Associate Professor Anna Ralph

Head of Global Health Division and senior clinical research fellow

Qualifications:

PhD, Australian National University, 2010; Fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians, 2005; Diploma of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, University of London, 2002; Master of Public Health, University of Sydney, 1999; Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery Honours Class 1, University of New South Wales, 1996; Medical Science Honours Class 1, Australian National University, 1993; Bachelor of Medical Science, University of Tasmania, 1992.

Approved level of HDR supervision at Charles Darwin University:

Supervisor for PhD

Location:

Darwin - Royal Darwin Hospital campus

Biography:
Anna is the director of Global and Tropical Health at Menzies School of Health Research, Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia. She is a National Health and Medical Research Council Career Development Fellow, and is the Clinical Director of Rheumatic Heart Disease Australia, as well as being a practicing medical specialist in General Medicine and Infectious Diseases at Royal Darwin Hospital. 

Her research fields include rheumatic fever / rheumatic heart disease in Australian Indigenous populations, tuberculosis control especially in neighbouring South-East Asian settings, and improving inter-cultural communication between healthcare providers and clients. She has expertise in a broad range of quantitative and qualitative research methods. 

Anna is an executive steering committee member of the Australian Clinical Research Network and the Australasian Society for Infectious Diseases Clinical Research Network. 

She supervises a number of PhD students, post doctoral researchers, and Advanced Trainees in Infectious Diseases through the Royal Australasian College of Physicians. 
Associate Professor Anna Ralph
Email
Research Themes
  1. Ralph AP, de Dassel JL, Kirby A, Read C, Mitchell AG, Maguire GP, Currie BJ, Bailie RS, Johnston V, Carapetis JR. Improving delivery of secondary prophylaxis for rheumatic heart disease in a high-burden setting: outcome of a stepped-wedge, community, randomized trial. J Am Heart Assoc. 2018;7:e009308. DOI: 10.1161/JAHA.118.009308.
  2. Coffey PM, Ralph AP, Krause VL. The role of social determinants of health in the risk and prevention of group A streptococcal infection, acute rheumatic fever and rheumatic heart disease: A systematic review. PLoS Negl Trop Dis. 2018 Jun 13;12(6):e0006577.
  3. Myint NPST, Aung NM, Win MS, Htut TY, Ralph AP, Cooper DA, Nyein ML, Kyi MM, Hanson J. The clinical characteristics of adults with rheumatic heart disease in Yangon, Myanmar: An observational study. PLoS One. 2018 Feb 21;13(2):e0192880. 
  4. de Dassel JL, Ralph AP, Cass A. A systematic review of adherence in Indigenous Australians: an opportunity to improve chronic condition management. BMC Health Services Research 2017
  5. Katzenellenbogen JM, Ralph AP, Wyber R, Carapetis JR. Rheumatic heart disease: infectious disease origin, chronic care approach. BMC Health Serv Res. 2017 Nov 29;17(1):793. 
  6. Mitchell AG, Belton S, Johnston V, Read C, Scrine C, Ralph AP. Aboriginal children and penicillin injections for rheumatic fever: how much of a problem is injection pain? Aust N Z J Public Health. 2017 Nov 22
  7. Ralph AP, Lowell A, Murphy J, Dias T, Butler D, Spain B, Hughes JT, Campbell L, Bauert B, Salter C, Tune K, Cass A. Low uptake of Aboriginal interpreters in healthcare: exploration of current use in Australia's Northern Territory. BMC Health Serv Res. 2017 Nov 15;17(1):733. doi: 10.1186/s12913-017-2689-y.
  8. Ralph AP, Rashid Ali MRS, William T, Piera K, Parameswaran U, Bird E, Wilkes CS, Lee WK, Yeo TW, Anstey NM. Vitamin D and activated vitamin D in tuberculosis in equatorial Malaysia: a prospective clinical study. BMC Infect Dis. 2017 Apr 27;17(1):312.
  9. Ralph AP, Waramori G, Pontororing GJ, Kenangalem E, Wiguna A, Tjitra E, et al. L-arginine and Vitamin D adjunctive therapies in pulmonary tuberculosis: a randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial. PLoS ONE. 2013;8(8):e70032.
  10. Ralph AP, Lucas RM, Norval M. Vitamin D and solar ultraviolet radiation in the risk and treatment of tuberculosis. Lancet Infect Dis 2013;13:77-88.
Click here to view more Anna Ralph publications in PubMed.
  1. Words from Arnhem land: Aboriginal health messages need to be made with us rather than for us

    Words from Arnhem land: Aboriginal health messages need to be made with us rather than for us

    Date

    When researchers from Menzies School of Health Research starting working with us on rheumatic heart disease, we explained that the children needed better nutrition.

