Critically ill children will benefit from the latest round of research grants awarded by the Emergency Medicine Foundation (EMF).
EMF has announced 12 new research grants totaling $866,645, which were awarded to Queensland emergency medicine clinicians in Round 27 of its Queensland Research Program.
Almost half the projects will help save the lives of children in a medical emergency, said EMF General Manager, Beth Chapman.
“EMF has funded five new paediatric research projects, including a rapid diagnostic for sepsis, a potential new treatment for severe trauma and trialling a portable lung ultrasound to quickly diagnosing pneumonia,” said Ms Chapman.
“This is the first time, so many paediatric projects have been selected through the EMF grant review process,” she said.
“In the nine years EMF has awarded grants, it has been rare for more than one paediatric project to be funded in any given year.”
Other successful projects this year aim to improve the emergency medical care of patients affected by issues as wide ranging as domestic violence, drug overdose and whiplash.
EMF also funded projects to evaluate emergency health services for the elderly and aeromedical retrievals, while Redcliffe Hospital Emergency Department successfully secured a Capacity Building grant to build their team’s ability to undertake research.
Logan Hospital, which has one of the State’s busiest emergency departments, was successful in securing two grants. Nambour and Rockhampton hospitals were awarded two of the largest grants.
Four of the projects are clinical trials. EMF has funded the involvement of 10 Queensland hospitals in the largest trial, the APHIRST-Gap study, which will involve recruiting 3200 children from across Australia and New Zealand with head injuries.
The next EMF Queensland Research Program grant round opens on 12 February 2018.
The EMF Queensland Program is fully funded by Queensland Health.
EMF Queensland Research Program Round 27 grant recipients
Principal investigator | Project title | Site | Amount ($) | |||
Trainee | ||||||
1 | Dr Kerina Denny | Antibiotics in the Emergency Department | Gold Coast University Hospital |
24,131 |
||
2 | Dr Volha Pankevich | Point of care lung ultrasound in paediatric respiratory presentations | Logan Hospital |
8608 |
||
Staff Specialist | ||||||
3 | Dr Colin Page | Randomised controlled trial of two antidote regimens for paracetamol overdose | Princess Alexandra Hospital |
43,778 |
||
4 | Dr Thomas Torpie | Domestic and family violence screening in the emergency department | Gold Coast University Hospital |
65,856 |
||
5 | Dr Ben Lawton | How are we treating severe childhood asthma in Australasia? | Logan Hospital |
69,444 |
||
Project grant | ||||||
6 | Dr Mark Edwards | Data linkage & patient outcome study: Aeromedical services in Central Queensland | Rockhampton Hospital |
100,000 |
||
7 | Dr Christa Bell | Fibrinogen Early In Severe Trauma in children studY (FEISTY Junior) | Gold Coast University Hospital |
100,000 |
||
8 | Dr Peter Snelling | Rapid diagnosis of sepsis in acutely ill children | Lady Cilento Children’s Hospital |
100,000 |
||
9 | Prof Gerben Keijzers | Preventing chronic pain after whiplash injury | Gold Coast University Hospital |
83,639 |
||
10 | Dr Natalie Phillips | Assessing Children’s Head Injury: Variation in CT scan use (APHIRST-Gap) | Lady Cilento Children’s Hospital |
62,749 |
||
11 | Dr Elizabeth Marsden |
Evaluation of the Geriatric Emergency Department Intervention (GEDI) implementation |
Nambour General Hospital |
100,000 |
||
Capacity building grant | ||||||
12 | A/Prof Doug Morel | Redcliffe Hospital |
108,440 |