Reduction Of Chronic Post-surgical Pain With Ketamine - ROCKet Study
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$4,823,395.00
Summary
Chronic post-surgical pain (CPSP) is a common complication of major surgery, and a significant burden on quality of life and ongoing health costs. Ketamine is a drug used by anaesthetists to treat severe acute surgical pain. Various small studies suggest that it may be unique in its ability to reduce the risk of CPSP. We propose a large trial of ketamine during & after anaesthesia for major surgery to test this. Demonstration of effectiveness would promote widespread change in clinical practice.
Physical, Lifestyle And Psychosocial Determinants Of Spinal Pain Development In Adolescents
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$682,800.00
Summary
This project aims to understand the development of back and neck pain in adolescence. By the age of 16 around half of all adolescents have suffered back pain and one third have suffered neck pain. For many adolescents this pain is disabling and over a third of sufferers miss school, miss recreation and seek medical help. The current understanding of back and neck pain in adolescence is quite limited - restricting the effectiveness of initiatives to prevent adolescents having to suffer spinal pai ....This project aims to understand the development of back and neck pain in adolescence. By the age of 16 around half of all adolescents have suffered back pain and one third have suffered neck pain. For many adolescents this pain is disabling and over a third of sufferers miss school, miss recreation and seek medical help. The current understanding of back and neck pain in adolescence is quite limited - restricting the effectiveness of initiatives to prevent adolescents having to suffer spinal pain and of treatment of those adolescents unlucky enough to have an episode. Better understanding and interventions for adolescent spinal pain will also have longer term implications by reducing adult spinal pain. Four out of 5 adults will experience spinal pain. In the USA treating adult back pain is the 4th largest health care cost. Many adults with chronic back pain had their first episode during adolescence. A better understanding of spinal pain in adolescence may help prevent it developing into a lifelong disability. We will collect information from 2,000 adolescents on their experience of back and neck pain and on potential physical, lifestyle and psychosocial risk factors. We believe factors such as their posture, muscle capacity, TV and computer use, mental health and social situation all combine to influence whether a person develops back or neck pain. The project is unique as it will not only collect a broad range of information during adolescence, but will also make use of a large database of health, developmental and psychosocial information already collected from these children since birth. With a better understanding of the development of spinal pain we will be able to develop guidelines to help prevent these problems. We will also be able to develop better treatment plans for sub-groups of adolescents with a particular combination of risk factors. Together these initiatives will assist in understanding and breaking the pathway to chronic spinal pain.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE230100206
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$423,154.00
Summary
Pain: Open to interpretation? This project aims to determine how pain interpretation drives pain experience, using rigorous state-of-the-art lab research. This project expects to generate new knowledge about the psychological mechanisms maintaining pain experience and avoidance behaviour, using novel techniques to measure interpretation of pain sensations. Expected outcomes include the development of an evidence-based psychological model of pain interpretation, enhanced capacity to build interna ....Pain: Open to interpretation? This project aims to determine how pain interpretation drives pain experience, using rigorous state-of-the-art lab research. This project expects to generate new knowledge about the psychological mechanisms maintaining pain experience and avoidance behaviour, using novel techniques to measure interpretation of pain sensations. Expected outcomes include the development of an evidence-based psychological model of pain interpretation, enhanced capacity to build international collaborations, and ecologically valid methods for measuring pain interpretation. This research forms a solid platform for further translational research, to build novel, scalable interventions to improve outcomes for the one in five Australians living with chronic pain.Read moreRead less
Technology is changing the lives of Australians. We need to understand the impact on health to gain the benefits with minimal harm. This fellowship will support a program of internationally leading research drawing together ergonomics, physiotherapy and physical activity expertise. Example projects include the impact of electronic games on children’s activity, walking workstations to increase physical activity of office workers and a family-based program for overweight adolescents.
I am a physiotherapist with special expertise in ergonomics. My research aims to improve health outcomes through an understanding the physical impact of new technology use.
