This study aims to explore and discover the life situation capability priorities for improved community living of older autistic adults (55 > years) with, enabling their intrinsic capacities for community action performances. The superimposition of age-related and ASD-related deterioration could theoretically result in greater impairments to inclusive community living than expected with age-related decline alone, but that would depend on capabilities and opportunities in life situations and over time.

The project employs participatory action research with autistic community partners including national aging and disability associations, autism spectrum networks, and centers for independent living to identity and characterize the life situation capability priorities of older autistic adults as rehabilitation tools.

Products from this project will be a framework of capability supports for intervention to guide older autistic adults their socially inclusive living.

Funding: US Agency for Community Living

This project will address serious deficits in the operation of the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) for one of its largest participant groups: people with psychosocial disability. Working in partnership with the National Disability Insurance Agency, who run the NDIS, it will develop new data on scheme outcomes, cost-effectiveness and participant experiences to develop an appropriate and implementable program to improve supports for this group.

Expected outcomes will be scheme reform by implementing a new framework of supports for psychosocial disability and data to improve the operation of national policy for this group more broadly. This should provide significant benefits for the cost-effective operation of the NDIS and build research capacity in disability policy.

We estimate that half of Australians living with dementia do not have a formal diagnosis, and diagnosis is delayed in culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) communities.

This project is co-designing and co-delivering a campaign to improve timely diagnosis of dementia in Chinese, Arabic and Vietnamese communities. This will include talks in English and preferred languages, media and social media, and outreach through community organisations in South Western Sydney.  

Funding: TCR: Cultural, ethnic and linguistic diversity in dementia research 2022 grant 

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This research will assess the association between flu vaccine and the prevention of heart disease and test a general practice quality improvement program to enhance vaccination rate in Australia. This will deepen our understanding of the effect of flu vaccination and provide evidence to assist in generating guidelines/policies to help reduce heart disease among Australians.

Funding: National Health and Medical Research Council Investigator grant

Heart disease causes nearly 20% of deaths around the world. Unfortunately, people's ongoing care for secondary prevention after leaving the hospital has not kept up with related medical advances.

To fix this, our team of researchers and software developers will unite to develop and test a new system for providing support and motivation to patients attending cardiac rehabilitation. We will build an electronic peer support system that patients with coronary heart disease can access to help motivate them to reduce their risk.

The system will be meaningful and usable for patients with heart disease and could be easily distributed and expanded to other health areas.

Funding: NSW Cardiovascular Research Capacity Program Early-Mid Career Researcher Grant

The cost-of-living crisis and surging healthcare costs have had a disproportionately damaging effect on young people. This impact has been especially pronounced for the one in three young Australians aged 15 to 24 with a chronic health condition.

In partnership with Epilepsy Action Australia, Asthma Australia, and young people, this project will examine, from multiple perspectives, how young people and their families navigate the social, educational and financial aspects of growing up while living with a chronic condition.

Findings will be used to co-develop publicly available resources to support young people, families and other key stakeholders such as educators, advoacates and care providers.

Our partners: Epilepsy Action Australia, Asthma Australia 

Funding: Australian Research Council

This project aims to uncover the full extent and consequences of rising out-of-pocket healthcare costs in Australia. Out-of-pocket costs (OOPCs) often come as a rude shock and can lead to financial distress, compromised care, increased inequalities, and significant suffering. Taking a person-centred, strengths-based approach, this project will identify how people in need of high-cost care, their carers, and their healthcare providers navigate the difficulties posed by the new OOP economy of healthcare.

Expected outcomes include publicly accessible resources and targeted policy and practice advice that will provide significant benefit by reducing the burdens, suffering, and harms caused by high OOPCs in Australia’s current healthcare system.

Our partners: Carers NSW

Funding: Australian Research Council

A sociological study of loneliness. Loneliness is a serious and rapidly growing social problem in Australia. Although the negative health effects and mounting healthcare costs of loneliness are known, effective responses to loneliness are not.

Taking a sociological approach, this project aims to generate new knowledge about the experience and meanings of loneliness for people and communities, and the social factors implicated in the rise of loneliness in contemporary Australia.

By focusing on loneliness in people with long-term health conditions, this knowledge will be used to develop policy and practice recommendations for the health- and community-care sectors in how to support people and communities experiencing loneliness.

