Dr Rosemary Higgins

Dr Rosemary Higgins recently completed her Professional Doctorate in Health Psychology at Swinburne University of Technology. She is employed as Senior Research Fellow at the Heart Research Centre and plays a leading role in developing and delivering training programs to health professionals.

Rosemary has considerable expertise in the rehabilitation of patients with coronary heart disease (CHD) and the management of health behaviours in these patients, publishing several papers in this area. Her doctoral thesis was in the area of health behaviour change in patients with CHD. In her research role, Rosemary has worked on several longitudinal studies of health behaviour change in patients with CHD.

Together with other team members, Rosemary developed and delivered a self management intervention based on principles of cognitive behaviour therapy and motivational interviewing as part of a randomised controlled trial. She has co-authored a number of workbooks developed to assist patients to cope with the
practical challenges of chronic disease self management (CDSM).

Rosemary is passionate about improving health professional practice in the area of CDSM. She has developed a range of health professional training programs to support practice change in this area. In addition, Rosemary is involved in the development of new models of care for patients who are unable or unwilling to attend traditional cardiac rehabilitation programs. She has been actively involved in the dissemination of research to health professionals through publications, conference presentations and workshop delivery.

Rosemary is past President of the Victorian Association of Cardiac Rehabilitation and, until recently, served on the Executive Management Committee of the Australian Cardiovascular Health and Rehabilitation Association.