Healthy Development Adelaide (HDA)

HDA was formed around three pillars of research to highlight specific research interactions and major research questions spanning preconception to adolescence.

Each pillar has three themes spanning basic science, clinical science, health service and delivery, social, cultural, economic and environmental determinants of health.

Pillar 1 - A good start to life: preconception to birth

Themes: 

1. Healthy reproduction
2. Early growth and birth
3. Pregnancy and families

Pillar 2 - The first steps: birth to five years

Themes:

1. Healthy babies
2. Growth and child health
3. Healthy parenting

Pillar 3 - Learning to climb: childhood and adolescence

Themes:

1. Adolescent development
2. Health risk behaviours
3. Gender and sexuality

Our membership base is drawn from Adelaide University, Flinders University, Women's and Children's Health Network, relevant organisations, institutions and government departments.

HDA fosters research collaboration spanning the following research discipline areas:

• Allied health: Spanning the service delivery of specialised branches of care such as physiotherapy, podiatry, occupational therapy and speech pathology.
• Biochemistry: Exploring the chemistry of living organisms and their vital processes.
• Biomedical engineering:  Developing and manufacturing medical devices, diagnostic devices, drugs and other medical therapies by applying engineering principles and techniques.
• Demographics: Studying the various characteristics of human populations.
• Dentistry: Dealing with the anatomy, development and diseases of the teeth, jaw and mouth.
• Disability: Creating and understanding how disability impacts people, and how we can create more inclusive societies.
• Economics: Investigating the formal comparison of costs and consequences of health care.
• Education: Applying not only teaching and learning specific skills, but also imparting knowledge, positive judgment and well-developed wisdom.
• Endocrinology: Exploring the structure and functions of the endocrine glands and the diagnosis and treatment of disorders of the endocrine system.
• Epidemiology: Studying the incidence, distribution and control of disease in populations.
• Genetics: Using the genetic composition, heredity, and variation of organisms to investigate clinical and research genetics, using both animal models and human data.
• Immunology: Uncovering all aspects of the immune system including its structure and function, disorders of the immune system, blood banking, immunisation and organ transplantation.
• Indigenous health: Incorporating strategies to improve the overall health and wellbeing status of Indigenous people.
• Law: Applying the rule or body of rules for conducts and behaviours essential to human society.
• Molecular biology: Focusing on the structure and function of DNA, RNA and proteins to investigate the basis of biological activity.
• Nutrition: Studying people eat and the effects of food on health.
• Obstetrics and gynaecology (reproductive health): Exploring the science and clinical practice of human reproductive health.
• Paediatrics: Preventing, diagnosing and treating disease and injury in children.
• Pharmacology: Studying drugs and dietary supplements and their origin, nature, properties, and effects upon living organisms.
• Physiology: Enquiring into the functions and processes in living things.
• Psychology and psychiatry: Analysing behaviour and mental processes, and how they are affected by physical and mental state as well as external environment.
• Public health: Applying multidisciplinary fields into structural practice, with particular strengths in public health policy, and occupational and environmental health.
• Sociology: Studying society and the relationships of individual within a society within a scientific lens.
• Virology: Exploring how viruses and viral diseases interact within the human body.