Funding: Australian Research Council

Project H₂grOw has been a long-term initiative focused on supporting swimmers, nationwide, through maturational growth stages. The project illustrates how inter-individual differences in maturational growth affect various aspects of swim performance across age-group competition and broader engagement in the sport system.

ProjectH₂gr0w provides individual swimmer evaluations, coach and parent educational resources, as well as coach educational workshops/programs. The project empowers coaches, swimmers, and parents with information and strategies to optimise holistic swimmer development. 

Funding: Swimming Australia

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Using a mixed-models research design, the InSCI-PA project will undertake several linked studies to “benchmark” the current levels of physical activity in people with disabilities of SCI aetiology. 

The project will use a pre-planned stratified design with controls on age, gender, lesion level, and INSSCI grade living in Australia and other countries as part of the multi-national InSCI-PA surveys. Focus groups and interviews will seek to elucidate links between physical activity and the “lived experience” to promote behaviour change.   

Near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) and functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) are non-invasive and portable ambulatory techniques for assessing muscle oxygen uptake, muscle blood flow, and mitochondrial capacity in health and disease. These can quantify “central” cardiovascular performance vs “peripheral” muscle metabolism as possible limitations to exercise in various populations. The addition of fNIRS adds an element of brain oxygenation during muscle activities in various modalities. This cluster of projects will use mNIRS and fNIRS to quantify the changes to muscle performance during acute exercise and following exercise training.

Functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) is a non-invasive and portable ambulatory technique for assessing brain oxygenation in athletic endeavours, health, and disease. This cluster of projects will use fNIRS to quantify the changes to cerebral oxygenation during acute exercise, during and after respiratory interventions, during and after functional electrical stimulation (FES) leg exercise, and following exercise training.

Chemotherapy often leads to significant side effects, which exercise can help ameliorate. To overcome common barriers to exercise, such as lack of time and access, we are exploring a novel approach: integrating exercise into cancer treatment by delivering aerobic exercise during chemotherapy infusion (intra-infusion). We are also exploring how varying intensities of aerobic exercise impact blood flow to tumours, which has the potential to enhance drug delivery and improve treatment outcomes when exercise is performed during infusion.

Exercise can help manage the side effects of immunotherapy for advanced melanoma, yet many people with melanoma do not engage in sufficient activity. This research programs aims to develop an exercise intervention to improve both the quality and quantity of life for people with melanoma. The foundation of this work involves establishing an observational cohort to track changes in physical activity patterns and the impact of immunotherapy side effects. We are also investigating how different intensities of aerobic exercise influence immune response, with the potential for exercise to synergise with immunotherapy and improve treatment response. 

When we eat may be as important as what we eat when it comes to optimising health, but especially when attempting to modifying bodyweight for health outcomes. While many will know “chrononutrition” as time restricted feeding, there are many factors within time and eating that can be modified to achieve health outcomes, and a variety of these have been found to be effective for outcomes including, but not limited to achieving and maintaining weight loss.

We're testing a program of work focussing on testing and tailoring chrononutrition interventions for health outcomes for population groups across the lifespan, including young adults and individuals with chronic disease.

Our experts:

• Dr Helen Parker

People with chronic musculoskeletal pain such as osteoarthritis and low back pain often have poor sleep. Although evidence strongly implicates the role of sleep in pain, people with chronic musculoskeletal pain rarely, if ever, receive management for their poor sleep. Several strategies including cognitive behavioural therapy for insomnia are beneficial to improve sleep, with potential also to reduce pain. Our program of research focus on enhancing the benefits of exercise for chronic musculoskeletal pain by improving sleep. 

Funding: The US Department of Defense

This research aims to investigate the effect of artificial sweeteners (AS) on fat and carbohydrate oxidation. Specifically, this study will invite participants to consume three different beverages – water, AS and full sugar. We will then monitor changes in metabolic rate at rest and during sub-maximal exercise. We hope that the outcomes will contribute to the ongoing debate over the relative risk or safety of consuming artificial sweeteners in the management of metabolic health.

