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Professor Paul Dietze

Program Director, Disease Elimination; Professor and Program Leader, National Drug Research Institute (NDRI)
Background

Professor Paul Dietze is one of Australia's leading alcohol and other drug epidemiologists with a significant national, and emerging international profile. He is an NHMRC Senior Research Fellow and a past ARC Future Fellow and VicHealth Public Health Research Fellow. With more than 20 years' experience and an outstanding track record, his work has established internationally innovative surveillance systems and applied research designs that break new ground in the public health research into alcohol and other drug use and related harms in Australia.

He has produced more than 160 journal articles along with many other reports of significant impact that have changed practice in the area of alcohol and other drugs in this country. During the course of his research career he has received more than $20 million of research funding. These grants provided funds to conduct or establish:

  • An NHMRC Centre for Research Excellence into Injecting Drug Use
  • a large cohort of people who inject drugs, allowing not only for trajectory analyses of drug using careers, but also service and intervention evaluation
  • the first-ever case-crossover study of the risk factors for non-fatal heroin overdose; a comprehensive system for monitoring non-fatal heroin overdose across the mainland states
  • the first-ever study of the nature and extent of medication overdose across an Australian city; the first randomised trial of intranasal naloxone for the reversal of heroin overdose
  • the first study of the relationship between income inequality and alcohol-related harm in Australia
  • multi-level modelling of the relationships between alcohol outlets and young people's drinking
  • the first study of risky drinking amongst a large sample of elite athletes in the world.

Paul's work has had major impact. Naloxone is now administered via the intranasal route in many parts of the USA as a result of his work in Victoria. He was a member of the ‘Guidelines Development Group on the management of opioid overdose' for the World Health Organization, which met in Geneva in February 2014 with the guidelines released in late 2014. He has been involved in the development and implementation of a variety of heroin overdose prevention initiatives including the Direct Response to Overdose (DROP) project and he is leading the evaluation of the first Australian bystander naloxone program being implemented in the ACT. He was a key member of the Expanding Naloxone Availability in the ACT Committee. He is a Chief Investigator on a trial of intranasal naloxone in the Sydney Medically Supervised Injecting Centre that commenced in January 2012.

He co-convenes the Victorian Injecting Drug Harm Reduction Network with Penington Institute through which research findings on injecting drug use are disseminated to the alcohol and drug sector. He has received numerous awards and prizes in recognition of his work.

Most significant publications:

  • Dietze P, Horyniak D, Agius P, Munir V, Smit de V, Johnston J, et al. Effect of intubation for gamma-hydroxybutyric acid overdose on emergency department length of stay and hospital admission. Acad Emerg Med. 2014;21(11):1226-31.
  • Dietze P, Jenkinson R, Aitken C, Stoove M, Jolley D, Hickman M, et al. The relationship between alcohol use and injecting drug use: impacts on health and social functioning. Drug Alcohol Depend. 2013;128(1-2):111-15.
  • Dietze P, Stoove M, Miller P, Kinner S, Bruno R, Alati R, et al. The self-reported personal well-being of a sample of Australian injecting drug users. Addiction. 2010;105(12):2141-8.
  • Truong A, Jamieson L, Higgs P, Cogger S, Burns L, Dietze P. Oral Health-Related Quality of Life among an Australian sample of people who inject drugs. Journal Public Health Dent. in press - accepted 26/1/15.
  • Strang J, Bird SM, Dietze P, Gerra G, McLellan AT. Take-home emergency naloxone to prevent deaths from heroin overdose. BMJ. 2014;349:g6580. Epub 2014/11/08.
  • Dietze PM, Livingston M, Callinan S, Room R. The big night out: what happens on the most recent heavy drinking occasion among young Victorian risky drinkers? Drug Alcohol Rev. 2014;33(4):346-53.
  • McCormack A, Aitken C, Cogger S, Burns L, Dietze P. Syringe stockpiling by people who inject drugs: an evaluation of current measures for needle and syringe program coverage. Am J Epidemiol. in press.
Qualifications
  • 1995: PhD, Monash University, Victoria, Australia
  • 1989: BSc (Hons), Monash University, Australia
Appointments
  • 2024: Professor and Program Leader, National Drug Research Institute (NDRI)
  • 2022: Co-Program Director, Disease Elimination, Burnet Institute
  • 2017: Program Director, Behaviours and Health Risks, Burnet Institute
  • Deputy Head, Centre for Population Health, Burnet Institute
Awards
  • 2013: Burnet Institute Fenner Award
  • 2010: Burnet Institute Gust-McKenzie Medal
  • 2006-2010: National Health & Medical Research Council Career Development Award
  • 2001-2006: VicHealth Public Health Research Fellowship
  • 2004: Premier’s Drug Prevention Council Travelling Scholarship
  • 1999: Victoria Fellowship
  • 1992-1993: Monash Graduate Scholarship
  • 1991: Lionel Murphy Postgraduate Scholarship
Positions
  • 2005-2007: Program Leader, Epidemiology and Surveillance, Turning Point Alcohol and Drug Centre
  • 2001-2004: Senior Research Fellow, School of Health and Social Development, Deakin University, Victoria, Australia