Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE230101551
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$443,742.00
Summary
Towards dignity-based knowledge practices in global health. When the dignity of its beneficiaries is not respected, especially their dignity as knowers, global health efforts in low-income settings perpetuate falsehoods and promote wrong interventions. This project aims to fill an urgent gap in the field of global health – how to institutionalise respect for beneficiaries’ dignity as knowers. The project will do so by investigating strategies that helped to institutionalise evidence-based practi ....Towards dignity-based knowledge practices in global health. When the dignity of its beneficiaries is not respected, especially their dignity as knowers, global health efforts in low-income settings perpetuate falsehoods and promote wrong interventions. This project aims to fill an urgent gap in the field of global health – how to institutionalise respect for beneficiaries’ dignity as knowers. The project will do so by investigating strategies that helped to institutionalise evidence-based practices in the fields of health care and health policy. Expected outcomes include practical strategies to institutionalise dignity-based practices in knowledge production, use and circulation. This should lead to major social, health and economic benefits by improving the effectiveness of global health efforts.Read moreRead less
Introducing computer-based documentation to Residential Aged Care: a multi-method evaluation of success. Improvements to quality and use of evidence-based methods in residential aged-care are restricted due to the very slow adoption of electronic information systems. This research will provide key investors, government, aged care providers and IT vendors, with tools to measure success in introducing IT into this sector. The project will create a platform with the national peak body, to dissemina ....Introducing computer-based documentation to Residential Aged Care: a multi-method evaluation of success. Improvements to quality and use of evidence-based methods in residential aged-care are restricted due to the very slow adoption of electronic information systems. This research will provide key investors, government, aged care providers and IT vendors, with tools to measure success in introducing IT into this sector. The project will create a platform with the national peak body, to disseminate lessons in successful implementation of computerised systems in residential aged-care, based on studies in two states. The studies will also benefit the international community researching technology adoption, by extending its boundary condition to a novel setting.Read moreRead less
Spatial analysis of a linked environmental, health and social data base. Extensive environmental, health and socio-demographic data are routinely collected by various agencies throughout Australia. To date, it has been difficult to link separate databases and investigate possible associations between the different parameters within them. In this proposal we plan to link routinely collected health, environment and socio-demographic data from a number of databases. We then plan to develop tools fo ....Spatial analysis of a linked environmental, health and social data base. Extensive environmental, health and socio-demographic data are routinely collected by various agencies throughout Australia. To date, it has been difficult to link separate databases and investigate possible associations between the different parameters within them. In this proposal we plan to link routinely collected health, environment and socio-demographic data from a number of databases. We then plan to develop tools for geo-referencing the data. Finally we plan to perform spatial analysis of the linked data, specifically investigating associations between environmental and social factors and childhood leukaemia, deliberate self harm and adverse birth outcomes. Linking separate databases and performing spatial analysis of georeferenced data will substantially improve the quality of public health surveillance and research in NSW. In addition, it will enable more detailed analysis of the effects of environmental exposures on health, using routine data.Read moreRead less
Learning strategies for personal agents to assist professional users in searching the Web. Many professional groups have large unmet information needs, with significant consequences for the public. We will take a novel strategy-based approach to the design of agents that assist humans in information search tasks, which represents a significant departure from the dominant paradigm of content-based retrieval. Our goal is to develop automated methods to learn task specific search strategies, embed ....Learning strategies for personal agents to assist professional users in searching the Web. Many professional groups have large unmet information needs, with significant consequences for the public. We will take a novel strategy-based approach to the design of agents that assist humans in information search tasks, which represents a significant departure from the dominant paradigm of content-based retrieval. Our goal is to develop automated methods to learn task specific search strategies, embed them in agents, and use them to guide human-agent interactions and search behaviours. To discover the effectiveness of our approach we will evaluate our methods with health care professionals.Read moreRead less
Multi-dimensional Temporal Abstraction to Support Neonatal Clinical Research. Each year, the death of a baby causes grief for thousands of Australian parents, contributes to depression and considerable anxiety in the population. In this work we propose procedures that will significantly reduce this unhappy scenario. The availability of a complex trend and pattern analysis will give Neonatologists access to predictive clinical analysis that has not previously been available locally or internation ....Multi-dimensional Temporal Abstraction to Support Neonatal Clinical Research. Each year, the death of a baby causes grief for thousands of Australian parents, contributes to depression and considerable anxiety in the population. In this work we propose procedures that will significantly reduce this unhappy scenario. The availability of a complex trend and pattern analysis will give Neonatologists access to predictive clinical analysis that has not previously been available locally or internationally. Thus, significant benefits in terms of lower mortality rates and lower long-term disability rates among babies requiring special care is possible. This research will provide the basis for future projects that will support regional hospitals.Read moreRead less
Human Factors and Patient Safety. In some cases hospitalisation can result in the patient becoming worse, or even dying, due to the experience. These events cost the community unnecessary pain and suffering and consume healthcare resources. Prevention of adverse events in healthcare will contribute to Promoting and Maintaining Good Health. Improving our ability to deal with failures in healthcare, including those due to human factors, will have a significant impact on their reduction.