Our experts:

• Associate Professor Kieron Rooney
• Dr Troy Cross

This research aims to investigate if lactate influences the intensity at which we maximally burn fat during exercise (FATmax). Specifically, we will recruit over 100 members of the general public to complete an exercise bout at increasing intensities relative to changes in plasma lactate. Parameters determining FATmax will be explored. We hope that outcomes will contribute to the ongoing conversation regarding appropriate exercise prescriptions for maximising fat oxidation

Our experts:

• Associate Professor Kieron Rooney
• Dr Troy Cross

The Warburg phenomenon describes the overabundance of lactate production in certain cancer cells under aerobic conditions. First described over 100 years ago, it has subsequently been identified as characteristic of multiple cancer cell types. In parallel, exercise has been recognised as a lifestyle behaviour that is protective to cancer development.

This project seeks to investigate what (if any) interaction may have been considered in the management of exercise induced lactate production and cancer management in the context of the Warburg phenomenon. A large scale systematic review interrogating prior work in the field of cancer metabolism and exercise will hopefully identify if there are secrets in the metabolism of cancer cells that can be manipulated in clinical care. 

Our experts:

• Associate Professor Kate Edwards
• Associate Professor Kieron Rooney

Dance has been suggested as a suitable physical activity in current exercise guidelines to improve adherence to physical activity. The efficacy of dance has been demonstrated to improve physical health, cognitive, and psychological health measures across various populations. Dance may appeal to Cultural And Language Diverse (CALD) communities that unsuccessfully adhere to health interventions.

The DanCER project is a large-scale project that encompasses many facets of understanding how dance can be utilised as an effective alternative exercise modality. A coding tool is being developed to categorise the movements, intensity, and complexity of a dance class. This tool could be useful to assist health care professionals to better understand the dance classes they can refer their patients to, and assist dance educators to design classes that can better target specific health conditions.

Our experts:

• Dr Alycia Fong Yan

Despite current osteoarthritis management guidelines promoting exercise as a first-line treatment, patients’ engagement with exercise is sub-optimal. People may also become fearful of exercise when they experience knee pain, stiffness or crepitus and may then decrease their exercise even without having osteoarthritis.

Thus, educating people regarding the mechanisms underlying the benefits of exercise for joint health is still warranted. It is also currently unknown what structures around the knee change following an exercise intervention in people with osteoarthritis.

The aims of this study are to determine: 1) the link between knee crepitus and knee health, 2) if targeted lifestyle education can reassure people and benefit their knee and overall health, and 3) if a targeted exercise/education intervention can demonstrate physiological changes around the knee joint that corresponds to improvements in perceived knee joint symptoms in people with osteoarthritis.

This proposed research project aims to explore the biomechanics of cricket performance optimisation across multiple facets of the game, including batting, bowling (both fast and spin), fielding, and running between the wickets.

By integrating motion capture technology, force measurement tools, and advanced biomechanical modelling, the project seeks to identify key movement patterns, joint dynamics, and energy efficiency factors that contribute to improved performance.

The research will focus on quantifying the mechanical aspects of skill execution, from the kinetic chain involved in batting and bowling to the acceleration and deceleration strategies in fielding and running.

Additionally, we will explore how player-specific factors, such as body mechanics and muscle activation, influence performance under varying conditions, providing insights into training methodologies and injury prevention.

Through this holistic approach, the study aims to offer data-driven recommendations for optimising cricket skills while enhancing long-term performance and player longevity.

This proposed research project focuses on the biomechanics of the golf swing, aiming to uncover novel insights into optimising hitting distance, accuracy, and reducing the risk of lumbar spine injuries.

Using advanced motion capture systems, force platforms, and modelling, the study will analyse the key mechanical factors that influence swing efficiency throughout the swing phases. Special attention will be given to identifying movement patterns that contribute to excessive stress on the lumbar spine, to develop strategies for injury prevention and improved performance.

The research will explore the constraints of golf swing technical parameters that maintain consistence ball striking and minimise the risk of overuse injuries. By integrating these biomechanical insights, the project aims to provide evidence-based recommendations for golf coaches, such as methods of golf training and swing adjustments, to improve both performance and long-term player health.

This proposed research project aims to investigate the biomechanics and skill acquisition processes involved in optimising performance across key aspects of tennis, including the serve, forehand, single-handed backhand, double-handed backhand, footwork, and court speed.

