Associate Professor Richard Osborne

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Centre for Rheumatic Diseases
7 East, 7th Floor Main Building
The Royal Melbourne Hospital
Grattan Street
Parkville, Vic. 3050 AUSTRALIA
Tel: +61 3 8344 7841 / Fax: +61 3 9342 7632
Email: richardo@unimelb.edu.au

Associate Professor Osborne is an Epidemiologist and Health Services Researcher with specific interests in evidence-informed policy and programs particularly in the area of musculoskeletal and related chronic diseases.
In 1995 he completed a PhD in biological and behavioural factors in breast cancer survival. He then undertook research at Centre for Health Program Evaluation at Monash University contributing to the development of the Australian Assessment of Quality of Life (AQoL) questionnaires. Subsequent work during a NHMRC Public Health Postdoctorial Fellowship at the Genetic Epidemiology Unit, The University of Melbourne, involved establishing determinants of and population norms for psychological morbidity in women with breast cancer in the Australian Breast Cancer Family Study with Professor John Hopper. During 1998/99 he was Visiting Research Fellow at the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Erasmus University, Rotterdam, The Netherlands. Since 2002 he has initiated a series of research projects in Population Health, Chronic Disease Education and Self-Management, Work place health, Orthopaedic Waiting List Reform, and Health Literacy.
He is widely recognised for his research and evaluation in Chronic Disease Self-management. In 2004 he conceived, developed and implemented the Health Education Impact Questionnaire (heiQ) a National Quality and Monitoring System for chronic self-management education programs. It is endorsed by the Commonwealth Department of Health and Ageing, and is used across chronic diseases, program types (rehabilitation, self-management and coach programs) and socioeconomic groups (it is translated in to 9 languages). This system now supports programs in numerous countries including the UK, USA, Canada, Germany, Japan, Spain and others. He is an advisor to Australian and other government agencies in this area including The Health Foundation (UK) Co-creating Health Initiative.
A/Prof Osborne is Director of the Arthritis WorkHealth Program—Arthritis, a whole of system approach to primary and secondary prevention and worker self-management across Australian workplaces. This program is a collaborative between Melbourne & Monash Universities, and funded Commonwealth Department of Health and Ageing (DoHA). It includes exceptional business engagement to ensure the program is appropriate and effective through an Industry Advisory Committee of 13 leading Australian businesses.
With senior colleagues Prof Wicks, Prof Graves and A/Prof Brand, A/Prof Osborne initiated and led the Orthopaedic Waiting List (OWL) reform program funded by the Victorian Department of Human Services (DHS). At the centre of this work was the development of the Hip and Knee Questionnaire, a Multi-attribute Prioritisation Tool (MAPT), an evidence-based tool to support GP referral, outpatient triage, specify queue position (i.e., who should get surgery next). Overall, the OWL reform program was designed to improve equity of access – making sure the right person got the right care at the right time. A/Prof Osborne was then commissioned by DHS to develop the State-wide rollout plan and the system has since been rolled out across the 14 hospitals in the State of Victoria and forms part of the Victorian Government’s elective surgery quality program. In 2006/07 A/Prof Osborne also led an Australian Government funded project to develop national evidence-informed General Practice referral guidelines for people with arthritis.  This program is now being implemented in areas of South Australia and Western Australia.
Through an Australian Research Council (ARC) Linkage scheme grant A/Prof Osborne leads a Melbourne, Monash and Sydney university partnership with the Commonwealth Government Department of Health and Ageing and the AIHW to undertake a population-based survey of 15,000+ individuals, with clinical verification in 300+ individuals. The aims are to document the prevalence of osteoarthritis, osteoporosis and back pain as well as provide new insights into the impact on workforce productivity, quality of life, health services use and identification of potentially modifiable risks for exit from “participation” in work, family and community. This survey will form an ongoing cohort for national musculoskeletal research.
Australia is leading the musculoskeletal component of the WHO Global Burden of Disease and Risk factor update (funded by the Gate’s Foundation) and A/Prof Osborne leads the osteoarthritis component of this.  He also sits on several Australian and State government committees relating to arthritis, public health and chronic disease management generally. He peer reviews for several international journals and is Associate Editor or the international journal Arthritis Care and Research, the leading journal in this field. He has authored or co-authored six psychometric questionnaires de novo.
He has lectured postgraduate Epidemiology and Advanced Health Program Evaluation. He currently supervises four PhD scholars and holds three NHMRC project grants and one ARC Linkage grant. In the past five years alone he attracted over $5 million in research funds. Among several proactive Knowledge Translation activities, he convenes the International Congress on Chronic Disease Self-management. A/Prof Osborne’s research is invariably multidisciplinary and collaborative. The conduct of the research and inclusion of young investigators ensures the career development of the members of his team.

