• Welcome to new members of the EPP group:
  • Minnie Salmon – Minnie will be a research assistant within the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health program. 
• Congratulations to Katie Thurber, who was conferred her PhD on August 31^st
• Alice Richardson was selected as the 2017 Visiting Fellow at the Victorian Centre for Biostatistics. Before the end of the year Alice will spend two weeks with ViCBiostat researchers at the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute, both presenting and attending talks, and meeting researchers with a view to advancing current projects and commencing new ones.
• Ellie Paige has been awarded a Centre of Research Excellence in Medicines and Ageing (CREMA) grant to support her pharmacoepidemiological research.
• Katie Thurber has been appointed to the Department of Health Human Research Ethics Committee.
• On the 14th of August, with the NSW Opposition Attorney General, the Hon Paul Lynch, Jill Guthrie was interviewed by ABC Orange about the Cowra Justice Reinvestment research project.
• On behalf of the Prof Vickie Hovane, Jill Guthrie attended a meeting of the National Plan Implementation Executive Group of National Strategy (23rd August 2017) to reduce violence against women and their children, and presented on the Family and Community Safety (FaCtS) for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples study.
• Jill Guthrie has been invited to the following events to present on Justice Reinvestment
• 5 September:  Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy Research (CAEPR)
• 13 September:  The Aboriginal Advisory Council of Corrective Services NSW
• 6 October:  Keynote speaker for the Australasian Corrections Education Association conference 2017
• Ray Lovett has been selected to have intensive media training as part of “National Science Week”.
• Cathy Day was interviewed on ABC Canberra radio in regards to the history of marriage.  http://www.abc.net.au/radio/canberra/programs/drive/drive/8787744 (Starts 1:01:54 - Ends 1:14:26) 
• The Study of Environment on Aboriginal Resilience and Child Health (SEARCH) Forum was held on the 11^th of August. Speakers included the Indigenous Health Minister Ken Wyatt and a large number of Aboriginal leaders.
• Jill Guthrie is making a submission to the Australian Law Reform Commission Enquiry into the incarceration rate of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, due 4^th of September.
• On the 3^rd of August, the first program meeting for the Department of Health Absolute cardiovascular disease risk assessment in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people program of work, which brought together all investigators.
• The National Death Index data are now linked to the 45 and Up Study platform, providing additional data on deaths in study participants occurring outside NSW.

Publications:

• Richardson, A., Neeman, T., Yoon, H.-J., and Haslett, S. (2017). Statistical response to issues with the determination of the troponin 99th percentile. Clinical Biochemistry. DOI: 10.1016/j.clinbiochem.2017.08.007
• Richardson, A. and Lidbury, B.A. (2017). Enhancement of hepatitis virus immunoassay outcome predictions in imbalanced routine pathology data by data balancing and feature selection before the application of support vector machines. BMC Medical Informatics and Decision making 17, 121. DOI: 10.1186/s12911-017-0522-5