Children to benefit from latest research grants

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 READ MORE			Gold Coast University Hospital	24,131
2	Dr Volha Pankevich	Point of care lung ultrasound in paediatric respiratory presentations READ MORE			Logan Hospital	8608
Staff Specialist
3	Dr Colin Page	Randomised controlled trial of two antidote regimens for paracetamol overdose READ MORE			Princess Alexandra  Hospital	43,778
4	Dr Thomas Torpie	Domestic and family violence screening in the emergency department READ MORE			Gold Coast University Hospital	65,856
5	Dr Ben Lawton	How are we treating severe childhood asthma in Australasia? READ MORE			Logan Hospital	69,444
Project grant
6	Dr Mark Edwards	Data linkage & patient outcome study: Aeromedical services in Central Queensland READ MORE			Rockhampton Hospital	100,000
7	Dr Christa Bell	Fibrinogen Early In Severe Trauma in children studY (FEISTY Junior) READ MORE			Gold Coast University Hospital	100,000
8	Dr Peter Snelling	Rapid diagnosis of sepsis in acutely ill children READ MORE			Lady Cilento Children’s Hospital	100,000
9	Prof Gerben Keijzers	Preventing chronic pain after whiplash injury READ MORE			Gold Coast University Hospital	83,639
10	Dr Natalie Phillips	Assessing Children’s Head Injury: Variation in CT scan use (APHIRST-Gap) READ MORE			Lady Cilento Children’s Hospital	62,749
11	Dr Elizabeth Marsden	Evaluation of the Geriatric Emergency Department Intervention (GEDI) implementation READ MORE			Nambour General Hospital	100,000
Capacity building grant
12	A/Prof Doug Morel	READ MORE			Redcliffe Hospital	108,440

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