Magnolia Cardona

Associate Professor Magnolia Cardona is a health services researcher with a passion for ensuring high quality care of disadvantaged populations. Her work over the past few years has focused on the identification and reduction of overtreatment of older patients near the end of life.

Since 2014 she has led a program of research to improve end-of-life care for patients, families and health professionals (https://newsroom.unsw.edu.au/news/health/sense-ending). Central to this was the development, implementation and validation of a checklist for identifying terminal patients and facilitating doctor's conversations with patients and families about end-of-life care preferences. See CriSTAL project page, available at:

https://swscs.med.unsw.edu.au/project/validation-cristal-criteria-screening-and-triaging-appropriate-alternative-care

Another research initiative which recently attracted international media attention was a review of unnecesary treatments in hospitals at the end of life. The global publicity indicated that these sensitive topics apply across cultures and highlighted the willingness of clinicians and service managers to address them in several health systems.

http://theconversation.com/doctors-still-provide-too-many-dying-patients-with-needless-treatment-61091

https://croakey.org/please-dont-let-this-happen-to-me-too-much-medicine-at-the-end-of-life/

http://newsroom.unsw.edu.au/news/health/global-analysis-finds-unnecessary-end-life-treatment-widespread

Her research program supports Dying to Know Day, a time to bring conversations on the importance of stating your last wishes before it is too late.

https://newsroom.unsw.edu.au/news/health/day-voice-your-dying-preferences

The Palliative Medicine journal awarded her team a Paper of the Year Award in 2016 for a systematic review on the perceived and actual benefits of advance care documentation

https://eapcnet.wordpress.com/2017/08/23/palliative-medicine-paper-of-the-year-award-helping-clinicians-engage-in-end-of-life-discussions-with-older-dying-patients/

A/Prof Cardona has a background in Medicine from Latin America with Australian postgraduate qualifications in Public Health (MPH) and Applied Epidemiology (PhD and Grad Dipl Appl Epidemiology).

She has worked with international aid agencies in Europe and Africa, at State Health Departments and Universities in Australia, and has eight years experience teaching at the Master's level. Her research interests are health services research, health program evaluation, patient safety, end-of-life care, chronic disease prevention (diabetes, cardiovascular disease, cancer), international health, pharmacoepidemiology and evidence-based health policy.