She is an injury epidemiologist and a public health researcher. She has been credited with influencing Australian government legislation relating to graduated driver licensing.[4]
She has also been involved in a number of studies working with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, including analysis of driving behaviour and crashes[5] and preventing avoidable injuries among children.[6] Recent work on burn injury has highlighted the need for systems change regarding delivery of care.
Ivers has written editorials for the Sydney Morning Herald on topics including alcohol advertising and sports,[7] gun laws,[8] bicycle safety and helmets,[9] and road safety in general.[10][11][12][13][14] She has also written several editorials for Croakey on various public health topics.[15][16][17] She has also commented on the equalizing effect of COVID-19 on academic research.[18]
Ivers has overseen studies with a global reach examining the burden and risk factors for injury in low-income settings, including Vietnam, India and China. Current global projects involve a large scale initiative implementing community drowning interventions in Bangladesh, and work on scalable interventions for drowning in India and Vietnam.[19] She also leads work on fracture care working with investigators from McMasters University on a NHMRC funded prospective study of 40,000 people examining the incidence and predictors of mortality in people sustaining traumatic fractures in low income country settings.[20] She coauthored the WHO Step Safety Report which highlighted rates of life impacting falls and new prevention strategies.
Selected publications
Liu, B.C.; Ivers, R.; Norton, R.; Boufous, S.; Blows, S.; Lo, S.K. (2008). Cochrane Injuries Group (ed.). "Helmets for preventing injury in motorcycle riders". Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews. 4 (1): CD004333. doi:10.1002/14651858.CD004333.pub3. hdl:10536/DRO/DU:30009360. PMID18254047.
Cumming, R.G.; Ivers, R.; Clemson, L.; Cullen, J.; Hayes, M. F.; Tanzer, M.; Mitchell, P. (2007). "Improving Vision to Prevent Falls in Frail Older People: A Randomized Trial: VISION IMPROVEMENT FOR FALLS PREVENTION". Journal of the American Geriatrics Society. 55 (2): 175–181. doi:10.1111/j.1532-5415.2007.01046.x. PMID17302652. S2CID24638499.