Research Portfolio

Using a modified blood pressure cuff to prevent cell death for rural people suffering a heart attack or stroke.

Stroke and heart attacks (HA) are caused by blocked brain or heart blood vessels. The impact of stroke or HA depends in part on time taken to unblock occluded blood vessels. Rural people with stroke or HA receive treatment to unblock vessels later than city folk. The delay to re-perfusion causes damage and worse outcomes for country people experiencing stroke or HA. Late re-perfusion is associated with increased brain or heart injury. A treatment called "remote-ischaemic-conditioning" (RIC) involves a modified blood-pressure cuff that occludes limb blood flow for short periods, is known to protect against re-perfusion injury. The aims of…

Principal Investigator: Dr Simon Black
Amount Awarded: $49,978.00
Institution: The Northern Hospital

Noel Stevenson Research Scholarship: Dr Colin Page

Dr Colin Page was awarded the Noel Stevenson Fellowship (in honour of eminent Queensland emergency medicine physician, Dr Noel Stevenson) to undertake a Doctorate of Philosophy (PHD). Dr Page is studying the antidotes and treatments that are commonly used by medical staff when looking after patients who are affected by drug toxicity. The PhD will be based at Princess Alexandra Hospital within the clinical toxicology unit with extension to other toxicology units/hospitals within Australia. It will be undertaken through the University of Newcastle (NSW) under the supervision of A/Prof Geoff Isbister and Prof Nicholas Buckley, who are both leaders in…

Principal Investigator: Dr Colin Page
Amount Awarded: $450,000
Institution: Princess Alexandra Hospital

The sepsis registry: A prospective database to characterise and facilitate improved outcome for admitted patients with community-acquired infection.

This study aims to improve our understanding of sepsis in Australian Emergency Departments. We will do this by analysing in great detail the spectrum of infection syndromes presenting to the Emergency Department of a typical large Australian hospital over a period of several years. This will allow us to: 1) Identify the number of patients presenting to hospitals each year with severe infections and the outcome of these presentations. 2) Analyse the factors and information available to doctors in the Emergency Department that are associated with overall prognosis in patients with infection. 3) Build a comprehensive picture of the spectrum…

Principal Investigator: Dr Julian Williams
Amount Awarded: $200,000
Institution: Royal Brisbane & Women's Hospital

Noel Stevenson Research Scholarship: Prof Louise Cullen

This study is important because it will more rapidly move patients out of acute beds. It will do this by diagnosing patients with heart attacks up to four hours earlier and allowing earlier testing of patients without a heart attack but with potential heart disease, thus preventing overnight admissions. Approximately 80 per cent of patients who present to our ED each year with chest pain do not have a heart problem. Therefore, early discharge or admission of these patients would free up significant hospital resources, improve hospital flows and reduce the economic burden on the health care system. It may…

Principal Investigator: Prof Louise Cullen
Amount Awarded: $225,000
Institution: Royal Brisbane & Women's Hospital

Evaluation of therapeutic subclavian atrial compression

Two-thirds of people who sustain trauma to the upper limb proximal artery die from traumatic blood loss before reaching hospital. Timely stabilization of the injury, control of bleeding, and rapid transportation to an emergency department could dramatically improve the rate of survival. We know from research that these measures dramatically approval the rate of survival for traumatic injuries of other parts of the body. In this study, we will test the safety and efficacy of a particular procedure that we predict will improve the management of these injuries in the pre-hospital setting. We predict that the use of this procedure…

Principal Investigator: Dr Darren Powrie
Amount Awarded: $15,652
Institution: Princess Alexandra Hospital