Via advanced motion capture, force measurement tools, and computational modelling, the study will analyse the critical movement patterns, joint mechanics, and kinetic chain involved in each stroke, focusing on power generation, accuracy, and efficiency.

Special emphasis will be placed on understanding how footwork dynamics contribute to stroke execution and overall court coverage, as well as the role of agility and reaction time in maintaining optimal performance.

The findings aim to offer a comprehensive approach to improving technical execution and movement patterns while addressing injury prevention, particularly for the shoulders, wrists, and lower body.

This project will provide a foundation for tailored coaching strategies that enhance both performance and the longevity of tennis players at all levels.

The amount of academic and training stress university athletes are exposed to can fluctuate across the academic semester and athletic season. Sleep is important for recovery and interacts with athletic and academic performance, and it is an expectation that elite university athletes perform in both domains.

However, it is unknown if university athletes are at risk of poor sleep during periods of high or low training and academic load, and if sleep loss is sufficient enough to negatively impact athletic and academic performance.

This program of research considers sleep quality, recovery, academic load, and training load in university athletes during different phases of the athletic season and academic semester

Conditions of hypersomnolence include both narcolepsy and idiopathic hypersomnia, both of which have a profound impact on levels of daytime sleepiness and general functioning.

These conditions are primarily treated with pharmacotherapy and there is a paucity of evidence related to the potential impact of lifestyle interventions such as exercise or diet to improve symptomology.

This program of research will use a mixed methods approach underpinned by implementation science to tailor specific and effective novel interventions for these sleep disorders.

Funding: American Academy of Sleep Medicine, Sydney Health Partners

Current sleep health research emphasises the interplay between lifestyle factors and sleep quality, highlighting chronotype as a crucial determinant. Our investigation focusses on personalised medicine approaches, examining the impact of evening meal timing on sleep and gut microbiome, as well as the diurnal timing of exercise on physical performance and sleep quality. 

There is a choice of team sport dependent on the interests of the researcher. Team sports have included football, rugby league, rugby union, hockey, water polo, cricket. The aims are to examine the physiological performance, wellbeing (including sleep) and injury profiles in players and to investigate the relationships between player workload, holistic wellbeing, and injury. We have also investigated female only team sports with a special emphasis on the contributions of menstrual cycle and mental health to performance and injury.

Physical activity (PA) behaviors of children in Australia were highlighted as unsatisfactory, partly attributed to the COVID-19 pandemic. This project examines the effectiveness of a 3-month Family Healthy Lifestyle Program (HeLP). With the goal of improving the health of primary school children and their families, the program targets indicators with poor grades from the 2022 Active Health Kids Report Cards, including overall PA, physical fitness, family, and sedentary behavior.

The project represents a pivotal opportunity for translational research, promoting an evidence-based family-centric PA program, and providing guidelines for parents and educators to improve the health of children. We will also investigate the barriers and facilitators for for implementing a family-centric exercise and healthy lifestyle program.

Summary: Breast and lung cancers account for 25% of cancer costs in Australia. Current imaging techniques for breast cancer, the most common cancer in women, have limitations such as low sensitivity/specificity, high radiation doses, or discomfort. Similarly, lung cancer, the leading cause of cancer deaths, has poor detection, resulting in low survival rates. A novel imaging method, propagation-based phase-contrast computed tomography (PB-CT), enhances image quality up to 10-fold by using X-ray refraction and absorption while reducing radiation exposure.

In a multi-institutional, multidisciplinary effort led by the University of Sydney, we are pioneering the world’s first PB-CT clinical trial and facility at the Australian Synchrotron. This groundbreaking technology aims at transforming breast and lung cancer diagnosis and treatment worldwide, improving detection accuracy and potentially lowering cancer mortality and morbidity.

Funding: National Health and Medical Research Council

Our experts:

• Professor Patrick Brennan
• Dr Amir Tavakoli Taba 
• Dania Abu Awwad
• Thomas Leatham

Recent advances in biomedical engineering have led to the development of Total Body Positron Emission Tomography (TB-PET), the most sensitive imaging device to date. Despite these impressive engineering advances, computational methods lag far behind and model-based approaches cannot deal with the complexity or volume of data these systems produce.

