Improving Community Approaches For Common Childhood Conditions.
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$478,602.00
Summary
Melissa’s end goal is community-based strategies that effectively prevent or manage common childhood conditions, which she addresses via four distinct yet unified programs of research (language-literacy, hearing loss, obesity, and early mental health-behaviour). All four programs are guided by long-term strategic plans that include advocacy and translation as central tenets. A further focus is research capacity-building in these areas via her substantial doctoral-postdoctoral programs.
Understanding And Effectively Treating Cognitive And Functioning Impairments In Youth With Psychosis And Other Mental Disorders
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$431,000.00
Summary
Impaired thinking skills, such as memory, concentration and problem solving, emerge early in psychotic and other mental disorders, which has a negative impact on functioning in work and other daily activities. Current treatments are not very effective at addressing this. The research proposed in this fellowship will improve knowledge about these impairments and develop and test a range of interventions that treat thinking skill difficulties and improve daily functioning in youth mental illness.
Ageing, Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA) and obesity are becoming more common in the community. Each is associated with increased heart disease and metabolic disorders. Understanding how androgen dysregulation exacerbates OSA, obesity and ageing and how androgen treatments alter these conditions may lead to reduced cardiometabolic dysfunction and improved health.
Improving Child Health Outcomes In Common, High Burden Conditions.
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$279,895.00
Summary
As medical advances over the past 50 years have helped to reduce traditional childhood illnesses such as infections, behavioural, developmental and mental health problems have increased. These problems affect at least 1 in 5 Australian children yet the vast majority of problems go undetected and untreated. I propose to develop, trial and disseminate evidence-based approaches to common child health problems including mental health and sleep problems.
Improving Outcomes In Systemic Autoimmune Disease: A Collaborative And Interdisciplinary Program Of Research
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$425,048.00
Summary
The multi-organ autoimmune diseases ‘scleroderma’ and ‘lupus’ have a profound negative impact on quality of life and life expectancy. The overall goal of my research is to improve patient outcomes in these two diseases. My collaborative and interdisciplinary research program entails quantifying disease burden, identifying patient subsets, optimising screening for complications, developing outcome measures for use in practice and research, and trialing new therapies.
Associations Between Diabetes And Periodontal Disease Among Indigenous Australian Adults
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$439,920.00
Summary
The relationship between diabetes and periodontal disease, both of which are high among Indigenous Australians, is established. This study seeks to explore the prevalence of periodontal disease among this population with diabetes, and to determine if implementation of a periodontal intervention leads to improved glycaemic control. There may be benefit in applying this model to other areas of Indigenous health research.