Predictors Of Poor Professional Performance In Junior Medical Staff
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$205,902.00
Summary
Medical practitioner performance is one significant risk factor for adverse health outcomes. Medical practitioner stress has implications for practitioner performance. Among new medical graduates working in the public hospital system environmental stressors such as long working hours have traditionally been blamed as the source of stress leading to reduced performance and adverse health outcomes. However, correction of environmental stresses does not necessarily reduce junior doctors stress or i ....Medical practitioner performance is one significant risk factor for adverse health outcomes. Medical practitioner stress has implications for practitioner performance. Among new medical graduates working in the public hospital system environmental stressors such as long working hours have traditionally been blamed as the source of stress leading to reduced performance and adverse health outcomes. However, correction of environmental stresses does not necessarily reduce junior doctors stress or improve performance, implying that additional personal factors predict for poor assessed performance. Such factors may include burnout, depression, anxiety and fixed personality traits. This project will allow a detailed analysis of causal relationships between fixed personality traits, induced stress states, and external life stresses. The relationship of each of these to performance will also be determined.Read moreRead less
The Influence Of Alpha Actinins On Human Performance
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$542,500.00
Summary
There is a wide variation in skeletal muscle function in the general population. At one end of the spectrum are elite athletes who excel in a specialised area of sprint, power or endurance performance, while at the other end of the spectrum are individuals with muscle weakness due to inherited muscle disease. Part of this variation in human muscle performance is due to the genetic makeup of the individual. For example, world class sprinters have muscles which are genetically predisposed to gener ....There is a wide variation in skeletal muscle function in the general population. At one end of the spectrum are elite athletes who excel in a specialised area of sprint, power or endurance performance, while at the other end of the spectrum are individuals with muscle weakness due to inherited muscle disease. Part of this variation in human muscle performance is due to the genetic makeup of the individual. For example, world class sprinters have muscles which are genetically predisposed to generate maximal force at high speed. Similarly, the severity of muscle disease in an affected individual is influenced, in part, by other genes that affect normal muscle performance. The genes responsible for normal variations in muscle function in humans are unknown. The alpha-actinins are structural components of skeletal muscle. The two forms of alpha-actinin in skeletal muscle interact with a number of proteins involved in human muscle disease and thus likely contribute to the severity of muscle weakness in affected patients. Alpha-actinin-3 is present only in fast (type 2) fibres - the muscle fibres responsible for perfomance at high speed. We have identified a genetic change that results in absence of this protein in 1 in 5 people in the general population, without causing disease. We now have evidence that this genetic change, and hence whether or not muscle contains alpha-actinin-3, influences muscle performance in elite athletes. We will now use a variety of approaches to study the alpha-actinins in normal and diseased skeletal muscle. We will study the effect of changes (mutations) in the alpha-actinins in the muscle cells grown in the laboratory and in animal models. This work will impact on our understanding of how normal skeletal muscle functions, and the factors that influence human diversity in the general population.Read moreRead less
The Influence Of Alpha Actinins On Human Performance In Health And Disease
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$480,989.00
Summary
We have identified a common genetic variation that results in absence of the fast muscle fibre protein, a-actinin-3, in over 1 billion people worldwide. Loss of a-actinin-3 influences elite athletic performance and skeletal muscle function in the general population by altering efficiency of muscle metabolism. We will now study mice and humans to determine how a-actinin-3 deficiency influences normal muscle function with age, response to exercise and the severity of human muscle disease.