Rate My Professor Riitta Partanen

Professor Riitta Partanen serves as the Interim Dean of the Medical School at the University of Queensland, assuming this role in January 2026. For the previous five years, she was Director of the Rural Clinical School, managing four Regional Clinical Units in Bundaberg, Hervey Bay, Rockhampton, and Toowoomba, the Rural and Remote Medicine Clinical Unit spanning over 50 southern Queensland communities, and three Regional Training Hubs. A graduate of the University of Queensland with a Bachelor of Medicine and Surgery and Medical Science, along with a Postgraduate Diploma, Partanen has practiced as a specialist General Practitioner in Maryborough, Queensland, since 1994. She joined the University in 2005 as the inaugural Head of the Hervey Bay Regional Clinical Unit, later serving as Co-Director of Learning for the Rural Clinical School, GP Academic Lead, Acting Head of the Rural Clinical School, and Academic Lead for Phase 2 of the UQ Medical Program until handing over Hervey Bay leadership in 2020. She played a key role in developing the Central Queensland-Wide Bay Regional Medical Pathway and the Darling Downs-South West Medical Pathway to support end-to-end medical education in regional and rural areas.

Partanen's academic interests encompass growing the rural medical workforce, rural medical education, end-to-end training pathways, supporting safe cessation of long-term antidepressants without clinical indication, social prescribing for depression management, and enhancing early hepatocellular carcinoma diagnosis through primary care risk-stratification. As a PhD candidate, her research examines rural medical workforce dynamics. Notable publications include 'Identifying the experience of geographical narcissism during medical education and training' (Advances in Health Sciences Education, 2026), 'A national investigation on the impact of rurality on standardised clinical aptitude test performance' (Medical Teacher, 2026), 'Long-term antidepressant use in general practice: a qualitative study of GPs' views on discontinuation' (British Journal of General Practice, 2021), 'Recruiting and retaining general practitioners in rural practice: systematic review and meta-analysis of rural pipeline effects' (Medical Journal of Australia, 2020), and 'Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on medical student placements in rural Queensland: A survey study' (Australian Journal of Rural Health, 2022). She chairs the national Federation of Rural Australian Medical Educators (FRAME) Policy Group, serves on the RACGP Doctors for Women in Rural Medicine Committee and Rural Doctors Australia Female Doctors Group, and has presented extensively on geographical narcissism and rural workforce innovations at conferences such as WONCA, RMA, and FRAME meetings. Under her leadership, nearly 40 percent of Rural Clinical School graduates enter junior doctor roles in regional, rural, and remote communities, underscoring her influence on equitable rural healthcare access.