We will develop new computational methods based on deep learning and statistical methods that fully exploit the richness and complexity of the data generated by TB-PET, enabling 3D quantitative assays of molecular processes throughout the entire human body with unparalleled sensitivity. The technology we create will open up new capability for the study of complex physiological systems.

Funding: Australian Research Council Discovery grant

Our experts:

• Professor Steven Meikle

Our partners:

• Yanan Fan, Data61 (CSIRO)
• Andrew Reader (King’s College London, UK)

Recent advances in biomedical engineering have led to sophisticated devices for imaging the brains of laboratory animals. However, a major limitation of these devices is that the animal must be anaesthetised to keep the head still which interferes with the chemical signals in the brain we aim to measure.

The aim of this project is to overcome this technological barrier by developing a fully enclosed animal cradle with integrated motion tracking and correction, thus enabling awake animals to be imaged in current generation scanners. The technology we create will open up new capability to study chemical signalling in the brain and generate new knowledge about the mechanisms underpinning the brain’s responses to a changing environment.

Funding: Australian Research Council Linkage grant

Our experts: 

• Professor Roger Fulton
• Professor Steven Meikle
• Dr Andre Kyme

Our partners:

• Michael Heidenreich, (Bruker Biospin)

An excess or deficiency of copper in the central nervous system (CNS) results in devastating neurological disorders. These disorders include rare genetic disorders, such as Menkes disease and Wilson’s disease, but also increasingly prevalent neurodegenerative disorders, such as Parkinson disease and motor neurone disease.

Therapies which aim to correct copper levels in the CNS are established, or emerging, treatments for all these disorders, with clinical benefits including slowing disease progress and extending life. Currently no method exists to directly quantify CNS copper levels in a living patient. This poses a major challenge to progressing our understanding of the role of copper in these disorders, and providing safe and effective copper-modifying treatments to patients. Our solution is to develop the first method to measure copper levels, and distribution, in the CNS during life.

We will employ our patented copper-sensing tracer to develop the first quantitative Positron Emission Tomography (PET)-based neuroimaging tool. Our team consists of experts in copper in neurological disease, copper chemistry, preclinical and clinical quantitative imaging, clinical neurology and medicinal chemistry. We will utilise our expertise in, and access to, cutting-edge quantitative imaging modalities, including Australia’s only Deep In Vivo Explorer multiphoton microscope, synchrotron x-ray fluorescence microscopy and Australia’s first Total Body Positron Emission Tomography scanner to develop the first tool to quantify bioavailable copper in the CNS during life.

Success in this project will deliver a unique technological advance which will enable new insights into the role of copper in neurological disease. It will also allow, for the first time, clinical monitoring of the central effects of copper-modifying treatments in a range of rare and common neurological disorders.

Funding: National Health and Medical Research Council Ideas

Our experts:

• Professor Kay Double
• Professor Elizabeth New
• Professor Steven Meikle 

This is project will develop the first Positron Emission Tomography (PET) ligand for neuroimaging of pathological TAR DNA-binding protein 43 (TDP-43) in Motor Neuron Disease (MND). This project is designed for rapid translation of pre-clinical findings to first in human studies. Neuroimaging of TDP-43 will accelerate translation of therapeutics and lead to more successful clinical trial outcomes for MND patients by addressing challenges in the key area of Disease Biomarkers.

TDP-43 is a well-characterised neuropathological hallmark of MND in human post- mortem diagnostics with clear biological connection to disease processes. Accordingly, the nuclear protein TDP-43 mis-localises, accumulates, and aggregates in the cytoplasm of motor neurons (and other neurons) in over 90% MND and ~40% of frontotemporal dementia (FTD) cases. We have previously demonstrated that reducing pathological TDP-43 in clinical stages of the disease was sufficient to alleviate deficits in an iTDP-43A315T mouse model of MND.1 In addition, we have recently discovered a novel peptide motif of the 14-3-3θ protein with specific binding affinities for pathological TDP-43 in MND.2 Here, we will use a 14-3-3θ peptide sequence, optimized for entry into the central nervous system (CNS) and neurons, termed 5Rθ, to develop a non-invasive PET ligand to assess pathological TDP-43 burden in pre-clinical models and monitor response to therapy.

