Leigh Tooth

I have successfully led several major research projects which have focussed on elements of the Australian health care system. Several of my research publications and reports have informed health policy, for example by:

· Delivering policy recommendations about the use and impact of Medicare and DVA funded health care services on war widows to the DVA

· Delivering policy recommendations to inform the

1) Government’s National Respite for Carers Program, in particular the Employed Carers Innovative Project,

2) Report by the Centre for Health Service Development on “Effective Caring: A synthesis of the International Evidence on Carer Needs and Interventions”, and subsequently

3) Australian Government’s National Women’s Health Policy 2010.

I am also one of the founding chief investigators of the OTseeker (Occupational Therapy Systematic Evaluation of Evidence) database (http:\\www.otseeker.com). OTseeker contains citations and abstracts of >9000 systematic reviews and RCTs relevant to occupational therapy. All RCTs have been critically appraised and rated to assist therapists’ judge the quality and usefulness of trials to help inform clinical interventions and decision making. OTseeker is freely available worldwide. Since its launch in 2003, OTseeker has had >2 million visits; people accessing OTseeker come from >100 countries including the USA, UK, Canada, the Scandinavian countries, Japan, Germany, Senegal, Chad, Slovenia, Columbia, Georgia, Tanzania and Kuwait.

The quality and impact of OTseeker is reinforced by its continued external funding since 2002.

The international status and importance of OTseeker is further evidenced by:

· Endorsement at the International Conference on Evidence based Practice in 2004

· The invitation by the World Federation of Occupational Therapists (WFOT) to the developers of OTseeker to contribute to the 2011 special edition WFOT bulletin on “Evidence based Occupational Therapy Practice around the Globe” (see publication A65).

· Endorsement during the opening keynote address at the 2013 Occupational Therapy Australia National Conference in Adelaide, in which Professor Marion Walker from the University of Nottingham, UK, said “… every occupational therapist should have OTseeker on their desktop.”

· Its description as a key resource in occupational therapy texts, research policy documents of international occupational therapy associations, journal articles and editorials, and its listing on hundreds of library and professional websites.