Dr Liz Sturgiss is a clinical general practitioner, NHMRC Investigator and primary care researcher.

Liz is a Senior Research Fellow in the School of Primary and Allied Health Care, Monash University, and Visiting Fellow at The Australian National University. As an early career clinician researcher, Liz has experience in implementation research in primary care with expertise in the complex area of obesity management.

Liz leads an emerging research program on the management of complex and stigmatised health issues in primary care focusing on translating guidelines into real-world practice. Her research is based on theoretical principles from behaviour change and implementation science. 

She is a practising GP caring for people with substance dependence and complex multi-morbidity. As a clinical researcher, she has extensive networks with clinical primary care colleagues and in her representative roles with primary care organisations.

Obesity management in general practice

Dr Sturgiss led a research team to develop a weight management program for use in general practice, “The Change Program”. This work filled the implementation gap between the NHMRC guidelines for obesity management and real-world practice. This qualitative research started with identifying a deficit in clinical practice, then collaboration with clinicians, healthcare consumer representatives, and chronic disease groups to develop a weight management program for general practice. The program was designed with implementation and sustainability at the forefront. The program was trialled in five sites (one rural, four urban) and was found to increase GP self-efficacy and was feasible within current healthcare system constraints. It has been rolled out in collaboration with Primary Health Networks to over 1000 GPs in ACT and NSW.

Therapeutic alliance in general practice

This mixed methods research has developed a survey tool to measure the patient assessment of the therapeutic alliance in general practice. Liz led an interdisciplinary, international research team to validate the measure for general practice. The survey tool has now been translated into Dutch and is being investigated by primary care research teams in the Netherlands and Belgium. The tool is a robust, internationally relevant measure of the process of primary care. It is useful for research, intervention design and evaluation, and clinician training.