Funding: FightMND

Our experts:

• Professor Steven Meikle

Our partners:

• Ole Tietz, (Macquarie University, Australia)
• Lars Ittner,  (Macquarie University, Australia)
• Yazi Ke,  (Macquarie University, Australia)

The Image X Interventional Imaging Program is an international academic-industry-healthcare program dedicated to delivering innovative robotic imaging solutions to aid in the diagnosis and treatment of disease spanning cardiology, oncology, radiology, and orthopaedics.

Current projects include combined adaptive and extended field of view imaging for stroke imaging, respiratory adaptive imaging for thoracic interventions, upright imaging of the cervicothoracic junction, artifact reduction imaging and dose reduction imaging near organs at risk. 

Our experts:

• Dr Tess Reynolds

The SpinePrint Laboratory is dedicated to delivering novel 3D-printed solutions for the treatment of disease, currently focused on applications in oncology and orthopaedics. Current projects include developing and printing surgical guides, anatomical models, and synthetic spines.

Our experts:

• Dr Tess Reynolds

Our partners:

• Dr Andrew Kanawati (Westmead Hospital, Australia)

Oncology patients may require PET/CT imaging using different radiotracers administered on different days. Same-day multi-tracer imaging has the potential to enhance patient convenience, improve departmental workflow, reduce overall radiation exposure to the patient, facilitate rapid diagnostic information and ultimately improve patient outcomes. These potential benefits may have more impact in paediatric patients compared to adults.

The Siemens Quadra is an extended field of view (EFOV) PET/CT system with significantly enhanced sensitivity compared to standard field of view (SFOV) PET/CT systems. The EFOV allows simultaneous total-body PET imaging in paediatric patients with the potential for dynamic total-body assessment of physiologic functions and tumour kinetics. Both dual-time point FDG PET and dynamic EFOV GaTATE PET can potentially increase diagnostic accuracy in paediatric cancers.

Funding: Total Body PET Seed Funding Scheme, Sydney Imaging, National Imaging Facility

Our experts: Professor Peter Kench

Our partners: Dr Kevin London (Children’s Hospital at Westmead)

This project is a prospective study investigating the diagnostic accuracy of FAPI PET CT in paediatric solid tumours. FAPI PET CT has been shown to stage a range of adult malignancies accurately but its application in paediatric malignancies has yet to be investigated. If FAPI is positive in paediatric malignancies, there is the potential for a theranostic application of the same ligand using the beta-emitting nuclide Lu-177. The current project is the first step in investigating the potential for utilising F-FAPI/Lu-FAPI in a theranostic approach for treating paediatric cancers.

Funding: Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation/Australian And New Zealand Society Of Nuclear Medicine Research Grant

Our experts: Professor Peter Kench

Our partners: Dr Kevin London (Children’s Hospital at Westmead)

A participatory action research project evaluating the process of three disability organisations bringing people with intellectual disability into their governance processes.

 “Let’s talk about voices” is a series of videos and worksheets that educate voice-hearers about how to develop more agentic and positive relationships with their voices. They have been used successfully within Hearing Voices Groups, but are also designed to be used by voice-hearers independently or with the support of their mental health workers and by mental health workers who wish to support people who hear voices.

This research is designed to answer two questions: 1) How do users of the “Let’s Talk About Voices” toolkit experience this resource?; and 2) What impact does using “Let’s Talk About Voices” have on voice hearers attitudes to and experiences with their voices? 

It does so using a mixed methods design consisting of: 1) questionnaire; 2) qualitative interviews; and 3) pre-post measures of voice hearing experience conducted before and after routine support using the toolkit.

Funding: Northern Sydney Local Health District

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This project evaluates the usefulness and impact of Lets Talk about Voices, an online toolkit designed to support mental health workers to support voice-hearers using a non-medical approach.

Using a randomised cross-over trial design we assess the impact of engaging with the resources on mental health workers’ attitudes and capacity to work with voice hearers using a Voice Hearing approach.

Through a combination of survey and in-depth interviews we examine workers subjective experiences of working with the resources, including their usefulness and feasibility in different contexts?

Funding: Moyira Elizabeth Vine fund for research into schizophrenia

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This project compares the accuracy of data extraction for systematic review by artificial intelligence versus humans. Human-led data extraction is completed by two investigators followed by validation for completeness and accuracy by third investigator. Semi-automated data extraction is conducted using Elicit. The team developed a series of prompts through an iterative process of prompt building and testing.

