Dr Sam Toloo Sheikhzadeh Yazd
Faculty of Health,
School of Public Health & Social Work
Biography
Society, Health & Vulnerability- With a formal training in sociology, I have a long interest and experience in teaching and researching the links between health and society. I conducted for my master's dissertation a research in 1990-91 on the socio-demographic factors that affected the severity of and recovery from mental illness among the Iranian veterans of the Iran-Iraq war.
- I then worked as an Assistant Lecturer before attending the Australian National University for my PhD to study the associations of social-psychological and cultural beliefs and attitudes with health seeking and consultation behaviour of the Lebanese Australians in Sydney.
- I have pursued my passion in this area and extended my research to understanding social-psychological determinants of inequality in accessing and utilising emergency health services (including ambulance and hospital emergency departments), as well as community vulnerability to health effects of heatwaves.
Research interests
- Social inequality and Community vulnerability
- Heatwave and Early Warning Systems (EWS)
- Emergency Health Services (EHS)
- Demand for ED and ambulance
- Health-seeking and utilisation behaviour
- Sociological analysis of EHS, providers and users.
Personal details
Positions
- Lecturer in Health Management
Faculty of Health,
School of Public Health & Social Work
Keywords
Demand for emergency health services, Health seeking behaviour, Hospital based emergency services, Pre-hospital emergency services, Ambulance, Queensland, Australia, Sociology of health and medicine, Utilisation behaviour, Heatwaves, health, social factors, Emergency Department, Heatwaves and Community Vulnerability
Discipline
Public Health and Health Services, Policy and Administration, Sociology
Field of Research code, Australian and New Zealand Standard Research Classification (ANZSRC), 2008
Qualifications
- Doctor of Philosophy (Australian National University)
Professional memberships and associations
- The Australian Sociological Association (TASA)
- Australasian Society for Behavioural Health and Medicine
- Research Portal: https://portal.research.qut.edu.au/en/persons/sam-toloo-sheikhzadeh-yazd
- ORCID: 0000-0001-5694-288X
- Publons & Web of Science ResearcherID: V-4465-2019
- ResearchGate: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Ghasem_Toloo
- LinkedIn: https://au.linkedin.com/in/sam-toloo-521b96166
Teaching
I have coordinated or taught into the following courses in Australia (2004 onwards) and Iran (pre-2004):
Pre-2004
- 2019- onwards: Unit Coordinator/Lecturer: PUN453 (Disaster Response & Recovery). School of Public Health and Social Work, Queensland University of Technology. Brisbane, Australia.
- 2019- onwards: Unit Coordinator/Lecturer: PUN452 (Disaster Planning & Preparedness). School of Public Health and Social Work, Queensland University of Technology. Brisbane, Australia.
- 2019- onwards: Presenter/Co-coordinator: PUN454 (Leadership in Disaster Management). Unit Coordinator: Dr Jo Durham. School of Public Health and Social Work, Queensland University of Technology. Brisbane, Australia.
- 2019- onwards: Presenter/Co-coordinator: PUN450 (Introduction to Disaster Management). Unit Coordinator: Dr Jo Durham. School of Public Health and Social Work, Queensland University of Technology. Brisbane, Australia.
- 2017-18: Unit Coordinator: PUB545 (Health policy, planning & advocacy). School of Public Health and Social Work, Queensland University of Technology. Brisbane, Australia.
- 2016: Guest Lecturer: PUN451 (Disaster Management). Topic: Public Health and Disasters. Unit Coordinator: Prof. Gerry FitzGerald. School of Public Health and Social Work, Queensland University of Technology. Brisbane, Australia.
- 2011: Guest Lecturer: PUB209 (Health, Culture and Society). Topic: Class, Race and Gender in Healthcare Systems: A Sociological/Data Analysis. Unit Coordinator: Dr Julie-Anne Caroll. School of Public Health, Queensland University of Technology. Brisbane, Australia.
