Professor Adrian Esterman

Please keep media enquiries between 8am and 8pm ACT.

Welcome to my home page. I hope you enjoy your visit.

My favourite quotations/poem

"stara koka, dobra juha" which translated means "Older hens make the best soup"

Old Croation saying, mentioned in the wonderful movie Faraway

It is a little embarrasing that, after forty-five years of research and study, the best advice I can give to people is to be a little kinder to each other. 

Aldous Huxley

A little bit about me

I attended Beal Grammar School for Boys in Essex, UK, and left to start work at the age of 16. After several years working as a junior clerk, I enrolled in an Honours degree in Statistics at the University of Bath, graduating in 1972.  This was followed by a Masters degree in Medical Statistics at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine in 1973, supervised by Professor Peter Armitage. I then took up a Junior Research Fellowship at the University of Aberdeen medical school in late 1973 before joining the World Health Organization in 1974. I worked for 5 years at the WHO head office in Geneva, followed by 2 years at the WHO European Regional Office in Copenhagen.

In 1981 I moved to Australia and worked for many years in the South Australian Department of Health as Principal Epidemiologist. In the mid-1990’s, I took a break from epidemiology, and became Managing Director of a market research company. This gave me great experience in survey research, and qualitative research, as well as HR management and sales. However, I eventually moved back into academic life, and in 2002 I received my PhD in epidemiology from Flinders University.

At the University of South Australia, one of my main roles is to provide advice on biostatistics and epidemiology to researchers in the health and medical areas. I am also a Chief Investigator on several research grants. I am the author of over 400 publications and have an h-index of 73. I am experienced at mentoring Research Fellows and junior staff, and of course PhD students.

I really enjoy writing, and have written a number of articles about epidemiology and COVID-19 on the Medium  website. I have also written nearly 30 articles for The Conversation about COVID-19 with over 2.5 million reads.  I have published a book on PhD supervision. I have also become an avid tweeter - @profesterman, with over 39,000 followers. I also give presentations on the current COVID-19 situation to community, business, academic and professional groups.

If you wish to visit me in person (post-COVID-19), it is worth your time checking this link:

How to read a Professor's door

Favourite Music

Barber Violin Concerto

Korngold Violin Concerto

Shostakovic Second Piano Conecto

Anything by Rachmaninov

Anything by Elgar

Favourite Movies 

Blade Runner (1982) 

Never Let Me Go (2010)

The Silence of the Lambs (1991)

Favourite Reading

Any good fantasy series.

Currently rereading the Sword of Shannara series by Terry Brooks. 

PhD Supervision

My supervision philosophy is based on a wonderful poem by William Butler Yates:

I would spread the cloths under your feet

But I, being poor, have only my dreams

I have spread my dreams under your feet

Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.

My students have come from all areas of health, dentistry, or medicine - usually with an interest in evidence-based practice. I have so far had 27 PhD students successfuly complete (12 as Principal Supervisor) , two of them winning the Ian davies university prize for best thesis. I have been nominated by the University of South Australia for a national award for my PhD supervison. 

Current PhD students as Principal Supervisor

2018   Belinda Lovell   Maternal health in female prisons

2019   Milina Crevar   Nutrition, contents and health warning labels on alcohol containers

2019   Larissa Smart   Can child health nurses accurately diagnose developmental dysplasia of the hips?

2020   Kim Gibson   Predictors of adverse events in umbilical vascular access in neonates

Current PhD students as Co-supervisor

2021   Ethel Osazuwa   Rebuilding Life After Migration: Settlement Experiences of Refugee and Migrant Youth

2021   Fintan Thompson   Predictors of dementia in the Torres Straits (With JCU)

2022  Tirani Kodippili   Examining the acculturation process of South Asian migrant youth and their parents in Australia

Current masters by Research as Co-supervisor

2022  Thomas Gleeson-Hammerton   Point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) assessment of pre-hospital patients with suspected or confirmed COVID-19

A little bit about biostatistics

Biostatistics is somewhat different to the discipline of statistics in that biostatisticians are usually trained in university departments of public health, whereas statisticians are trained in university schools of mathematics and statistics. As well as standard statistical procedures, biostatisticians are experts in the design and analysis of clinical trials, the analysis of rates of disease, measures of the association between exposures and outcome, survival analysis, diagnostic testing, disease clustering and surveillance, disease screening, reliability and method comparison studies and biological assays. The statistical analysis of genetic studies has formed its own discipline called bioinformatics, which is somewhat different.

A little bit about epidemiology

Epidemiology is the study of diseases in populations. The majority of epidemiologists start with a medical degree, followed by postgraduate qualifications and training in public health and epidemiology. However, epidemiologists may also originally have started with degrees in medical statistics (like myself), psychology, nursing or many other discipline areas. Much of epidemiology is about the association between an exposure factor (which might be a risk factor like smoking, or an intervention) and an outcome (usually a disease).