Funding:  Evidence Synthesis Ireland/Cochrane Ireland: ESI SWAR Award

This participatory study has two phases:

1. Australia-wide on-line survey with two 'arms’: (i) experiences of current and former university students living with psychosis to identify factors that helped or hindered their success at university; and (ii) experiences of university-based disability supporters in relation to their knowledge about schizophrenia and other psychoses, confidence in supporting students with schizophrenia and perceived barriers and enablers to students’ success at university.

2. Co-designed development of accommodation and support toolkits (one for disability and inclusion staff and one for students living with schizophrenia and other psychoses). Information synthesised from Phase 1 will inform these co-design workshops with university students living with schizophrenia and university disability support staff. Toolkits will be designed to inform the identification and development of appropriate educational accommodations and supports for this population. The project will develop two co-designed resources/toolkits and is the foundation for a national trial.

Funding: Moyira Elizabeth Vine fund for research into schizophrenia

RAS-DS is a self-report tool to measure recovery and also to enhance consumer participation in goal setting and intervention planning. Our preliminary work has identified that a major barrier to use relates to the current format of RAS-DS and that this can be addressed through RAS-DS digitalisation and augmentation. Therefore this project will:

• Co-design a digitalised and enhanced RAS-DS resource to facilitate consumer control of goal setting and treatment planning
• Evaluate the feasibility, usefulness, and impact of this resource

The outcome of this project will be an evidence-based App: Driv-R (DRIVing my own mental health Recovery), that promises a rapid translation to practice because: 1) it was initiated and co-produced by the people who it is designed to serve, ensuring buy-in; and 2) it enhances a tool that is already widely used, enabling extensive reach and service efficiency.

Funding: 2021 Medical Research Future Fund consumer-led research 

A dementia or mild cognitive impairment diagnosis depends on the extent of functional decline, however, detecting subtle change is difficult. Cognitive changes don’t automatically cause problems with functioning, but impaired ‘functional cognition’ does: these tests can detect subtle functional decline in ‘cognitively normal’ people (with dementia-related brain changes). Screening tools are an efficient, low-cost alternative to more expensive detailed performance-based assessments.

We are testing two functional cognition screens, comparing them to other assessments to determine the most effective approach to detecting impaired functional cognition in older people. Improved targeting of referrals for in-depth assessment and/or interventions supports early diagnosis, and/or delays progression, improving quality of life. Findings will inform future work with different healthcare professionals testing screens across settings (including rural/ remote), potentially providing wider surveillance of people ‘at risk’ of dementia.

Funding: Dementia Australia Research Foundation Grant

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Dementia Australia video

This study will co-design a 12 month, culturally relevant, sustainable, nutrition and physical activity program ‘Strait from the Heart’ with First Nation’s communities on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland (QLD), and their community health service the North Coast Aboriginal Corporation for Community Health (NCACCH).

The study is inclusive of family members to respect the bonds, relationships and kinship networks. We will pilot ‘Strait from the Heart’ to improve cardiovascular disease risk factors for First Nations people and communities. The study aims to promote and advocate for a model of sustainability. The team includes a number of First Nations investigators, research assistant and First Nations PhD opportunity.

Funding: Heart Foundation CVD grant

The study establishes and evaluates a care pathway that enables AF screening and treatment of Indigenous patients 55 years and over to become routine practice in primary health care.

We describe the barriers, enablers and leverage points to implementing sustainable AF screening (using a single lead iECG device) and follow up of Indigenous patients 55-years and over in primary health care settings. A co-designed and culturally safe AF screening and treatment pathway has been established through community-centred, integrated and technology-enabled (m-health and e-health) approaches.

We have developed an implementation framework, that recognises the need for macro and meso system change to support micro local change and build scale nationally. The study evaluates immediate and medium-term health benefits of the EASI implementation framework for AF screening and clinical follow-up pathway for Aboriginal people aged 55-years and over.

Funding: Medical Research Future Fund cardiovascular health mission    

This study aims will be conducted in northern NSW on the traditional lands of the Kamilaroi people, and aims to co-design, deliver and evaluate a school based food and nutrition study led by a community elder and the Gadji Gadji woman’s group. 

