Researcher biography

Prof Nicholas Lennox was the Director of the Queensland Centre for Intellectual and Developmental Disability from 1997 until 2018.

Prof Lennox is a researcher, educator, advocate and clinician. He has specialised in the health of adults with intellectual disability since 1992. He trained in general practice and also for a time in psychiatry. In 2007, he completed his PhD based on a randomised controlled trial of the Comprehensive Health Assessment Program (CHAP).

He has developed several interventions to improve the health of people with intellectual disability. They include:

  • the CHAP
  • the Ask Health Diary
  • the first “whole of life” handbook on the health of people with intellectual disability
  • a dual diagnosis educational kit
  • on-line training for general practitioners
  • on-line training for support workers
  • the Able X series of Massive Open Online Courses through Edx on health and intellectual disability. These courses are available across the globe through edx.org and uqx.uq.ed.au.

He has been instrumental in the IASSIDD (International Association for the Scientific Study of Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities) ratification of health guidelines and has successfully advocated for systemic change at a local, state, national and international level. He has, with others, successfully advocated for of a health assessment Medicare payment system to support GPs to perform these assessments on people with intellectual disability. This change in health policy resulted from the evidence provided by the RCT research performed using the health check and has enabled the adoption of the CHAP health review process by most state governments and many NGOs across Australia.

He is foundation Vice-president and Past President of the Australian Association of Developmental Disability Medicine (AADDM) and remains on the committee

Prof Lennox has published widely in national and international journals.