Research Interests

• Evidence in-informed health policy
• Population Health
• Health Literacy
• Chronic disease education and self-management
• Waiting list and prioritization and other aspects of healthcare reform

Publications (last 5 years)

1. Hawthorne G, Osborne RH, Elliott P. A psychometric analysis of the measurement level of the rating scale, time trade-off, and standard gamble. Social Science and Medicine. 2003; 56:895-7.
2. Njajou OT, Houwing-Duistermaat JJ, Osborne RH, et al. A population-based study of the effect of the HFE C282Y and H63D mutations on iron metabolism. European Journal of Human Genetics. 2003; 11:225-31.
3. Osborne RH, Buchbinder R. Correlation between two measurement scales of hemiplegic shoulder pain [Commentary]. International Journal of Therapy and Rehabilitation. 2003; 10:334.
4. Osborne RH, Elsworth GR, Hopper JL. Age-specific norms and determinants of anxiety and depression in 731 women with breast cancer recruited through a population-based cancer registry. European Journal of Cancer. 2003; 39:755-62.
5. Osborne RH, Hawthorne G, Lew EA, Gray LC. Quality of life assessment in the community-dwelling elderly: validation of the Assessment of Quality of Life (AQoL) Instrument and comparison with the SF-36. Journal of Clinical Epidemiology. 2003; 56:138-47.
6. Haines TP, Bennell KL, Osborne RH, Hill KD. Effectiveness of targeted falls prevention programme in subacute hospital setting: randomised controlled trial. British Medical Journal. 2004; 328:676.
7. Haines TP, Bennell KL, Osborne RH, Hill KD. Are all falls equal? British Medical Journal. 2004; http://bmj.bmjjournals.com/cgi/eletters/328/7441/676#62391.
8. Osborne RH, Elsworth GR, Sprangers MA, Oort FJ, Hopper JL. The value of the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) for comparing women with early onset breast cancer with population-based reference women. Quality of Life Research. 2004; 13:191-206.
9. Osborne RH, Sali A, Aaronson NK, Elsworth GR, Mdzewski B, Sinclair AJ. Immune function and adjustment style: do they predict survival in breast cancer? Psychooncology. 2004; 13:199-210.
10. Osborne RH, Spinks JM, Wicks IP. Patient education and self-management programs in arthritis. Medical Journal of Australia. 2004; 180:S23-6.
11. Segal L, Day SE, Chapman AB, Osborne RH. Can we reduce disease burden from osteoarthritis? Medical Journal of Australia. 2004; 180:S11-7.
12. Ackerman IN, Graves SE, Wicks IP, Bennell KL, Osborne RH. Severely compromised quality of life in women and those of lower socioeconomic status waiting for joint replacement surgery. Arthritis Care and Research. 2005; 53:653-8.
13. Ackerman IN, Osborne RH. Integrating data to facilitate clinical research: a case study. Informatics in Primary Care. 2005; 13:263-70.
14. Hawthorne G, Osborne R. Population norms and meaningful differences for the Assessment of Quality of Life (AQoL) measure. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health. 2005; 29:136-42.
15. Osborne R. Is there a future in psychosocial predictive factors in breast cancer? [Editorial]. European Journal of Cancer. 2005; 41:1665-6.
16. Ackerman IN, Graves SE, Bennell KL, Osborne RH. Evaluating quality of life in hip and knee replacement: Psychometric properties of the World Health Organization Quality of Life short version instrument. Arthritis Care and Research. 2006; 55:583-90.
17. Buchbinder R, Barratt A, Osborne RH. Vertebroplasty [Letter]. Australian Family Physician. 2006; 35:665; author reply -6.
18. Buchbinder R, Osborne RH. Vertebroplasty: a promising but as yet unproven intervention for painful osteoporotic spinal fractures [Editorial]. Medical Journal of Australia. 2006; 185:351-2.
19. Haines TP, Bennell KL, Osborne RH, Hill KD. A new instrument for targeting falls prevention interventions was accurate and clinically applicable in a hospital setting. Journal of Clinical Epidemiology. 2006; 59:168-75.
20. Haines TP, Hill KD, Bennell KL, Osborne RH. Recurrent events counted in evaluations of predictive accuracy. Journal of Clinical Epidemiology. 2006; 59:1155-61.
21. Haines TP, Hill KD, Bennell KL, Osborne RH. Patient education to prevent falls in subacute care. Clinical Rehabilitation. 2006; 20:970-9.
22. Haines TP, Hill KD, Bennell KL, Osborne RH. Hip protector use amongst older hospital inpatients: Compliance and functional consequences. Age and Aging. 2006; 35:520-3.
23. Osborne RH, Buchbinder R, Ackerman IN. Can a disease-specific education program augment self-management skills and improve Health-Related Quality of Life in people with hip or knee osteoarthritis? BMC Musculoskeletal Disorders. 2006; 7:90.