- 2008: Guest Lecturer: SOCY3020 (Health & Social Justice in a Global Context). Topic: Income, Poverty, and health risks. Unit Coordinator: Dr Trisch Short. School of Social Science, University of Queensland. Brisbane, Australia.
- 2005 - 2006: Lecturer and Unit Coordinator: Research, Writing and Analysis in the Social Sciences (SOSC3201) and Applied Research Project (SOSC3211). School of Social Science, University of Queensland. Brisbane, Australia. These two core courses were offered in the first and second semesters each year to 3rd year undergraduate students undertaking Bachelor of Social Science Program at St Lucia and Ipswich campuses.
- I was one of the six "Most Effective Teachers" nominated by high-achieving students in the Faculty of Social & Behavioural Sciences in Semester 2, 2005.
Pre-2004
- Sociology of Health and Medicine
- Introduction to Sociology
- Research Methods in the Social Sciences
- Statistics for the Social Sciences
Experience
Research Skills: I have earned great skills stemming from my passion for and experience in teaching, research and working in different cultures and organisations:
Major Research Projects
In all of these projects, I played a major role in liaising with clients on behalf of UQSRC to understand their needs, providing clear advice on appropriate research method, assisting with designing survey tools (e.g. telephone, paper, online, face-to-face), overseeing fieldwork process, analysing the data and reporting the findings.
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- Project management from writing the proposal to implementing the research and disseminating the results, specifically:
- Literature review including systematic
- Planning, designing and developing data collection tools and techniques
- Preparing ethical applications
- Data collection (e.g. interviews, surveys), and training and supervision of staff
- Data management and statistical analysis, particularly large datasets (>1 mil records)
- Writing reports and peer reviewed publications
- Liaising and communicating with a variety of stakeholders including academic staff (different disciplines), medical specialists, government representatives, and the general public
- Intimate understanding of the cultural and social differences and their influence on people's experiences, attitudes, and actions.
- Knowledge and understanding of workplace health and safety.
Major Research Projects
- 2017-2019:
- Reducing Emergency Department demand through expanded primary healthcare practice. Funded by Emergency Medicine Foundation (EMF).
- 2014-2017:
- Evaluating the impacts of the 4-hour rule in public hospital emergency departments in Queensland. NHMRC Partnership project in collaboration with UNSW and QEMRF.
- State-wide Workforce and Activity-Based Funding (ABF) Modelling for Queensland Emergency Departments. QEMRF funded project.
- 2012-2014: Heatwave warning systems and health protection initiatives. School of Public Health and Social Work, QUT. My responsibilities included: Literature review, data analysis and publications.
- 2008-2012: Managing the mixed method research project Emergency Health Services Queensland (EHSQ) at the School of Public Health and Social Work, QUT. This was an ARC-Linkage project in partnership with Queensland Ambulance Service (QAS). The aim of the project was to understand reasons for increasing demand for pre-hospital (ambulance) and hospital based (emergency departments) emergency health services. We collected and analysed public data, patients’ records (ambulance and emergency departments) and surveyed patients’ reasons for using these services. My responsibilities included: day-to-day management of the project; liaising with stakeholders and the research team; supervising the PhD student and the research support staff; conducting the literature review; designing the research method and patient surveys in collaboration with the PhD student and stakeholders; oversee the processes of: obtaining ethics approval, data acquisition from Queensland Health and QAS (>5 million records), sampling, recruitment and training of data collectors for the fieldwork data collection (i.e. survey of 969 patients and companions in 8 emergency departments across Qld); data cleaning and analysis, preparing reports, papers and presentations.
