EMF grants announced
August 2020
Emergency medicine solutions for children with serious neck injuries, watch-house detainees, and patients with severe infection are among projects funded in the latest research grants announced by the Emergency Medicine Foundation (EMF).
General Manager, Dr Sonĵ Hall said the EMF is proud to invest almost $700,000 to support high quality research projects thanks to core funding from Queensland Health.
Six projects led by emergency healthcare clinician-researchers across four hospitals and Retrieval Services Queensland were selected through the robust grant selection process EMF is known for.
“The EMF exists to find innovative solutions that revolutionise emergency healthcare, to enhance patient experience and outcomes, save lives and promote system sustainability,” said Dr Hall.
“The successful teams in this grant round are seeking to establish responsive and agile healthcare interventions that address a broad range of needs in medical emergencies.”
Researchers from the Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital (RBWH) received two grants, one of which will allow clinicians to conduct a randomised controlled trial to improve outcomes for patients with sepsis.
The second grant will support a collaboration between RBWH and university researchers to identify strategies for improved patient flow and solutions for crowding, common issues in many emergency departments (ED) across the country.
EMF funding will also support specialists at Princess Alexandra Hospital to assess their ability to offer predicted ED waiting times for patients using advanced statistical models.
Recipients of the latest EMF funding round will also focus on emergency medicine that is delivered outside the hospital environment. This includes police watch-houses where detainees often arrive with health concerns such as drug dependence, mental illness and physical injury.
A Gold Coast University Hospital study aims to identify emergency healthcare delivery strategies in police watch-houses, to reduce the need for hospital transfer and prevent avoidable deaths.
A project led by Retrieval Services Queensland will compile and compare patient data from Queensland Health, LifeFlight Retrieval Medicine and the Royal Flying Doctor Service to determine the state of trauma care and aeromedical healthcare delivery in tropical Queensland.
The PREDICT (Paediatric Research in Emergency Departments International Collaborative) network will conduct a five-year study to develop and test a tool for doctors to determine when an x-ray or scan is needed to diagnose neck injuries.
Significant neck injuries in children are usually identified with x-rays, CT or MRI, and PREDICT aims to avoid unnecessary exposure to scans which may bring health risks and distress for vulnerable young patients.
The EMF funding, in addition to a recent $2.5m Medical Research Future Fund grant will support Sunshine Coast and Gold Coast University Hospitals to be involved in the study.
The EMF Queensland Research Program grant round 34 is now open for applications with $500,000 available for innovative research that improves emergency care outcomes for patients. Interested researchers must apply by 5.00pm on Monday 17 August 2020.
The EMF Queensland Program is funded by Queensland Health.
Principal Investigator (PI) |
Project Title |
PI Institution |
Amount awarded |
| Project Grant | |||
| Dr Natalie Phillips | SONIC: Study of Neck Injuries in Children. A PREDICT study | Children’s Health Queensland |
$287,090 |
| JumpStart |
|
||
| Dr Andrew Staib | Emergency department waiting time predictions in real-time | Princess Alexandra Hospital (Metro South HHS) |
$36,733 |
| Leading Edge | |||
| Dr Julian Williams | Intervention with concentrated albumin for resuscitation of undifferentiated sepsis (ICARUS): a randomised controlled trial | Royal Brisbane & Women’s Hospital (Metro North HHS) |
$82,402 |
| Professor Julia Crilly | Watch-house detainee emergency healthcare | Gold Coast University Hospital (Gold Coast Health) |
$92,098 |
| Dr John Burke | Modelling emergency department patient flow under normal operating conditions and in a pandemic | Royal Brisbane & Women’s Hospital (Metro North HHS) |
$95,770 |
| Dr Clinton Gibbs | Classifying the type and severity of traumatic injury in North Queensland: a multicentre retrospective study | Aeromedical Retrieval & Disaster Management Branch (Queensland Health) |
$99,505 |
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