Professor Amanda Jane Leach AM
Senior Principal Research Fellow, Head of the Ear Health Research Program, Child and Maternal Health Division
Qualifications:
Master of Agricultural Science; PhD (Medicine).
Approved level of HDR supervision at Charles Darwin University:
Principal Supervisor for PhD
Location:
Darwin - Royal Darwin Hospital campus
Biography:
Professor Amanda Leach AM is leader of the Ear Health Research Program, Child Health Division.
Prof Leach has 157 career publications; her 1994 PhD publication (cited by 408) described for the first time that Indigenous infants acquire nasopharyngeal bacterial pathogens within weeks of life and that acquisition predicted onset of otitis media (OM).
Prof Leach led the 6-year NHMRC Centre of Research Excellence in Ear and Hearing Health of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children to 2021. Prof Leach led the update of the 2010 OM Guidelines including an OM app using the highest quality international GRADE approach, also endorsed as a Guideline by the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners. She was NHMRC lead investigator for two vaccine trials (PREVIX_COMBO and PREVIX_BOOST), a study of school readiness (VOICES), and is co-investigator of a CSOM treatment trial (IHEARBETA), two trials for treatment of OM in urban Aboriginal children (WATCH and INFLATE), two new trials of Aboriginal Health Practitioner ear support for Aboriginal children in hospital (Deadly Ears in Deadly Hands), and a trial of Azithromycin before Birth.
Prof Leach is Joint Chair with Professor Kelvin Kong, for the 5-year Hearing for Learning Initiative – a funding partnership between The Balnaves Foundation, the Northern Territory Government, and the Australian Government. The goal of this stepped-wedge cluster randomised trial of accredited and skills training and employment in 20 communities is to establish local, sustainable, clinical and education expertise to support elimination of social and educational disadvantage caused by ear disease and hearing loss.
In 2011 she won a 6-year NHMRC Senior Research Fellowship which was awarded the inaugural Elizabeth Blackburn Fellowship for top ranking female applicant in the clinical category.
In 2019 Prof Leach won the Telstra NT Business Woman of the Year, and in 2020, Prof Leach was made a Member (AM) of the Order of Australia for significant service to ear disease research, and to Indigenous child health.
Research Themes
- Stazke C, ..., LEACH AJ. +13 authors et al.. Standard method for detecting upper respiratory carriage of Streptococcus pneumoniae: updated recommendations from the World Health Organization Pneumococcal Carriage Working Group. Vaccine. 2013 Dec 17;32(1):165-79. DOI: 10.1016/j.vaccine.2013.08.062. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24331112/
- Leach AJ, Wigger C, Andrews R, Chatfield M, Smith-Vaughan H, Morris PS. Otitis media in children vaccinated during consecutive 7-valent or 10-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccination schedules. BMC Pediatrics 2014; 14(1): 200-11. DOI: 10.1186/1471-2431-14-200 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25109288/
- Leach AJ, Wigger C, Hare K, Hampton V, Beissbarth J, Andrews R, Chatfield M, Smith-Vaughan H, Morris PS. Reduced middle ear infection with non-typeable Haemophilus influenzae, but not Streptococcus pneumoniae, after transition to 10-valent pneumococcal non-typeable H. influenzae protein D conjugate vaccine. BMC Pediatrics. 2015 15(1):162-175. DOI: 10.1186/s12887-015-0483-8. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26482232/
- Leach AJ, Wigger C, Beissbarth J, Woltring D, Andrews R, Chatfield MD, Smith-Vaughan H, Morris PS. General health, otitis media, nasopharyngeal carriage and middle ear microbiology in Northern Territory Aboriginal children vaccinated during consecutive periods of 10-valent or 13-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccines. Int J Pediatr Otorhinolaryngol. 2016 86:224-32. DOI: 10.1016/j.ijporl.2016.05.011. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27260611/
- Leach AJ, Homøe P, Chidziva C, Gunasekera H, Kong K, Bhutta MF, Jensen R, Tamir SO, Das SK, Morris P. Panel 6: Otitis media and associated hearing loss among disadvantaged populations and low to middle-income countries. Int J Pediatr Otorhinolaryngol. 2020 130 Suppl 1(March):109857. DOI: 10.1016/j.ijporl.2019.109857. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32057518/
- LEACH AJ, Morris PS, Coates HL, Nelson S, O'Leary SJ, Richmond PC, Gunasekera H, Harkus S, Kong K, Brennan-Jones CG, Brophy-Williams S, Currie K, Das SK, Isaacs D, Jarosz K, Lehmann D, Pak J, Patel H, Perry C, Reath JS, Sommer J, Torzillo PJ. Otitis media guidelines for Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children: summary of recommendations. Med J Aust. 2021 214(5):228-233. DOI: 10.5694/mja2.50953. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33641192/
- Su JY, Guthridge S, He VY, Howard D, LEACH AJ. The impact of hearing impairment on early academic achievement in Aboriginal children living in remote Australia: a data linkage study. BMC Public Health. 2020 Oct 7;20(1):1521. DOI: 10.1186/s12889-020-09620-6. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33028291/
- Leach AJ, Mulholland EK, Santosham M, et al. Interchangeability, immunogenicity and safety of a combined 10-valent pneumococcal Haemophilus influenzae protein D conjugate vaccine (Synflorix) and 13-valent-PCV (Prevenar13) schedule at 1-2-4-6 months: PREVIX_COMBO, a 3-arm randomised controlled trial. Vaccine X. 2021 7:100086. DOI: 10.1016/j.jvacx.2021.100086. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33681756/
- Leach AJ, Mulholland EK, Santosham M, Torzillo PJ, McIntyre P, Smith-Vaughan H, Wilson N, Arrowsmith B, Beissbarth J, Chatfield MD, Oguoma VM, Morris PS. Otitis media outcomes of a combined 10-valent pneumococcal Haemophilus influenzae protein D conjugate vaccine and 13-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine schedule at 1-2-4-6 months: PREVIX_COMBO, a 3-arm randomised controlled trial. BMC Pediatr. 2021 21(1):117. DOI: 10.1186/s12887-021-02552-z. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33685411/
- Leach AJ, Wilson N, Arrowsmith B, … Oguoma VM, Morris PS. Immunogenicity, otitis media, hearing impairment, and nasopharyngeal carriage 6-months after 13-valent or ten-valent booster pneumococcal conjugate vaccines, stratified by mixed priming schedules: PREVIX_COMBO and PREVIX_BOOST randomised controlled trials. Lancet Infect Dis. 2022 22(9):1374-1387. DOI: 10.1016/S1473-3099(22)00272-9. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35772449/
- Leach AJ, Wilson N, Arrowsmith B, et al. Hearing loss in Australian First Nations children at 6-monthly assessments from age 12 to 36 months: Secondary outcomes from randomised controlled trials of novel pneumococcal conjugate vaccine schedules. PLoS medicine 2024; 21(6): e1004375. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pmed.1004375. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38829821/
