Samantha Togni

Senior research officer

Qualifications:

PhD candidate, RMIT University, 2015; Diploma of Project Management, Hunter TAFE, 2010; Master of Arts by major thesis, University of Melbourne, 1997; Bachelor of Arts (Honours), University of Melbourne, 1992

Location:

Alice Springs

Biography:

Samantha Togni is a social researcher and evaluator. For the last 20 years Samantha has worked with, and for, regional and remotely-based Aboriginal organisations in the areas of Aboriginal health, wellbeing, art and culture. Samantha commenced her research career with Menzies School of Health Research working on a number of evaluations of community-based initiatives to reduce alcohol misuse and related harm across central and northern Australia as well as the evaluation of the Katherine West Coordinated Care Trial (1998-2001).

More recently Samantha was the Research Coordinator at Baker IDI Heart and Diabetes Institute in Alice Springs (2009-2014). She is involved in the Kanyini Vascular Collaboration (KVC) that is engaged in a program of research in partnership with Indigenous primary health care services aimed at improving care and health outcomes for Indigenous people living with chronic disease. Samantha is a Chief Investigator in the KVC Centre of Excellence for Indigenous Primary Care Intervention Research in Chronic Disease (CRE). Within this CRE Samantha led the developmental evaluation of the Home-based Outreach Chronic Disease Management Exploratory (HOME) Study with the Inala Indigenous Health Service in Brisbane. In 2010/11 Samantha worked on the Central Australian Renal Study and she has completed a number of program evaluations and evaluation capacity development projects, most recently with the Ngaanyatjarra Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara Women’s Council.

Samantha commenced working part-time on the Dialysis Models of Care Project with Menzies School of Health Research in February 2015 and is responsible for the qualitative research components of the project.

Research Themes
  1. Gorham, G., Howard, K., Togni, S., Lawton, P., Hughes, J., Majoni, S. W.,Cass, A. (2017) Economic and quality of care evaluation of dialysis service models in remote Australia: protocol for a mixed methods study. BMC Health Serv Res, 17(1), 320. doi: 10.1186/s12913-017-2273-5, https://bmchealthservres.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12913-017-2273-5 

  2. Togni S. (2016) The Uti Kulintjaku Project: the path to clear thinking. An evaluation of an innovative, Aboriginal-led approach to developing bi-cultural understanding of mental health and wellbeing, Australian Psychologist, Online early view; doi: 10.1111/ap.12243, http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/ap.12243/full 

  3. Davy C, Cass A, Brady J, DeVries J, Fewquandie B, Ingram S, Mentha R, Simon P, Rickards B, Togni S, Liu H, Peiris D, Askew D, Kite E, Sivak L, Hackett M, Lavoie J & Brown A. (2016) Facilitating engagement through strong relationships between primary healthcare and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, ANZ J Public Health; Online early view; doi: 10.1111/1753-6405.12553, http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1753-6405.12553/abstract 

  4. Askew DA*, Togni SJ*, Schluter PJ*, Rogers L, Egert S, Potter N, Hayman NE, Cass A and Brown ADH. (2016) Investigating the feasibility, acceptability and appropriateness of outreach case management in an urban Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander primary health care service: a mixed methods study, BMC Health Services Research, 16(178):1-14, doi: 10.1186/s12913-016-1428-0, http://old.biomedcentral.com/1472-6963/16/178 
    *Equal contributors

  5. Togni S, Askew, D, Brown, A, Rogers, L, Potter, N, Egert, S, Hayman, N & Cass, A. (2015) Creating Safety to explore: Strengthening Innovation in an Australian Indigenous Primary Health Care Setting Using Developmental Evaluation, in Patton M. Q, McKegg, K & Wehipeihana, N (eds.) Developmental Evaluation Case Exemplars: Real world applications, emergent issues, lessons learned and adapted tools. New York, NY: Guilford Press, pp 234-51.

  6. Patel A, Cass A, Peiris D, Usherwood T, Brown A, Jan S, Neal B, Hillis GS, Rafter N, Tonkin A, Webster R, Billot L, Bompoint S, Burch C, Burke H, Hayman H, Molanus B, Reid CM, Shiel L, Togni S, Rodgers A. (2014) for the Kanyini Guidelines Adherence with the Polypill (Kanyini GAP) Collaboration. A pragmatic randomised trial of a polypill-based strategy to improve use of indicated preventive treatments in people at high cardiovascular disease risk, European Journal of Preventive Cardiology, Published online ahead of print 27 March 2014, doi: 10.1177/2047487314530382, http://cpr.sagepub.com/content/early/2014/03/27/2047487314530382 .

  1. Building care relationships in Alice Springs

    Building care relationships in Alice Springs

    Date

    Story-sharing builds care relationships in Alice Springs Kidney disease affects many Indigenous families in Central Australia. People are forced to leave their home communities to access life-maintaining dialysis treatment in major towns like Alice...