Dr Carla Thamm is a Senior Research Fellow and the Clinical Lead of the Cancer Survivorship Program at the Caring Futures Institute at Flinders University.

Dr Thamm is an experienced cancer nurse leader and is dedicated to mentoring and shaping the nursing profession through leadership, education, and research.  She is an internationally recognised emerging leader and researcher in cancer survivorship, navigation and cancer education. 

Dr Thamm is an experienced educator, having taught in both undergraduate and postgraduate nursing courses. She has developed curriculum for large clinical nursing units and developed postgraduate cancer courses. She was also the Postgraduate Course Coordinator for the School of Nursing at the Queensland University of Technology leading the suit of postgraduate courses through internal accreditation in 2022/2023.

Dr Thamm's research program focuses on optimising models of care, particularly nursing models and health service delivery to address the needs of people affected by cancer and has been invited to speak at many national and international conferences. Dr Thamm has been awarded over $1.5 million in competitive grant and partnership funding and has been first author and co-author on >20 peer reviewed cancer care and advanced practice nursing publications.  She is CI and AI on multiple studies. In 2023 Dr Thamm was chosen as one of four Clinical Oncology Society of Australia (COSA) Survivorship Research Fellows.

In addition to her research program, Dr Thamm is currently the Chair of the Education Standing Committee for the Cancer Nurses Society of Australia (CNSA), she is also a project lead for the COSA Financial Toxicity working group and a member of the COSA Survivorship group. Carla is also a member of the Conference Organising Committee of the International Society of Nurses in Cancer Care (ISNCC).  She is currently leading the redevelopment of a framework for Australian Cancer Nurses. 

Research Impact

Dr Thamm's work has real world impact. The academic industry partnership project she co-led has been translated into clinical practice through the development and implementation of a statewide, government funded transitional support program for new cancer nurses in Queensland with over 70 enrolments in the first year (2024). Her current work involving specialist cancer nurses is also directly informing the Australian Cancer Nursing and Navigation program, particularly the new McGrath all cancer nursing model of care and nurse self-assessment tools. Her research and professional leadership in financial toxicity has also supported the development of a national road map for financial toxicity which has been endorsed by the Clinical Oncology Society of Australia and is informing research, practice and policy in this area throughout Australia.

• Cancer Survivorship
• Cancer Nursing
• Models of Care in Cancer Care
• Qualitative research methods

Dr Thamm's research is focused on improving the experience of people living with cancer through innovative models of care. She has a particular focus on financial toxicity, patient navigation, cancer survivorship and the contribution of specialist cancer nurses in patient care and outcomes. 

She represents cancer nursing on key policy, clinical, education and research issues  Her achievements as a cancer nursing leader and researcher are demonstrated by invitations to be on expert panels to review models of care and frameworks by the McGrath Foundation and Lung Cancer Foundation Australia, and to provide expert opinion on cancer navigation by Navigation Nation in the USA. She is also regularly invited to speak at both national and international conferences. CI Thamm is also a peer reviewer for multiple high-quality journals and is currently an ECR editorial board member of the Journal of Advanced Nursing (Q1, IF 3.8).

Dr Thamm has supervised 3 Masters of Nursing research projects to completion and is currently supervising 5 PHD students.