Stuart Ekberg is a social scientist with almost 20 years experience studying social aspects of wellbeing and healthcare. He is an Associate Professor in the College of Nursing and Health Sciences at Flinders University.

What is your main research area and why did it pique your interest?

I specialise in using video recordings of routine clinical encounters to understand how patients, their family members, and clinicians interact to accomplish the range of activities required for healthcare to be provided. I became interested in this when I realised communication is the most common procedure used in healthcare and my research expertise could be used to help understand and optimise this.

What are you currently working on and how do you envision it helping improve palliative and end-of-life care?

I am the Director of Research for a new National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Centre of Research Excellence in Paediatric Palliative Care. The Centre is designed to turbo charge evidence underpinning exceptional care for children and young people diagnosed with life-threatening and life-limiting conditions. I am also leading an Australian Research Council (ARC) Discovery Project investigating how people talk about – and agree upon – future care. Focusing on both children and adults, we want to understand how these conversations work and if there are ways to make them as effective as possible.

What are the next steps in terms of rolling out and further collaboration?

I have been blessed with wonderful collaborators across my career and am always on the lookout for ways to engage more broadly. I often work with early-career researchers to nurture their potential, and with research end users to ensure my research delivers outcomes that meet their needs.

What have been the highlights of your research journey so far?

When I got involved in paediatric palliative care research, very few people were doing this type of work in Australia. Our recently funded National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Centre of Research Excellence in Paediatric Palliative Care is a pivotal opportunity to advance our research capacity in this area here in Australia.

Outside of research, how do you like to spend your spare time?

With parenthood, I’m engaged in a range of activities, some of which I haven’t done since I was a child: sports (more specifically, driving children to basketball training and games), music (mainly encouraging trombone practice), reading (recent titles include Fart Boy), and fishing (although my Dad still gets exasperated at how quickly I can tangle a line).