Working while breastfeeding: best practice strategies for workplaces and childcare centres. By generating new knowledge on how to strengthen community and policy support for breastfeeding, the proposed research will contribute to National Research Priority goals regarding promoting and maintaining good health. Assisting employed mothers to continue breastfeeding will reduce adverse impacts of genetic, social and environmental factors predisposing infants and children to ill health and reducing t ....Working while breastfeeding: best practice strategies for workplaces and childcare centres. By generating new knowledge on how to strengthen community and policy support for breastfeeding, the proposed research will contribute to National Research Priority goals regarding promoting and maintaining good health. Assisting employed mothers to continue breastfeeding will reduce adverse impacts of genetic, social and environmental factors predisposing infants and children to ill health and reducing their life potential. It will also help prevent disease, and help mothers reconcile labour force participation with protecting their own and their children's health. Read moreRead less
The Impact of International Trade Agreements on the Regulation and Provision of Medicines in Australia. This Project will provide policy makers and the community with previously unavailable detailed information and regulatory options (through scholarly publications, reports to government agencies and a publicly accessible website) concerning the effects of Australia's international trade commitments on access to medicines. It will develop a strategic modelling system and a continuing research gr ....The Impact of International Trade Agreements on the Regulation and Provision of Medicines in Australia. This Project will provide policy makers and the community with previously unavailable detailed information and regulatory options (through scholarly publications, reports to government agencies and a publicly accessible website) concerning the effects of Australia's international trade commitments on access to medicines. It will develop a strategic modelling system and a continuing research group with unique expertise for evaluating the health impacts of future trade negotiations by Australia and other nations. The Project particularly benefits aged and poor Australians who are more reliant on medicines for health and for whom such costs represent a significant component of domestic expenditure.Read moreRead less
Motor vehicle injuries: economic evaluation of a new treatment modality. The management of injured persons following motor vehicle accidents is a serious health issue in Australia, with over 60,000 minor injuries and 20,000 major injuries occurring annually. This project will provide a cost-effectiveness analysis of a new multidisciplinary approach to managing minor injuries by utilising data from the Accident Care Evaluation (ACE) trial of a new clinic being tested for this purpose.
Reforming healthcare: Nurse Practitioners and workforce redesign. This unique national study investigates the progress, process and outcomes of nurse practitioner service. It brings together peak national nursing organisations and state Chief Nursing Officers and researchers who are known both nationally and internationally for innovative research into nurse practitioner service. It has widespread significance for health service providing an operational platform to implement and evaluate new rol ....Reforming healthcare: Nurse Practitioners and workforce redesign. This unique national study investigates the progress, process and outcomes of nurse practitioner service. It brings together peak national nursing organisations and state Chief Nursing Officers and researchers who are known both nationally and internationally for innovative research into nurse practitioner service. It has widespread significance for health service providing an operational platform to implement and evaluate new roles in health service delivery. It will inform health service modelling, theory building and national strategies to achieve promotion and maintenance of good health. For the first time in the history of Australian health service a new level of provider will be examined close to the point of its inception.Read moreRead less
Support needs assessment: a developmental model for use in support, training and funding for individuals with single and multiple disabilities. This research project aims to construct and trial a new model for the assessment of the support needs of persons with disabilities. It addresses a number of critical deficiencies which recent research has shown to undermine the reliability, validity and usefulness of existing support needs instruments. Specifically, it is proposed to collect data that ....Support needs assessment: a developmental model for use in support, training and funding for individuals with single and multiple disabilities. This research project aims to construct and trial a new model for the assessment of the support needs of persons with disabilities. It addresses a number of critical deficiencies which recent research has shown to undermine the reliability, validity and usefulness of existing support needs instruments. Specifically, it is proposed to collect data that will inform the determination of the support needs of people with different kinds and combinations of disabilities. Variations in maintenance and intervention supports over time and context will be considered. The assessment system planned will have the flexibility to meet a number of potential user objectives.Read moreRead less
A novel cooperative global information system for healthcare. This project will develop a global model for healthcare based on the groundbreaking Protocol Hypothesis Testing (PHT) system, allowing expert groups of clinicians to create and share knowledge across organizations. The PHT is a unique functioning knowledge management system that allows clinicians to record patient and treatment data as it is generated in clinical practice and applies scientific methods to generate clinical knowledge, ....A novel cooperative global information system for healthcare. This project will develop a global model for healthcare based on the groundbreaking Protocol Hypothesis Testing (PHT) system, allowing expert groups of clinicians to create and share knowledge across organizations. The PHT is a unique functioning knowledge management system that allows clinicians to record patient and treatment data as it is generated in clinical practice and applies scientific methods to generate clinical knowledge, all in real-time. The project will develop and test a framework for the PHT system to be used cooperatively by expert groups across virtual organizations, refining the PHT system in the process.Read moreRead less
Patient and nurse outcomes and the cost of nurses' turnover in Australian hospitals. An adequate supply of nurses is fundamental to all of the National Health Priority disease areas where quality care cannot be delivered without an adequate number of motivated nurses. Designing cost-effective methods of retaining nurses requires understanding reasons why they leave the workforce and the impact this has on patient care and system costs. The findings will assist policy makers and workforce planner ....Patient and nurse outcomes and the cost of nurses' turnover in Australian hospitals. An adequate supply of nurses is fundamental to all of the National Health Priority disease areas where quality care cannot be delivered without an adequate number of motivated nurses. Designing cost-effective methods of retaining nurses requires understanding reasons why they leave the workforce and the impact this has on patient care and system costs. The findings will assist policy makers and workforce planners at both local and national levels, to design strategies to effectively recruit and retain nurses as demands for health care and market competition for staff both increase.Read moreRead less
Sparse grid approximations and fitting using generalised combination techniques. Sparse grid techniques provide an effective tool to deal with the
computational curse of dimensionality which is a constant challenge in
modelling complex data. The proposed research is aimed at the
development and analysis of algorithms for data fitting with sparse
grids using variants of the combination technique. The outcome of the
research is a theory which will provide insights in the applicability,
limit ....Sparse grid approximations and fitting using generalised combination techniques. Sparse grid techniques provide an effective tool to deal with the
computational curse of dimensionality which is a constant challenge in
modelling complex data. The proposed research is aimed at the
development and analysis of algorithms for data fitting with sparse
grids using variants of the combination technique. The outcome of the
research is a theory which will provide insights in the applicability,
limitations and the convergence properties of the proposed
algorithms. The outcomes will be widely applicable in modelling of
large scale and complex data as is encountered in areas of
bioinformatics, physics and experimental studies of complex systems.
Read moreRead less
Investigation and Development of Parallel Large Scale Record Linkage Techniques. Record linkage aims at matching records of the same entity (like customer or patient) in large (administrative) databases. The outcomes of the proposed research will improve current techniques in terms of efficiency, accuracy and the need for human intervention. Through experimental studies and stochastic modelling the performance of traditional and new methods for data cleaning, standardisation and linkage will be ....Investigation and Development of Parallel Large Scale Record Linkage Techniques. Record linkage aims at matching records of the same entity (like customer or patient) in large (administrative) databases. The outcomes of the proposed research will improve current techniques in terms of efficiency, accuracy and the need for human intervention. Through experimental studies and stochastic modelling the performance of traditional and new methods for data cleaning, standardisation and linkage will be assessed. The effect of the statistical dependency of attribute values will be studied. New methods using clustering for blocking large datasets, and predictive models including interaction terms will be implemented, analysed and evaluated on high-performance computers and office-based PC clusters.
Read moreRead less