  2. Media Release|True burden of rheumatic fever in NZ currently underestimated, new research reveals

    Media Release|True burden of rheumatic fever in NZ currently underestimated, new research reveals

    Date

    Media Release | University of Otago

  3. True burden of rheumatic fever in NZ underestimated

    True burden of rheumatic fever in NZ underestimated

    Date

    The joint study by researchers from the University of Otago, ESR, University of Auckland and the Menzies School of Health Research, Australia.

  4. ABC | Rheumatic heart disease going undiagnosed by NT's fly-in doctors, cardiologist warns

    ABC | Rheumatic heart disease going undiagnosed by NT's fly-in doctors, cardiologist warns

    Date

    The Northern Territory is home to some of the highest known rates of rheumatic heart disease in the world, but the transient nature of the region's medical practitioners could be hindering the fight to stop it.

  5. PNG-Aust researchers to combine under new grant program

    PNG-Aust researchers to combine under new grant program

    Date

    Australian and Papua New Guinean research groups will work in partnership to address malaria, tuberculosis and other health security threats, under a new grants program funded by the Australian government.

  6. New evidence supports radical treatment of widespread form of malaria

    New evidence supports radical treatment of widespread form of malaria

    Date

    A team of malaria experts from a large international research collaboration has today published results supporting the need for a radical cure strategy to tackle one of the most debilitating forms of malaria caused by the Plasmodium vivax parasite.

  7. Preventing RHD through community-driven activities

    Preventing RHD through community-driven activities

    Date

    Health activities driven by remote Indigenous communities may be key to the sustainable and successful treatment and prevention of a potentially fatal disease, a study has found.

  8. Tuberculosis elimination course for Indonesian health workers

    Tuberculosis elimination course for Indonesian health workers

    Date

    Menzies is collaborating with the Burnet Institute to deliver training in the prevention and eradication of tuberculosis (TB) to 25 visiting Indonesian health professionals.

  9. Rheumatic heart disease focus for NT Fulbright Scholar

    Rheumatic heart disease focus for NT Fulbright Scholar

    Date

    Associate Professor Anna Ralph awarded an internationally renowned Fulbright Scholarship to help eliminate rheumatic heart disease (RHD) in Australia.

  10. Funding fillip for fever tool - NT News

    Funding fillip for fever tool - NT News

    Date

    DARWIN’S Menzies School of Health Research will work with the Telethon Kids Institute to develop a cutting edge diagnostic tool to detect acute rheumatic fever.

  11. Territory Q features HOT NORTH

    Territory Q features HOT NORTH

    Date

    Read about our HOT NORTH collaboration in the latest Territory Q Magazine.

  12. Tuberculosis, Why haven’t we eliminated TB already?

    Tuberculosis, Why haven’t we eliminated TB already?

    Date

    Tuberculosis - Medical Republic Why haven’t we eliminated TB already?

  13. Rheumatic heart disease researchers on mission

    Rheumatic heart disease researchers on mission

    Date

    The Northern Territory has the highest rate of rheumatic heart disease in the world, which is partly due to poor living conditions such as overcrowded housing, said Associate Professor Anna Ralph from the Menzies School of Health Research.

  14. Funding boost to tackle health challenges in northern Australia

    Funding boost to tackle health challenges in northern Australia

    Date

    Work will begin to help close critical gaps in healthcare across northern Australia as the result of a $6m grant awarded today to Menzies School of Health Research (Menzies) by the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC).

  15. $2m grant to combat drug resistant malaria and tuberculosis

    $2m grant to combat drug resistant malaria and tuberculosis

    Date

    A $2m research grant to work towards the prevention, control and elimination of malaria and tuberculosis (TB) in Southeast Asia and the Pacific has been awarded to a consortium led by Menzies School of Health Research, in collaboration with Burnet Institute, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade announced today.

  16. The Conversation: Lung gas holds clue for future tuberculosis treatment

    The Conversation: Lung gas holds clue for future tuberculosis treatment

    Date

    Australian researchers have uncovered a link between low levels of the gas nitric oxide in the lungs of tuberculosis patients and the body’s ability to fight the deadly disease, opening the door to potential new treatments.

  17. Journal of Infectious Diseases: Impaired Pulmonary Nitric Oxide Bioavailability in Pulmonary Tuberculosis

    Journal of Infectious Diseases: Impaired Pulmonary Nitric Oxide Bioavailability in Pulmonary Tuberculosis

    Date

    Impaired Pulmonary Nitric Oxide Bioavailability in Pulmonary Tuberculosis: Association with Disease Severity and Delayed Mycobacterial Clearance with Treatment.

  18. Research reveals new target to fight tuberculosis

    Research reveals new target to fight tuberculosis

    Date

    New research from the Menzies School of Health Research could open the door to the development of new treatments for Tuberculosis (TB).

  19. Disease of the month: tuberculosis

    Disease of the month: tuberculosis

    Date

    With a history as long as mankind’s, TB lies dormant in one third of our global population.