and rural NSW, NT, and WA

Patient self-screening for atrial fibrillation in general practice using screening stations