Engineering safe decision support systems for healthcare. System safety is critical to the success of large-scale computerisation being undertaken to improve the quality of health services delivery worldwide. The research program will develop innovative tools and methods to improve the safety of clinical information systems. The focus on electronic prescribing systems will ensure that the outcomes of this research will have immediate impact on reducing medication errors which are a significant p ....Engineering safe decision support systems for healthcare. System safety is critical to the success of large-scale computerisation being undertaken to improve the quality of health services delivery worldwide. The research program will develop innovative tools and methods to improve the safety of clinical information systems. The focus on electronic prescribing systems will ensure that the outcomes of this research will have immediate impact on reducing medication errors which are a significant public health issue both nationally and internationally. Read moreRead less
Positive Computing: The design of technologies that support psychological wellbeing. Designing future technology to foster psychological wellbeing has the potential to affect population-wide positive change. The design of software like apps or social media, can impact things like cyber-bullying, depression, or even foster resilience. This project aims to connect experts across multiple disciplines (psychology, technology and policy) to develop pioneering methods, knowledge, and strategies that w ....Positive Computing: The design of technologies that support psychological wellbeing. Designing future technology to foster psychological wellbeing has the potential to affect population-wide positive change. The design of software like apps or social media, can impact things like cyber-bullying, depression, or even foster resilience. This project aims to connect experts across multiple disciplines (psychology, technology and policy) to develop pioneering methods, knowledge, and strategies that will allow future technologies to play an active role in improving health, performance, and quality of life for all Australians, through research-based design for wellbeing. In doing so, Australia will lead the way on the technological front in a growing global initiative to improve the wellbeing of nations.Read moreRead less
Strengthening organisational performance through accreditation research: the ACCREDIT project. This project will address multiple national benefits, including the National Research Priority, promoting and maintaining good health. Our knowledge of how accreditation, standards-setting and surveying contributes to organisational performance and quality of care will be considerably improved. Better health policy, improved services to patients, enhanced consumer involvement in their own care and rese ....Strengthening organisational performance through accreditation research: the ACCREDIT project. This project will address multiple national benefits, including the National Research Priority, promoting and maintaining good health. Our knowledge of how accreditation, standards-setting and surveying contributes to organisational performance and quality of care will be considerably improved. Better health policy, improved services to patients, enhanced consumer involvement in their own care and research results for use by national bodies, other industries and international partners are some of the key benefits this project aims research achieve. The community is vitally interested in the costs of health services, the value for money they produce and the standards of care provided.Read moreRead less
Agent-based methods for communication system design in complex organisations. There is a direct opportunity to directly improve the efficiency, effectiveness, and safety of health work as a result of improved communication tools arising from this project. The current evidence that poor communication systems and practices significantly impair clinical work, and are related to avoidable clinical error and patient death, suggest compelling national benefits. Health represents 10% of GDP, and comm ....Agent-based methods for communication system design in complex organisations. There is a direct opportunity to directly improve the efficiency, effectiveness, and safety of health work as a result of improved communication tools arising from this project. The current evidence that poor communication systems and practices significantly impair clinical work, and are related to avoidable clinical error and patient death, suggest compelling national benefits. Health represents 10% of GDP, and communication technologies have yet to be significantly exploited here. There are substantial commercial opportunities nationally, for successful new communication services that service health care. Internationally the markets may be even larger, as healthcare is a larger proportion of GDP in nations such as the US. Read moreRead less