- 2006-2008: Project manager and research adviser for several large projects at the (then) University of Queensland Social Research Centre (now called Institute for Social Science Research) including:
- Schools Officers Workload Management Survey for Queensland Public Sector Union (QPSU) and Queensland Department of Education (DETA);
- Client Satisfaction Survey for the Australian Federal Police (AFP);
- Client Intercept Polling 2007 and DIAC 2008 Client Satisfaction Survey for Department of Immigration and Citizenship (DIAC);
- Environmental and public helath issues in Mount Isa: 2007 community survey. Centre for Social Responsibility in Mining, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland.
In all of these projects, I played a major role in liaising with clients on behalf of UQSRC to understand their needs, providing clear advice on appropriate research method, assisting with designing survey tools (e.g. telephone, paper, online, face-to-face), overseeing fieldwork process, analysing the data and reporting the findings.
- 2004-2005: Data analysis and literature review for projects at Queensland Alcohol and Drug Research and Education Centre (QADREC) at the UQ's School of Population Health. Some of the findings have been published in refereed journals.
Publications
QUT ePrints
For more publications by Sam, explore their research in QUT ePrints (our digital repository).
Awards
- Type
- Advisor/Consultant for Industry
- Reference year
- 2019
- Details
- Service Integration and Preventing Potentially Preventable Hospital Presentations. $50,000. Department Of Health, Queensland Government.
- Type
- Advisor/Consultant for Industry
- Reference year
- 2017
- Details
- The Potential Impact of Expanded Scope of Care by Paramedics on Emergency Healthcare Demand: A Literature Review. $12,507. Department of Health and Human Services - Tasmania.
- Type
- Other
- Reference year
- 2014
- Details
- External Assessor for a NHMRC Partnership Project grant application
- Type
- Reviewer for an Academic Journal
- Reference year
- 2012
- Details
- Since 2012, reviewer of research articles for the following journals (2018 SCImago quartile ranking):
Academic Emergency Medicine (Q1); BMJ Open (Q1); BMC Public Health (Q1); Emergency Medicine Australasia (Q1); Australasian Emergency Nursing Journal (Q1); Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health (Q2); Public Health (Q2); Australian Health Review (Q2); BMC Emergency Medicine (Q2).
Environmental Health Perspectives (Q1); Pediatrics (Q1); Global Environmental Change (Q1); Environmental Research (Q1); Climate Research (Q1); International Journal of Biometeorology (Q2); International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health (Q2).
- Type
- Committee Role/Editor or Chair of an Academic Conference
- Reference year
- 2011
- Details
- Peer reviewer for The Australian Sociological Association conference full papers in 2010 and 2011
- Type
- Membership of Learned Societies
- Reference year
- 2009
- Details
- The Australian Sociological Association (TASA);
Australasian Society of Behavioural Health and Medicine (ASBHM)
Supervision
Current supervisions
- Preparing Saudi paramedic for effective disaster response/management
PhD, Principal Supervisor
Other supervisors: Professor Vivienne Tippett - WHAT INFLUENCES SURVIVORS OF MULTIPLE NATURAL DISASTERS TO CONTINUE LIVING IN THE SAME DISASTER-PRONE LOCATION
PhD, Principal Supervisor
Other supervisors: Dr Ros Darracott, Associate Professor Trish Obst - Patient Safety Culture in Saudi Hospitals: A comparative mixed methods study of clinicians' perceptions and organisational practices in two hospitals in the holy cities of Makkah and Madinah
PhD, Principal Supervisor
Other supervisors: Associate Professor Darren Wraith, Ms Paula Bowman - Equity across the cancer care continuum for culturally and linguistically diverse migrants living in Australia
PhD, Associate Supervisor
Other supervisors: Dr Jo Durham, Professor Mark Brough
Completed supervisions (Doctorate)
- The Relationship between Temperature and Infectious Gastrointestinal Diseases in Queensland, Australia (2020)
- The Factors That Influence Private Health Insurance Holders' Choice between Public and Private Emergency Departments at the Time of Emergency (2017)
- Growing Demand for Emergency Department Services: Associated Factors and Perspective of Patients (2015)