Professor Katharine Wallis is Mayne Professor and Head, Mayne Academy of General Practice and Head, General Practice Clinical Unit at the University of Queensland Medical School. She is a clinically active general practitioner and Fellow of both the Australian College of Rural and Remote Medicine and the Royal New Zealand College of General Practitioners.

Professor Wallis’s research centres around patient safety in primary care, in particular safer prescribing in general practice. Current projects include the RELEASE (REdressing Long-tErm Antidepressant uSE) effectiveness-implementation trial in general practice funded by a MRFF 2020 Clinician Researchers: Applied Research in Health grant and an NHMRC Partnership grant.

Professor Wallis also leads a project funded by the Motor Accident Insurance Commission and the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners Foundation in the Princess Alexandra Hospital Occupational Therapy Driving Assessment & Rehabilitation Service developing and testing the 3-Domains screening toolkit for older driver medical assessment in general practice. 

Professor Wallis is the Queensland Academic Lead for the PARTNER network, a national network of rural and remote practices established to support rural participation in clinical trials funded by the Medical Research Future Fund as part of the Australian Teletrials program, and is Founding Director of the UQGP Research practice-based research network. 

Professor Wallis’s previous roles include Associate Editor of the Rural and Remote Health Journal; Associate Editor Journal Primary Health Care; Deputy Chair of the Academic Policy and Advocacy committee, Australasian Association for Academic Primary Care; member Health Practitioners Disciplinary Tribunal, Medical Council of New Zealand (2004-2019); member Medicines Adverse Reactions Committee, Medsafe, Ministry of Health (2010-2017); member Perinatal & Maternal Mortality Review Committee, Maternal Mortality Working Group, Health Quality & Safety Commission (2014-2017); and member Ethics Committee, New Zealand Medical Association (2013-2018). Current member Oxford International Primary Care Research Leadership Programme, University of Oxford.

Qualifications

  • MBChB, University of Otago
  • Doctor of Philosophy, University of Otago
  • Master of Bioethics and Health Law (distinction), University of Otago
  • Diploma of Obstetrics, University of Otago
  • Fellow of the Royal New Zealand College of General Practitioners
  • Fellow of the Australian College of Rural and Remote Medicine