Celebrating women in science

To celebrate International Day of Women and Girls in Science we spoke to Cancer Council Beat Cancer Project researcher Dr Norma Bulamu about her research and what funding from Cancer Council SA will help her to achieve.

“My role is to provide Health Economics support to projects related to cancer prevention, surveillance, treatment and survivorship within the Flinders Centre for Innovation in Cancer.

I began my career with the goal to work towards solving significant problems in health care and improving population health.  This journey has led me from researching HIV infection in Sub-Saharan Africa, to focussing on public health with my Master’s degree, followed by specialising in Health Economics for my PhD.

Following my PhD it was clear to me that this is an extremely important area of research to improve health care systems for people impacted by cancer.

Through support from the Cancer Council Beat Cancer Project, my research will establish optimal health care solutions to prevent bowel cancer developing.

We will analyse existing data from patients who have been under surveillance for the last 20 years and develop a risk model to predict their probability of developing cancer.

Through health economic modelling, we will demonstrate the cost effectiveness of personalising a surveillance schedule based on their individual risk and hopefully, stop more people developing bowel cancer in the future.”

Thanks to your incredible donations, the Cancer Council Beat Cancer Project allows researchers reduce the rate and impact of cancer for all South Australians. To find out more about the amazing work the Cancer Council Beat Cancer Project researchers are doing, click here.

Dr Bulamu is currently a senior research fellow in Health Economics with the College of Medicine and Public Health at Flinders University.