Cassandra Szoeke

Cassandra Szoeke is an Australian medical researcher and practicing physician in internal medicine, with a sub-specialisation in neurology.

Cassandra Szoeke
NationalityAustralian
Alma materUniversity of Melbourne, Flinders University
Scientific career
FieldsNeurology and women's health
InstitutionsUniversity of Melbourne

Australian Medical Association

Australian Healthy Ageing Organisation

Szoeke is the director of the Healthy Ageing Program at the University of Melbourne and principal investigator of the Women’s Healthy Ageing Project, which is the longest ongoing study of women's health in Australia.[1][2]

Education

Szoeke earned her BSc(Hons) at the University of Melbourne, before completing her MBBS at Flinders University.[3] She was awarded a PhD in epidemiology by the department of medicine at the University of Melbourne, before completing her postdoctoral studies in public health and policy with Stanford University and Duke University.[4] She became a fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians in 2001.[5]

Work

Since 2015, Szoeke has been the director of the Healthy Ageing Program at the University of Melbourne, which includes the Women’s Healthy Ageing Project, an ongoing longitudinal study of Australian women initiated in 1990.[1][2]

She serves as a councillor for the Australian Medical Association, the peak professional body for doctors in Australia, a role to which she was appointed in 2019.[6] As part of an international collaboration investigating sex determinants to cognitive health, she also serves as lead of the Asia Pacific node for the Women’s Brain Project.[7] She is Chief Medical Officer for the Australian Healthy Ageing Organisation.[8]

Szoeke has held a number of elected management positions in Victorian medical research associations. She served on the Board of Executive Directors for the Western Health Service Network in Victoria from 2012-2015, chairing the Quality and Safety as well as Education and Research Board sub-committees.[9][10]

From 2008-2010, she led the research theme of Neurodegenerative Diseases, Mental Disorders and Brain Health at the Australian Commonwealth Science and Industry Organisation (CSIRO), and subsequently served as a Clinical Consultant in Preventive Health from 2010-2012.[11][12][13]

She is chief editor of Frontiers of Global Women's Health.[14]

Policy

In 2020, Szoeke presented a background paper with the Australian Association of Gerontology as part of the development process for Australia’s Primary Health Care 10 Year Plan (2022–2032).[15]

Szoeke's research has been cited in major policy reports published by the World Health Organisation, Alzheimer's Disease International, RACGP, Melbourne Academic Centre for Health, and the National Academies Institute of Medicine.[16][17][18][19][20]

Research

In 2021, Szoeke published Secrets of Women’s Healthy Ageing (2021), which shared lessons from thirty years of data on women's health and wellbeing from Women’s Healthy Ageing Project.[21]

Sex differences

Szoeke's research showing that hormone therapy may prevent or delay the onset of dementia was included as a chapter in the first book to examine sex and gender differences in Alzheimer's disease (Elsevier, 2021).[22][23]

Her work as senior clinical author on a systematic analysis of dementia for the Global Burden of Disease Study in 2016 showed that more women had dementia than men at all ages, and was the first such work to report global prevalence of dementia by sex.[24]

Health technologies

Szoeke served as clinical lead on the development of the Brainy App, an initiative of Alzheimer’s Australia, in partnership with the Bupa Health Foundation running from 2011-2020.[25]

