Clinically Severe Obesity: A Better Understanding Of A Complex Condition, Improving Health Outcomes Through Effective Therapies, And Delivering A Comprehensive Clinical Pathway.
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$701,539.00
Summary
Clinically severe obesity impacts on the health of 7-8% or 1.5 million Australians, yet poor access to integrated effective care. This challenging area of healthcare is distorted by perceptions and beliefs that are frequently contrary to clinical and physiological research findings. Professor Dixon’s plan is to: 1) To learn more about clinically severe obesity, 2) improve the assessment and delivery of effective care, and 3) improve clinical capacity to better care for these Australians.
Delivering Quality Maternal And Newborn Care: Translating ‘evidence-based Practice’ Into ‘every-day Practice’
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$849,540.00
Summary
More than 300,000 women each year in Australia use maternity services. Unfortunately these are not always based on the best available evidence and there are considerable variations across the country. This research will provide much needed information to ensure that all women receive evidence-based care not just some women. The research will be initially conducted in south western Sydney but will ultimately improve the quality of care offered to women and babies across the country and beyond.
Child Disability:understanding Determinants And Improving Outcomes
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$697,605.00
Summary
The overall goals of my research are: to learn more about the causes of developmental disorders so that we can either prevent them occurring, or develop effective treatments for them; to improve the understanding, diagnosis and management of rare genetic disorders by developing and maintaining registers and by collaborating internationally; and to investigate the impact of rare and common developmental disorders on the health and quality of life of the affected child and their family.
Increasing Value, Reducing Waste From Incomplete Or Unusable Reports Of Medical Research
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$788,486.00
Summary
We estimated that the avoidable waste in research - from design flaws, non-publication, and inadequate reporting - results in over $85 Billion annual loss. I will research innovations to reduce this waste. My focus is particularly on non-drug interventions - exercises, dietary changes, self-monitoring, e-health applications – which are often effective but more difficult to use in clinical practice, and being compiled in my recently founded Handbook of Non-Drug Interventions (see RACGP website).
The goal of this research is to improve outcomes for people at risk of becoming blind or visually impaired. The focus is on those who require a corneal transplant, or who suffer from inflammatory eye disease or painful disease of the ocular surface, on neonates with retinopathy of prematurity, or those with the eye disease, keratoconus. We will investigate new treatment options for eye diseases and will examine the evidence for the success of surgical and other therapeutic interventions.
In the Northern Territory, about twenty per cent of Indigenous children have perforated ear drums. Menzies research already shows medical treatments in high-risk Indigenous settings to be less effective than in non-Indigenous settings. I will lead an interdisciplinary team to develop, pilot, design and evaluate the effect of a comprehensive intervention program including best use of vaccines, reducing risk factors and maximising hygiene to prevent early age of first infection.
Through this Australia Fellowship, Prof Keall and his tream will substantially improve the accuracy and effectiveness of radiation therapy for cancer by developing new techniques that will be able to ‘target’ a tumour in real-time and ‘concentrate fire’ on the most resistant and aggressive parts of it. Success in physiological targeting will create a paradigm shift in radiation therapy and could literally be a lifesaver. It’s a big challenge, but if this five-year research program succeeds, it w ....Through this Australia Fellowship, Prof Keall and his tream will substantially improve the accuracy and effectiveness of radiation therapy for cancer by developing new techniques that will be able to ‘target’ a tumour in real-time and ‘concentrate fire’ on the most resistant and aggressive parts of it. Success in physiological targeting will create a paradigm shift in radiation therapy and could literally be a lifesaver. It’s a big challenge, but if this five-year research program succeeds, it will pay big dividendsRead moreRead less
Mental illness is the largest single cause of disability in Australia. While mental illness is increasingly recognised as a disorder of the brain, a patient’s diagnosis, treatment and prediction of course of outcome is seldom guided by the results of a biological test. My research aims to combine the power of modern brain imaging and cutting-edge bioinformatics to enable a biological approach to the problem of mental illness.