Multiliteracies for addressing disadvantage in senior school science. Multiliteracies for addressing disadvantage in senior school science. This project aims to develop discipline-specific pedagogies in senior physics, chemistry and biology to improve disadvantaged students’ engagement and achievement. Many students from disadvantaged backgrounds fail to develop the linguistic precision and symbolic representational dexterity needed to comprehend and communicate senior school science concepts. T ....Multiliteracies for addressing disadvantage in senior school science. Multiliteracies for addressing disadvantage in senior school science. This project aims to develop discipline-specific pedagogies in senior physics, chemistry and biology to improve disadvantaged students’ engagement and achievement. Many students from disadvantaged backgrounds fail to develop the linguistic precision and symbolic representational dexterity needed to comprehend and communicate senior school science concepts. These pedagogies will ‘infuse’ multiliteracies in senior school science to improve access to science-based pathways for these students, and enable them to understand progressively more complex scientific concepts and demonstrate this in examinations. This project is expected to improve student retention, arrest declining enrolments in senior school science, and increase young people working in science.Read moreRead less
Using immersive virtual reality to enhance students’ science visualisation. This project aims to investigate the potential of advanced visualisation technology, immersive virtual reality, as a collaborative learning environment to support students to explore their ideas and learn a core chemistry concept, molecular structures and functions. Incorporating both data analytics and qualitative video analysis, the project will establish a deep understanding of how students learn about the molecular w ....Using immersive virtual reality to enhance students’ science visualisation. This project aims to investigate the potential of advanced visualisation technology, immersive virtual reality, as a collaborative learning environment to support students to explore their ideas and learn a core chemistry concept, molecular structures and functions. Incorporating both data analytics and qualitative video analysis, the project will establish a deep understanding of how students learn about the molecular world within an immersive virtual reality environment in relation to the learners’ experience, chemistry content, visual representations, learning tasks, and design features. The project will recommend evidence-driven design considerations for learning resources development and further educational research with advanced technologies.Read moreRead less
The online future of Science and Engineering education: The essential elements of laboratory-based learning for remote-access implementation. Laboratory classes are a critical part of science and engineering degree programs, but there has been little research into what actually takes place within them. Remote laboratories, in which students control equipment via the internet, are one potential solution for accommodating rising numbers of students, but the interfaces must be developed to effectiv ....The online future of Science and Engineering education: The essential elements of laboratory-based learning for remote-access implementation. Laboratory classes are a critical part of science and engineering degree programs, but there has been little research into what actually takes place within them. Remote laboratories, in which students control equipment via the internet, are one potential solution for accommodating rising numbers of students, but the interfaces must be developed to effectively support student learning. This project will investigate how students interact with equipment, each other, and with laboratory demonstrators in order to determine the crucial components of effective laboratory learning experiences. It will identify and characterise the interactions of students in laboratory classes, and develop mechanisms to support these interactions remotely.Read moreRead less
Engaging Students during the Early Years of Secondary School. This project aims to design, test and share sustainable strategies to support teachers and enable students from low socioeconomic communities to achieve success. The greatest decreases in students’ interest and effort occur when they transition into secondary school, with students from low socioeconomic communities at greatest risk of disengagement. What can teachers do to engage their students during this key life transition? This pr ....Engaging Students during the Early Years of Secondary School. This project aims to design, test and share sustainable strategies to support teachers and enable students from low socioeconomic communities to achieve success. The greatest decreases in students’ interest and effort occur when they transition into secondary school, with students from low socioeconomic communities at greatest risk of disengagement. What can teachers do to engage their students during this key life transition? This project plans to identify teacher behaviours that motivate students in their first year at secondary school. Using an experimental design with a representative sample of 150 teachers and 1500 students in low socioeconomic areas across three states, the project plans to test whether an online professional learning program for teachers can improve student engagement and achievement. This cost-effective and scalable intervention is designed for widespread dissemination to Australian teachers.Read moreRead less