Celebration in the Straits

While hundreds of students gathered in Canberra last week ready to receive their degrees, a much warmer celebration had already been held on a small tropical island in the Torres Strait.

Thursday Island resident, Dr Sanchia Shibasaki, was joined at the island by over 100 members of the community to celebration her Doctor of Philosophy in Epidemiology, Population Health and Health Services from ANU.

Torres Shire Mayor Pedro Stephen took part in the celebrations on Saturday 27 June at the Port Kennedy Hall.

Describing her graduation as a “proud moment for Thursday Island,” Mr Stephen talked about his vision for the education of people in the community and his hope to see many more Thursday Islanders go on to achieve at the highest levels. 

“Sanchia has become a great role model for people on the Island,” he said. He also highlighted the health issues facing the community, including diabetes, the subject of Dr Shibasaki’s study, and the importance of having local people grapple with these issues and find better ways to ease the community’s burden of illness.

Dr Bev Sibthorpe, Dr Shibasaki’s principal supervisor at ANU, attended the celebrations as well.

“A student doesn’t just arrive out of nowhere to do a PhD at ANU. That’s always a step in a long journey that has its roots in her or his family and community. They bring with them their family and community’s values, knowledge and experiences and so enrich the University through their engagement in study. 

“Sanchia is one of the most hard-working and self-motivated people I’ve ever met.  She’s also committed to improving the quality of care that Indigenous patients get from their primary health care centres, and the contribution this can make to the overall health and well-being of their communities,” she said. 

Dr Shibasaki’s PhD, the Information Atlas Project, identifies information management practices needed by primary healthcare services to provide chronic disease management, with a particular emphasis on diabetes patient management. Information and health data management is an increasing challenge for services delivering primary health care.

“A key component of effective primary health care of patients with chronic diseases is the management of data and of information and the appropriate use of information technology,” Dr Shibasaki said. “The challenge for the sector is its capacity and capability to strategically use these information resources to effectively care for patients with chronic diseases.

“I am very proud that my studies are contributing to improved capacity and efficiency of health services to properly manage patients suffering from chronic diseases particularly diabetes which is in epidemic proportions here in the Torres Straits and throughout Indigenous Australia.”