Katharine Wallis

Professor Katharine Wallis is Mayne Professor and Head, Mayne Academy of General Practice and Head, General Practice Clinical Unit at the University of Queensland Medical School. She is a Fellow of both the Australian College of Rural and Remote Medicine and the Royal New Zealand College of General Practitioners currently practising part-time as a GP on the Gold Coast.

Katharine’s research focuses on patient safety in primary care, in particular supporting safer prescribing in general practice. Current projects include RELEASE: REdressing Long-tErm Antidepressant uSE in general practice funded by a MRFF 2020 Clinician Researchers: Applied Research in Health grant; RELEASE: Think-Aloud study with patients to optimise RELEASE resources, funded by the Mayne Bequest; a pilot study in general practice of the 3-Domains screening toolkit for older driver medical assessment in general practice, funded by the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners Foundation / Motor Accident Insurance Commission; and a validation study of the 3-Domains toolkit in older Australian drivers in the Princess Alexandra Hospital Occupational Therapy Driving Assessment & Rehabilitation Service also funded by the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners Foundation / Motor Accident Insurance Commission; and Mind the gaps: preparedness of new general practitioner fellows for independent practice’ project funded by the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners Education Research grant. She is Founding Director of the practice-based research network UQGP Research. Other research interests include medical ethics and medical professional regulation.

Katharine’s alma mater is the University of Otago in New Zealand. She joined UQ in late 2019 from the University of Auckland. Katharine’s previous roles include Associate Editor of the Rural and Remote Health Journal; Associate Editor Journal Primary Health Care; member Health Practitioners Disciplinary Tribunal, Medical Council of New Zealand (2004-2019); member Medicines Adverse Reactions Committee, Medsafe, Ministry of Health (2010-2017); member Perinatal & Maternal Mortality Review Committee, Maternal Mortality Working Group, Health Quality & Safety Commission (2014-2017); and member Ethics Committee, New Zealand Medical Association (2013-2018). Current roles include Deputy Chair of the Australasian Association for Academic Primary Care, Academic Policy and Advocacy committee; and member Oxford International Primary Care Research Leadership Programme, University of Oxford.