This wonderful cartoon is definitely worth viewing:

How exposures are related to outcomes

Textbooks

I am often asked to recommend a good textbook. So here are my current thoughts:

• Basic biostatistics: Essential medical statistics by Kirkwood and Sterne
• Advanced biostatistics: Statistical methods in medical research by Armitage, Berry and Mathews
• Basic epidemiology: Epidemiology by Petra Buttner and Reinhold Muller
• Advanced epidemiology: Epidemiology: Study design and data analysis by Mark Woodward 

For those looking for free statistical software. I can highly recommend jamovi, which including addons which you can download, has a surprising number of features, and can directly import from Excel, SPSS and Stata. You can download it here:

https://www.jamovi.org/

2023 Publications

1. Duffield J, Blanch A, Esterman A, Bochner M. The Use of Neoadjuvant Systemic Therapies in Breast Cancer in Australia and New Zealand : Breast Surgeons of Australia and New Zealand Quality Audit. ANZ Journal of Surgery 2023 Mar 13. doi: 10.1111/ans.18367. Online ahead of print.PMID: 36912120.
2. Ferguson T, Curtis R, Fraysse F, Olds T, Dumuid D, Brown W, Esterman A, & Maher C. (2023). How do 24-h movement behaviours change during and after vacation? A cohort study. International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity, 20(1), 24. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12966-023-01416-2. Duffield J, Blanch A, Esterman A, Bochner M. The Use of Neoadjuvant Systemic Therapies in Breast Cancer in Australia and New Zealand : Breast Surgeons of Australia and New Zealand Quality Audit. ANZ Journal of Surgery (Accepted for publication 24 February 2023).
3. Ferguson T, Curtis R, Fraysse F, Olds T, Dumuid D, Brown W, Esterman A, & Maher C. Weather associations with physical activity, sedentary behaviour and sleep patterns of Australian adults: a longitudinal study with implications for climate change. International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity (Accepted for publication 23 January 2023).
4. Mikocka-Walus A, Stokes M, Evans S, Klas A, Fernando J, Olive L, Anglim J, Esterman A, Westrupp EM. (2023, in press). It’s gone, it’s back: The COVID-19 pandemic-related shortages and mental health of Australian families, Psych, Health & Med (Accepted for publication 14 February 2023).
5. Hopping E, LaHood B, Esterman A, Goggin MD. Assessing the Safety of Teaching Microincision Cataract Surgery with a 1.8mm Incision. International Journal of Surgical Education (Accepted for publication 13 February 2023).
6. Sharp, R, Xu, Q, Corsini, N, Turner, L, Altschwager, J, Marker, J, Ullman, A, Esterman, A.  Community-based intravenous treatment and central venous access devices: a scoping review of the consumer and caregiver experience, information preferences and supportive care needs.  Journal of Community Health Nursing 2023 Jan-Mar;40(1):28-51. doi: 10.1080/07370016.2022.2081506.PMID: 36602775.

Current grants

Mikocka-Walus A, McCaffrey N, Evans S, Knowles S, Andrews J, Esterman A, Fuller- Tyszkiewicz M. Grant Opportunity: 2021 MRFF Clinical Trials Activity: Randomized E-hypnotherapy for Chronic Pelvic Pain Syndrome Trial (REST). $1,300,459 2023 – 2028. (Application ID: 2022322). Through Deakin University.

Maher C, Bogomolva S, Esterman A, Curtis R. Improving physical activity and screen time in Outside School Hours Care through evidence-based guidelines: an effectiveness-implementation hybrid trial. NHMRC Partnership Grant.  $1,398,57. 2022-2026 (App 1105454).

Maher C, Christian H, Esterman A, Nathan N, Rosenkranz R, Lewis L, Cliff D, Milte R, Curtis R. A multi-site guideline implementation randomised controlled trial to improve physical activity and screen time in Out of School Hours Care. MRFF - PPHR Initiative - 2020 Maternal First 2000 Days and Childhood Health. $1,499,840 2022-2024 (APP 2007395).

Nguyen T, Brodaty H, Xiao L, Brijnath B, Schofield P, Esterman A, Crotty M, Andrade A, Bhar S, Kurrle S. e-DiVA (empowering Dementia Carers with an iSupport Virtual Assistant). NHMRC e-Asia. $1,857,364 2021 – 2024 (APP 105614).

Hillier S, Olds T, Maher C, Gill T, Esterman A, Khadka J, Adams R, Hill C, Keogh J.   Healthy Choices: Co-designed community programs to enhance healthy lifestyle choices for people with chronic conditions Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF) – Preventive and Public Health Research Initiative. $780,670. 2020 – 2025. (APP 105492).

Evans S, Mikocka-Walus A, Watts J, Esterman A, Skvarc D. A Randomized Controlled Trial Comparing Yoga, Cognitive Behaviour Therapy and Education to Improve Quality of Life and Reduce Healthcare Costs in Endometriosis. MRFF Endometriosis Grant $893,981. 2020 – 2024. (Through Deakin University). (APP1200214).  

Ziaian T, Augoustinos M, Esterman A, Baddeley M, Arthur N, de Anstiss H, Tsoulis E, Stewart-Jones T, Ghassemi E, Tahereh Pir / Pirhekayaty T. Rebuilding Life After Migration for Young Refugees and Migrants. ARC Linkage Grant $710,889. 2020 - 2023. (APP 104134)

Australasian Epidemiology Association (AEA)

Clinical Oncological Society of Australia (COSA)

Australian Vascular Access Society

Qualifications

• Doctor of Philosophy Flinders University

• Master of Science (Medical Statistics) University of London

• Postgraduate Diploma London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine

• Bachelor of Science (Honours) University of Bath