24. Osborne RH, Hawkins M, Sprangers MA. Change of perspective: a measurable and desired outcome of chronic disease self-management intervention programs that violates the premise of preintervention/postintervention assessment. Arthritis Care and Research. 2006; 55:458-65.
25. Whitfield K, Buchbinder R, Segal L, Osborne RH. Parsimonious and efficient assessment of health-related quality of life in osteoarthritis research: validation of the Assessment of Quality of Life (AQoL) instrument. Health and Quality of Life Outcomes. 2006; 4:19.
26. Bennell KL, Bowles LA, Payne C, et al. Effects of laterally wedged insoles on symptoms and disease progression in medial knee osteoarthritis: a protocol for a randomised, double-blind, placebo controlled trial. BMC Musculoskeletal Disorders. 2007; 8:96doi:10.1186/1471-2474-8-96.
27. Busija L, Hollingsworth B, Buchbinder R, Osborne RH. Role of age, sex, and obesity in the higher prevalence of arthritis among lower socioeconomic groups: a population-based survey. Arthritis Care and Research. 2007; 57:553-61.
28. Haines TP, Hill KD, Bennell KL, Osborne RH. Additional exercise for older subacute hospital inpatients to prevent falls: Benefits and barriers to implementation and evaluation. Clinical Rehabilitation. 2007; 21:742-35.
29. Haines TP, Hill KD, Walsh W, Osborne R. Design-related bias in hospital falls risk screening tool predictive accuracy evaluations:  Systematic review and meta-analysis. Journal of Gerontology A Biol Sci Med Sci. 2007; 62:664-72.
30. Hawthorne G, Osborne RH, Taylor A, Sansoni J. The SF36 Version 2: critical analyses of population weights, scoring algorithms and population norms. Quality of Life Research. 2007; 16:661-73.
31. Hill C, Buchbinder R, Osborne RH. Quality of reporting of randomized clinical trials (RCTs) in abstracts of the 2005 Annual Scientific Meeting of American College of Rheumatology. Journal of Rheumatology. 2007; 34:247-80.
32. Jordan JE, Osborne RH. Chronic disease self-management education programs: challenges ahead [Viewpoint]. Medical Journal of Australia. 2007; 186:84-7.
33. Nolte S, Elsworth GR, Sinclair AJ, Osborne RH. The extent and breadth of benefits from participating in chronic disease self-management courses: a national patient-reported outcomes survey. Patient Education and Counseling. 2007; 65:351-60.
34. Osborne RH, De Abreu Lourenco R, Dalton A, et al. Quality of life related to oral versus subcutaneous iron chelation: a time trade off study. Value in Health. 2007; 10:451-6.
35. Osborne RH, Elsworth GR, Whitfield K. The Health Education Impact Questionnaire (heiQ): An outcomes and evaluation measure for patient education and self-management interventions for people with chronic conditions. Patient Education and Counseling. 2007; 66:192-201.
36. Osborne RH, Nikpour M, Busija L, Sundararajan V, Wicks IP. Prevalence and cost of musculoskeletal disorders: a population-based, public hospital system healthcare consumption approach. Journal of Rheumatology. 2007; 34:2466-75.
37. Osborne RH, Wilson T, Lorig KR, McColl GJ. Does Self-Management Lead to Sustainable Health Benefits in People with Arthritis? A 2-year Transition Study of 452 Australians. Journal of Rheumatology. 2007; 34:1112-7.
38. Phillips K-A, Osborne RH, Giles GG, et al. Psychosocial Factors and Survival of Young Women with Breast Cancer: a Population-Based Prospective Cohort Study. Journal of Clinical Oncology. 2008.
39. Brand C, Osborne RH, Wicks I, de Steiger R. Experienced physiotherapists as gatekeepers to hospital orthopeadic outpatient care. Medical Journal of Australia. 2008; 188:318-9.
40. Osborne RH, Jordan JE, Rogers A. A critical look at the role of self-management for people with arthritis and other chronic diseases. Nature Clinical Practice Rheumatology 2008; 4(5): 224-5..
41. Witt J, Scott A, Osborne RH. Designing Choice Experiments with Many Attributes. An Application to Setting Priorities for Orthopaedic Waiting Lists. Health Economics. 2008; (accepted June 2008).
42. Busija, L., R. H. Osborne, A. K. Nilsdotter, R. Buchbinder and E. Roos (2008). "Magnitude and meaningfulness of change in SF-36 scores in four types of orthopedic surgery." BMC Health and Quality of Life Research. (accepted July 2008)
43. Jordan, J. E., K. Haynes, J. A. Livingston and R. H. Osborne (2008). "Comparison of the pre-post and transition question assessments: A multi-method approach to assess participant outcomes from chronic disease self-management education programs." Journal of Clinical Epidemiology. (accepted July 2008)
44. Jordan JE, Briggs AM, Brand C and Osborne RH (2008). "Enhancing patient engagement in chronic disease self-management support initiatives in Australia: the need for an integrated approach." Medical Journal of Australia (accepted 15/9/08).