This project will examine if providing additional therapy services on a Saturday reduces health care costs, and improves the health of hospital inpatients receiving rehabilitation compared to the usual Monday to Friday service. Preliminary information suggests additional Saturday rehabilitation services could reduce length of stay by 3 days without compromising discharge outcomes. If successful this trial will have substantial health and economic benefits for the patients and for organizations.
Antiretroviral drugs reduce morbidity and mortality for people living with HIV however there is currently no cure for HIV. I will undertake a series of studies that will contribute to HIV cure research in Australia. This includes describing novel strategies to identify and measure residual dormant HIV in individuals on suppressive antiretroviral therapy, determining the effect of cancer drugs on dormant HIV, and exploring the attitudes of people living with HIV towards cure research.
Out-of-hospital cardiac arrest is fatal without immediate resuscitation. Paramedic competency in resuscitation has been shown to influence cardiac arrest survival. Through my doctoral research I aim to investigate: how paramedic exposure to cardiac arrest can influence patient survival; the practices emergency medical services currently use to develop and maintain paramedic competency in resuscitation; and the confidence and perceived competency of paramedics responding to cardiac arrests.
Personality disorders are serious psychiatric disorders. Despite this, the prevalence of these disorders in the Australian community is largely unknown, as is their influence on physical and other mental health conditions and impact on Australia’s medical and mental health care services. This epidemiological study will answer these questions, with the aim of informing public health planning and service delivery practices and prompting future health economic research in this area.
Supporting Knowledge Translation In Aboriginal And Torres Strait Islander Primary Health Care: A Developmental Evaluation Of A Stakeholder Engagement Process To Support Use Of Evidence In Systems And Policy Change
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$66,784.00
Summary
The research uses a developmental evaluation approach and mixed methods to evaluate a dissemination activity that engages stakeholders in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander primary health care in using aggregated quality improvement data to identify and address evidence-to-practice gaps in healthcare. Evaluation processes are being used to refine dissemination processes and materials. Findings will also offer insights about using developmental evaluation approaches in knowledge translation.
Increasing The Efficacy Of Web-based Physical Activity Interventions: Improving Website Promotion And Participant Engagement
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$62,073.00
Summary
This project aims to test innovative ways to improve web-based physical activity interventions able to reach large numbers of Australians at low-cost. In particular the effectiveness of internet promotion, personally tailored advice in video format and a brief Skype counseling session will be tested. Findings will inform the next generation of interventions that have the ability to improve physical activity levels in a large number of Australians and reduce the prevalence of disease.
Models Of Care For Hepatitis C In The Era Of Directly Acting Antivirals
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$124,608.00
Summary
This project aims to evaluate how service delivery can enhance the impact of directly acting antivirals (DAA) on hepatitis C treatment uptake in three parts: i) To assess the impact of ten integrated hepatology nurses on treatment uptake in Victoria ii) To assess the feasibility of patient driven contact tracing to treat hepatitis C with DAA in a study of people who inject drugs iii) To assess the impact of offering DAA therapy in primary health care compared with a hospital.
Online Support And Training For Families Of Children With A New Speech Generating Device (SGD)
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$116,563.00
Summary
Children with a physical disability who cannot use speech can benefit from using a Speech Generating Device (SGD). Families are often expected to maintain, program, and teach the use of these devices at home with limited support from service providers. This project aims at developing an on-line, family centred training package for parents of children with a new SGD. The program will be trialed with three families and changes in parent confidence, competence and satisfaction will be reported.
Ambulance Demand: Random Events Or Predictable Patterns
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$59,191.00
Summary
Over the past 20 years there has been an increase in demand for emergency ambulance services across the developed world, placing significant strain on ambulance resources. However, it is not known if demand is constant across different times of day, days of the week or months of the year. This PhD will examine temporal patterns in ambulance demand using four years of data derived from paramedic assessment. Understanding these patterns will provide evidence to inform ambulance practice.
A Randomised Control Trial Evaluating Outcomes Of An Emergency Nurse Practitioner Service.
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$83,149.00
Summary
This proposed research will provide much needed evidence on this reform model. Health services research struggles to establish an inquiry context that is flexible to study service-level interventions using the gold standard of a randomised controlled trail (RCT). This proposed research will be conducted in a health service environment with a stable E-NP service innovation and capacity to randomise patient participants.