Far North Queensland has been positioned at the forefront of medical innovation, thanks in part to more than $280,000 invested in research grants by the Far North Queensland Hospital Foundation.
Grants range in value from $5000 to $49,000, with a rigorous peer review process involved in deciding the successful applicants.
Foundation Research and Education Committee chair Prof John McBride said research areas range from basic research in drug discovery through to clinically focussed studies for diabetes and improved management of patients undergoing procedures
“We have a very wide range of projects from a total of 25 researchers – including those new to research through to those who are highly experienced,” Prof McBride said.
“Our aim with these grants is that they are used as ‘seed funding’ that puts researchers in a better position to apply for larger grants from national funding bodies,” he said.
Cairns Hospital paediatrician Dr Marnie Fraser’s grant of $49,000 will be used to recruit a dedicated Indigenous health worker to support developmental assessments for First Nations children referred to the child development service.
“The health worker will undertake intake yarning sessions with parents and families of children referred in order to support a shared understanding of the role of developmental services and clarify the question families have of the service,” Dr Fraser said.
The health worker also will support a shared understanding of developmental assessment findings and facilitate transition to community-based supports at point of discharge. The health worker will receive training in developmental screening tools as a component of the research. Qualitative and quantitative data analysis will guide future models of care that ensure culturally safe, equitable, family centred care in the child development space for First Nations children and contribute to the limited literature.
Australian Institute of Tropical Health and Medicine Postdoctoral Research Fellow Dr Guangzu Zhao’s $49,000 grant will be used to develop a novel peptide-based nanovaccine to enhance the effectiveness of Bacille Calmette-Guerin vaccination against tuberculosis (TB), particularly in drug-resistant strains. This next-generation TB booster vaccine is designed to be stable without specialised storage, free of a boosting agent, and offers strong potential to improve frontline TB prevention efforts in Far North Queensland and beyond.
Since 2007, the Foundation has committed $2 million to increase research capacity within the Far North.
The Foundation’s grants focus on local research, by local researchers, focusing on issues of particular concern in the Far North Queensland region.
Other grant recipients are:
• Tanya Park $24,900, Let’s Yarn, A Community of Practice.
• Santosh Chaubey $25,000, Rethinking Models of Outpatient Diabetes Care using eHealth (REMODel) for insulin dose adjustment in an outpatient diabetes management service.
• Phuong Markman, $25,000, The Australasian MARS Study (Multicentre Aspiration Risk Study in 125,000 patients fasting with Sip Til Send)
• Yoshimi Peck, $10,000, Towards a new generation of peptide therapeutic psychiatric drugs designed from conotoxins found in Coral Sea cone snails.
• Caryn West, $10,000, Preparedness, Impact and Loss: The Tropical Cyclone Jasper Experience.
• Kate Miller, $4978, Assessing the impact of novel immunomodulatory coatings on biomedical implants to advance osseointegration.
• Daniel Brown, $4995, The State of the COVID-19 Immune Landscape in the Tropics: A Proof-of-Concept Study
• Liza Van Eijk, $5000, Enabling early detection: Implementing the use of evidence-based clinical assessments in the Nursery/NICU to identify infants with higher chances of adverse developmental outcomes early.
• Abdullah Mamun, $5000, Enhancing Rheumatic Heart Disease Care: Integrating Self-Administered Rapid Diagnostic Testing in Rural and Remote Communities.
• Alberto Filgueiras, $5000, Improving health and body image among obese patients utilising low-cost compassion-focused therapy: a randomised controlled trial.
• Kristoffer Johnstone, $5000, Safety Analysis of 90-minute obinutuzamb
• Harindra Sathkumara, $5000, Unravelling immune heterogeneity in mycobacteria-exposed children from north Queensland.
• Sonia Minooee, $5000, Evaluation of research opportunities and research engagement among junior doctors.
• Lidia Delpozoramos, $5000, Understanding immunogenicity, safety, and protective efficacy of next-generation vaccines for tuberculosis.
• Ben Gladwin, $5000, Standard fasting versus Twenty-four-hour Liquid Diet: Assessing GLP-1 patients with Radiological Volume Evaluation (STARVE): A Randomized Controlled Trial of Perioperative Diet Protocols.
• Manjunath Rajashekhar, $5000, The role of rural clinical placements in shaping JCU dental student’s career aspirations.
• Handa Muliasari, $5000, Antidiabetic molecules from Australian tropical bush foods.
• Shatarupa Das, $5000, Novel Insights into Inflammatory Bowel Disease: Evaluating Indigenous Medicinal Plant Compounds through Patient-Derived Organoid and Tissue Models.
• Lisa Mercer, $5000, A partial meal replacement programme and dietitian education will facilitate weight loss and improved food choices for consumers with severe mental illness and taking antipsychotics.
• Mert Kokusuz, $5000, Incidence of scabies in Far North Queensland: implications for local clinical practice and public health strategies.
• Felix Muema, $5000, Tropical plant-derived drug-lead molecules for treating liver cancer
• Lauren Moses, $5000, Navigating the transition to electronic medication management in a large regional hospital: Successes, challenges and organisational learnings.
• Michelle Rothwell, $5000, Understanding first people’s lived experience of pharmaceutical care when transitioning between hospital and community – a grounded theory study.