References
  1. The WHAP Investigators; Szoeke, Cassandra; Coulson, Melissa; Campbell, Stephen; Dennerstein, Lorraine (December 2016). "Cohort profile: Women's Healthy Ageing Project (WHAP) - a longitudinal prospective study of Australian women since 1990". Women's Midlife Health. 2 (1): 5. doi:10.1186/s40695-016-0018-y. ISSN 2054-2690. PMC 6300017. PMID 30766701.
  2. Parletta, Natalie (2021-09-25). "'I would watch every episode': charting the 30-year study into Australian women's ageing". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2023-06-13.
  3. "Epic study provides crucial women's health insight". Alumni stories. 2022-07-26. Retrieved 2023-06-13.
  4. "Center for Midlife Science: The MaryFran Sowers Memorial Lectures". midlifescience.umich.edu. Retrieved 2023-06-13.
  5. "RACP Foundation helps build research careers The story of Professor Cassandra Szoeke". RACP Quarterly. Retrieved 2023-06-13.
  6. "IWD member profile: Prof Cassandra Szoeke". amavic.com.au. Retrieved 2023-06-13.
  7. "RACP Foundation helps build research careers The story of Professor Cassandra Szoeke". RACP Quarterly. Retrieved 2023-06-14.
  8. "Our Team". Australian Healthy Ageing Organisation. Retrieved 2023-06-13.
  9. "Community Pulse - Summer 2014" (PDF). Western Health.
  10. "Annual Report 2013-2014" (PDF). Western Health.
  11. "The Secrets of Healthy Ageing series". CSIRO Alumni. Retrieved 2023-06-13.
  12. Wright, Andrew (2009-05-07). "Dementia: early detection is key". CSIROpedia. Retrieved 2023-06-13.
  13. "Worldwide Who's Who Names Cassandra Szoeke Professional of the Year in Clinical Research". 24-7 Press Release Newswire. Retrieved 2023-06-13.
  14. "Frontiers in Global Women's Health | Aging in Women". www.frontiersin.org. Retrieved 2023-06-13.
  15. "AAG Background Paper- Primary Care and Older Australians - Australian Association of Gerontology". 2022-03-24. Archived from the original on 2022-03-24. Retrieved 2023-06-13.
  16. World Health Organization (2022). A blueprint for dementia research. World Health Organization. hdl:10665/363341. ISBN 978-92-4-005824-8.
  17. Brooker, Dawn; Peel, Elizabeth; Erol, Rosie (2015-06-01). "Women and Dementia: A global research review". Alzheimer's Association International.
  18. "What is the future of Australia's ageing and aged care research". Melbourne Academic Centre for Health. 2021-01-15. Retrieved 2023-06-13.
  19. Blazer, D. G.; Yaffe, K.; Liverman, C. T.; Committee on the Public Health Dimensions of Cognitive Aging; Board on Health Sciences Policy; Institute of Medicine (2015-07-21). Cognitive Aging: Progress in Understanding and Opportunities for Action. Washington, D.C.: National Academies Press. doi:10.17226/21693. ISBN 978-0-309-36862-9. PMID 25879131. S2CID 208652787. {{cite book}}: |author5= has generic name (help)
  20. "Guidelines for preventive activities in general practice" (PDF). RACGP. 8th edition.
  21. Parletta, Natalie (2021-09-25). "'I would watch every episode': charting the 30-year study into Australian women's ageing". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2023-06-13.
  22. Szoeke, C.; Downie, S.J.; Parker, A.F.; Phillips, S. (July 2021). "Sex hormones, vascular factors and cognition". Frontiers in Neuroendocrinology. 62: 100927. doi:10.1016/j.yfrne.2021.100927. PMID 34119528. S2CID 235611390.
  23. Szoeke, Cassandra; Downie, Sue; Phillips, Susan; Campbell, Stephen (2021-01-01), Ferretti, Maria Teresa; Dimech, Annemarie Schumacher; Chadha, Antonella Santuccione (eds.), "Chapter 9 - Hormones and dementia", Sex and Gender Differences in Alzheimer's Disease, Academic Press, pp. 233–267, ISBN 978-0-12-819344-0, retrieved 2023-06-14
  24. Nichols, Emma; Szoeke, Cassandra E I; Vollset, Stein Emil; Abbasi, Nooshin; Abd-Allah, Foad; Abdela, Jemal; Aichour, Miloud Taki Eddine; Akinyemi, Rufus O; Alahdab, Fares; Asgedom, Solomon W; Awasthi, Ashish; Barker-Collo, Suzanne L; Baune, Bernhard T; Béjot, Yannick; Belachew, Abate B (January 2019). "Global, regional, and national burden of Alzheimer's disease and other dementias, 1990–2016: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2016". The Lancet Neurology. 18 (1): 88–106. doi:10.1016/S1474-4422(18)30403-4. PMC 6291454. PMID 30497964.
  25. "BrainyApp". www.dementia.org.au. Retrieved 2023-06-14.
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