Reducing Antibiotic Use In Primary Care: A Cluster Randomised Trial To Evaluate The Effectiveness Of Decision Aids About Antibiotic Use For Acute Respiratory Infections
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$325,500.00
Summary
Antibiotic resistance is a worldwide crisis. It means antibiotics no longer work. Reducing their use is critical. Acute respiratory infections (eg ear infections, sore throats, cough) are a target for reducing use as they are the most common reason that general practitioners (GPs) prescribe antibiotics, despite being usually not needed. This trial will test if decision aids reduce antibiotic use, by helping GPs and patients to discuss their benefits and harms and jointly decide about their use.
Advance Care Planning In Incurable Cancer Patients With Disease Progression On First Line Chemotherapy: A Randomised Trial.
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$745,946.00
Summary
Advance care planning informs patient and care giver about end of life care options and assists patients to reflect on their goals, values and beliefs and to discuss and document their future choices. This randomised trial evaluates advance care planning in incurable cancer patients. The primary endpoint is the family member's view of the quality of death and compliance with known end of life wishes of the deceased patient. The costs of subsequent care are also recorded.
This Project will produce the first map of the brain mechanisms that motivate unhealthy food choices in obesity. This outcome can inform the development of novel treatment approaches for obesity that modify the preference for high-calorie, unhealthy foods by changing the neural bases of such preferences.
Cognitive Inflexibility And The Development Of Pathological Habits In Brain Diseases
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$883,946.00
Summary
Pathological habits are observed in severe mental health conditions including dementia, obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), schizophrenia, depression and addiction. This application aims to provide the mechanistic detail required for therapeutic targeting to restore flexible decision making in these conditions.
Australian Predicting Infectious ComplicatioNs In Children With Cancer (PICNICC) Project
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$694,980.00
Summary
Children undergoing cancer treatment are at an increased risk of infection. This is managed by admission to hospital for antibiotics which can be a frightening experience for the child, disruptive for their family and expensive for the healthcare system. While many need admission, a proportion of patients can be safely managed at home with oral or intravenous antibiotics. This project aims to identify these children, so as to improve their quality of life, and decrease cost of treatment.
Dysfunctions In Decision-making And The Cognitive Control Of Action
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$647,341.00
Summary
The aim of this research project is to establish the neural bases of dysfunctions in decision-making associated with deficits in the cognitive control of action. Decision-making is a complex capacity dependent on the interaction between neural systems that mediate cognition and the selection of specific actions. To this end we will examine the intracellular, cellular and circuit level processes controlling the influence of predictive information on choice between goal-directed actions.
Neuronal Substrate Of Choice In The Rat Whisker System
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$405,851.00
Summary
Humans and other animals can optimise their goal-directed behaviour by linking stimuli or actions to consequent positive and negative rewards. How does an animal generate such associations, and make decisions in the natural environment where the associations are often uncertain, at times contradictory, and continuously changing? This project uses rat whisker system as an animal model to identify the neuronal basis of perceptual decision making and the role of context.
How Can We Accurately Predict Intra-cranial Injury In Children: The APIC Study
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$836,500.00
Summary
Head injuries are a common in children. Even a seemingly minor incident may cause serious brain injury. Whilst head computed tomography (CT) identifies all important injuries there is a growing recognition that radiation from CTs increases the risk of fatal brain cancers, especially in younger children. This study of 10,000 children with head injuries aims to investigate the best way to accurately predict which children should undergo a head CT, and which children do not require one.
The Impact Of Faulty Relevance Filtering In Schizophrenia.
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$303,194.00
Summary
In schizophrenia ability to maintaining focused attention is impaired. We explore how problems in “next state” prediction contribute to problems in attention. The brain constantly predicts what state of activation it will be in next. When events match these predictions we can easily ignore them but if predictions are wrong a prediction–error can trigger attention interruptions. We will test whether problems in prediction-errors make persons with schizophrenia more susceptible to distraction.
Reducing Demand On Emergency Departments In The Last Year Of Life
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$371,049.00
Summary
People in their last year of life who attend emergency departments (EDs) could often be better cared for elsewhere. Our severely overcrowded EDs, and the staff who work in them, are poorly equipped to provide appropriate end-of-life care. This research describes how people in their last year of life use EDs, the impact of this use upon ED services and how the provision of adequate primary care and supportive care services in the community care may be a more appropriate and economically viable op ....People in their last year of life who attend emergency departments (EDs) could often be better cared for elsewhere. Our severely overcrowded EDs, and the staff who work in them, are poorly equipped to provide appropriate end-of-life care. This research describes how people in their last year of life use EDs, the impact of this use upon ED services and how the provision of adequate primary care and supportive care services in the community care may be a more appropriate and economically viable option for people at the end-of-life.Read moreRead less