The women’s group will work with the Boggabilla school and the children to provide fortnightly workshops on traditional foods around growing, harvesting, and cooking. This program will also include local language and culture revival. The experiences of the women’s group, the children and the school will be explored. This project is a collaboration with the Native Grains project.

The primary outcome of the proposed research is to determine the effect of dietary native grain intake on gut health and risk of cardiometabolic disease.  The project will also indirectly support secondary outcomes of food security and local indigenous community empowerment improving social cohesion. 

All stages of research will be co-designed and co-produced through partnership between researchers and indigenous communities. A traditional custodians of the local grains governance group will be established to lead this project, and Indigenous research assistants employed. This project also collaborates on the nutrition program described previously.

This research team employs an integrated knowledge-to-action methodology to co-produce principles, practice standards and actionable guidance to ensure a nationally consistent approach to disability inclusive emergency management. A key component involves co-producing a Disability Inclusive Emergency Management Toolkit, which includes guiding principles, standards, and practical tools to help emergency planners integrate disability considerations effectively.

Funding: National Emergency Management Agency

As part of a larger National Disaster Ready Fund project to implement Person-Centred Emergency Preparedness (P-CEP) state-wide. This research provides capacity development and implementation evaluation support to the People with Disability Emergency Preparedness Project. Facilitating state-wide implementation led by emergency services working in partnership with people with disability and their support services.

Funding: Tasmania State Emergency Services 

This project aims to empower First Nations, elderly, and seniors including people with disability and chronic health conditions to understand their hazard exposure and vulnerabilities, build community awareness and collaboration, enable information sharing and education, and build capability in knowing how to prepare and what to do in the event of a disaster.

Funding: Queensland Resilience and Risk Reduction Funding, Queensland Government Department of Local Government, Water and Volunteers 

We're developing and piloting an adaptation of the BEACH methodology for use in physiotherapy practice to describe the types of problems presenting to private practice physiotherapists

Our experts: Dr Christopher Harrison, Dr Julie Gordon. Professor Sarah Dennis, Dr Michelle Hancock

Funding: Commonwealth Government

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 We propose to implement two evidence-based strategies that will improve access to general practitioner-led multidisciplinary team care including nurse case-management and improved access to allied health delivered pulmonary rehabilitation (PR) for people with COPD.

The implementation of these strategies will improve the management of COPD, improve health outcomes for people with COPD and in turn reduce the pressure on the hospital system

Our experts: Sarah Dennis, Nicholas Zwar, Zoe McKeough, Jennifer Alison, Elizabeth Halcomb, Michelle Cunich, Sanjyot Vagholkar, Claudia Dobler, Serene Paul, Lisa Pagano, David Meharg, Sameera Ansari, Jordan Kidd

Funding: Medical Research Future Fund

The overall aim of this project is to determine whether lipoedema, lymphoedema and lipohypertrophy /gynoid obesity can be distinguished based on assessments with BIS U/S and TDC. This will provide objective evidence for a clinical diagnosis of lipoedema.

The results may also confirm or refute current differing hypotheses regarding whether there is oedema in lipoedema, and, if so, where oedema is located, allowing improved evidence-based lipoedema treatment plans to be confirmed.

Our experts: Helen Eason, Associate Professor Elizabeth Dylke, Associate Professor Kieron Rooney, Dr Nicola Fearn

Funding: Physiotherapy Research Foundation 

We're developing automatic speech recognition (ASR) systems for children 3-12 years to provide the basic infrastructure for innovative research on children’s speech and the training of speech scientists and engineers.

It will be used to address real-life and significant research questions pertaining to the development of children’s speech and the role technology can play in supporting speech development.

Applications include remote speech therapy, interactive reading tutors, pronunciation coaching andeducational games. 

Funding: Australian Research Council

This project will explore using a randomised control trial of dynamic temporal and tactile cueing (DTTC) as an intervention for children with childhood apraxia of speech (CAS).

Funding: National Health and Medical Research Council

Comparison of two forms of learning (modified simulation or video learning) for novice students at the start of their first clinical experience on anxiety, confidence and preparedness 

The study aims to investigate if Rapid Syllable Transition Treatment (ReST) is effective in improving speech intelligibility in adults with apraxia of speech.