ProfessorJohn Eastwood

Associate Professor Eastwood is Director Community Paediatrics, Sydney Local Health District; Director Early Years Research Group, Ingham Institute of Applied Medical Research, UNSW; and Director Healthy Homes and Neighborhoods Integrated Care Initiative, SLHD. He is Conjoint Associate Professor, School of Women's and Children's Health, UNSW; Adjunct Associate Professor University of Sydney; and Griffith University; and Visiting Academic Sydney Children's Hospital Network. He is an executive member of the International Society for Social Paediatrics; chair of the NSW Regional Committee of the AFPHM and serves on several other RACP committees.

For the last 30 years he has worked as a Senior Health Executive, Public Health Physician, Development Advisor, and Population Child Health Specialist. As Principal Public Health Advisor to the New Zealand Ministry of Health and Director of Public Health Programs for the New Zealand Public Health Commission, John provided national level policy advice on public health matters including: general practice and primary care, maternity services, health system reform, legislative reform, nutrition and food administration, health promotion, injury prevention, cancer control, crime prevention, screening and immunisation.

John has represented New Zealand at the World Health Assembly and provided technical advice to the WHO on health promotion and child health and development. John has also undertaken international development work for AusAID, UNFPA and NZODA which included primary healthcare, reproductive health, health system institutional strengthening, and maternal, child and youth programme delivery in China and the Pacific.

In the past ten years John has secured 8 Government grants for community and health service knowledge translation interventions totalling approximately $29M in on-going funding. The projects have included design and implementation of: five sustained health home visiting programmes (including four Aboriginal projects); seven perinatal coordination site-initiatives; place-based interventions in two disadvantaged communities; and social media initiatives (including Deadly Tots Aboriginal Project and Love Sing Talk read Play CALO Projects). The most recent $1.5M grant (2015-17) from NSW Health, is for an integrated care initiative for vulnerable families.

John's current research interests are in sector capacity building, interagency integrated care, and trans-generational transmission of health and disease. In 2010 he established the Sydney-based Early Years Research Group with affiliates from UWS, UNSW, Griffith, Macquarie and Sydney Universities. That research collaboration is undertaking : EMR data linkage project (2012-2015); cohort study of child surveillance; evaluation of Aboriginal home visiting; Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome Data Linkage study; and refugee children's longitudinal study, and evaluation of integrated care initiatives. John is currently supervising Doctoral students in the fields of: Alcohol and Injury; Well Child Care; Foetal Alcohol Syndrome; and Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome and Out-of-Home-Care.