Rate My Professor Karen Flegg

Associate Professor Karen Flegg serves as a key figure in medical education and general practice at the Australian National University (ANU), holding the position of Associate Professor in the Rural Clinical School within the School of Medicine and Psychology. A qualified general practitioner with extensive experience in rural and remote areas, including recent work in Central Australia with Australia’s First Nations peoples, she has dedicated over 20 years to undergraduate and postgraduate specialty training in general practice. Her academic credentials include a Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery with Honours (MBBS Hons), Master of International Public Health (MIntPH), Graduate Diploma in Clinical Epidemiology (GradDipClinEpi), Fellowship of the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (FRACGP), Fellowship of the Australian College of Rural and Remote Medicine (FACRRM), Fellowship of the Royal New Zealand College of General Practitioners, and an Honorary Fellowship from the Sri Lanka College of General Practitioners.

Dr Flegg’s leadership extends globally through her role as President of the World Organisation of Family Doctors (WONCA), following service as Member-at-Large on the WONCA Executive from 2013 to 2018 and as WONCA Editor from 2010 to 2020. She has held directorial positions on boards such as the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners and the Australian General Practice Network, contributing expertise in finance, audit, governance, and bylaws. She formerly served as CEO of the Royal New Zealand College of General Practitioners and Director of Training in a regional GP postgraduate training programme. Clinically, her interests encompass Aboriginal health, women’s health, breast medicine—where she works part-time coordinating assessments and delivering biopsy results in government screening programs—sexual assault crisis services, and geriatrics. Her research specializations include general practice, breast medicine, and international primary health care issues, reflected in key publications such as “What is rural? Keynote speech at the XI EURIPA Forum 2022” (2023, Advances in Clinical and Experimental Medicine), “Priorities for primary health care policy implementation: Recommendations from the combined experience of six countries in the Asia-Pacific” (2020, Australian Journal of Primary Health), “Microcalcifications Detected as an Abnormality on Screening Mammography: Outcomes and Followup over a Five-Year Period” (2013, International Journal of Breast Cancer), “A Practical Approach To Teaching Medical Students About Community Services” (2015), and “Health service attendance patterns in an urban Aboriginal health service” (2010, Medical Journal of Australia). She has delivered keynote speeches, including at the XI EURIPA Forum 2022, underscoring her influence in rural health and family medicine.