Clinicians, researchers, health services and consumers came together last week at the Trauma Care in Regional, Rural and Remote Queensland Research Symposium 2026 to share emerging research and explore how evidence can continue to improve trauma care across Queensland.
Co-hosted by EMF and the Jamieson Trauma Institute (JTI), the symposium provided an opportunity to share the latest findings from research supported through EMF’s Trauma Care Program, while also looking ahead to the research priorities and opportunities that could help strengthen trauma care across Queensland.
Supported by Motor Accident Insurance Commission (MAIC), the program has funded research into some of the challenges faced by patients and clinicians in regional, rural and remote settings, while also helping clinicians build their own research skills and capability.
Opening the symposium, EMF Board Chair Professor Hugh Grantham ASM challenged attendees to think about what high-quality trauma care should look like when patients may be hundreds of kilometres from specialist services.
“If you’re hundreds of kilometres from specialist care, time matters, but differently. Transport matters. The decisions are different. So where should we place our research to make the greatest difference, major system reforms, micro quality improvements, or both?”
Throughout the afternoon, researchers shared work addressing practical challenges across the trauma journey, from the first response and retrieval through to recovery closer to home.
Dr Clinton Gibbs, Retrieval Services Queensland (RSQ), presented emerging findings from the REMAIN study, exploring whether some interhospital transfers for mild traumatic brain injury could be safely avoided without compromising patient care.
The REPRIEVE study, led by Queensland Ambulance Service researchers Stephanie Nixon and Prof Kerrianne Watt, examined pain management across approximately 1.7 million injury-related ambulance episodes, identifying opportunities to further strengthen patient-centred pain care across Queensland.
Other presentations explored pre-hospital fibrinogen treatment for major traumatic haemorrhage in the retrieval environment, the role and value of the Royal Flying Doctor Service (Queensland Section) Medical Chest Service, and a new project seeking to build a clearer picture of major trauma journeys and outcomes across North Queensland.
The symposium also highlighted the importance of building research capability. Dr Eleanor Kitcatt reflected on the growth of research within RSQ through the ROUGE study, while Trauma Care Scholarship recipients shared their own journeys into research and the skills they are building through the program.
A powerful reminder of why this research matters came from David Bowes, who shared his experience of sustaining and recovering from a severe traumatic brain injury while living in Weipa.
His story highlighted that the trauma journey extends well beyond initial treatment and hospital discharge, particularly for people returning home to regional and remote communities.
“The trauma system saved my life. What happened afterwards taught me how to live it again.”
David’s experience helped set the scene for the symposium’s final panel discussion, which explored what regional, rural and remote clinicians, patients and communities know about trauma care that may not always be visible from a metropolitan setting.
The discussion reinforced a theme that ran throughout the afternoon: regional and remote trauma care is not simply metropolitan care delivered further away. Distance, retrieval, workforce, local capability and connection to community all shape what good care looks like, and should also shape the research designed to improve it.
For EMF, this means continuing to support clinicians to turn the questions they encounter in practice into research, build evidence in the environments where care is delivered, and translate that evidence into better outcomes for patients.
View highlights from the event in the full photo gallery below.
Learn more about EMF’s Trauma Care Program here.
