Prof Anderson a clinical neuropsychologist with two broad areas of research: 1) understanding the impact of early childhood brain injury across multiple domains – brain, cognition, social skills, behaviour; and 2) developing and evaluating interventions (child and family-based) to reduce burden following childhood brain injury.
A Randomised Control Trial Of Treatments For Children With Different Types Of Reading Difficulty
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$752,319.00
Summary
This randomise control trial will test treatments for children with different types of reading difficulty. The outcomes will reveal how struggling readers should be supported in classrooms and by the Reading Assistance Voucher programme. This will reduce the number of struggling readers who attempt suicide, drop out of school, or abuse drugs to try and escape their sense of failure. This will suport the Government's efforts to ensure that Australians have A Healthy Start to Life.
The Australia And New Zealand Fontan Registry: A Growing Population Of Young Adults With Heart Failure
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$129,103.00
Summary
The Fontan procedure is an operation performed for all children with heart defects who cannot be repaired with 2 pumping chambers like a normal heart. It is expected that after 2 or 3 decades, these patients will either die or need a heart transplantation. We want to establish a registry to evaluate the number and status of this increasing patient population. This study may foresee and even prevent a sudden burden on the health system caused by their needs.
Physiological And Neurophysiological Assessment Of Lip And Tongue Function For Speech In Multiple Sclerosis
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$356,250.00
Summary
Speech difficulties are commonly experienced by people with multiple sclerosis (MS) and can have a devastating, restrictive effect on social interactions, work and education opportunities, ultimately reducing quality of life. Research has shown that a major factor underlying impaired speech in MS is disturbed functioning of the structures that articulate speech, particularly the tongue and lips. In order to effectively treat these speech disturbances, it is imperative that the nature and severit ....Speech difficulties are commonly experienced by people with multiple sclerosis (MS) and can have a devastating, restrictive effect on social interactions, work and education opportunities, ultimately reducing quality of life. Research has shown that a major factor underlying impaired speech in MS is disturbed functioning of the structures that articulate speech, particularly the tongue and lips. In order to effectively treat these speech disturbances, it is imperative that the nature and severity of the tongue and lip impairments be identified, so that specific treatment methods can be employed to directly target those impairments. The present project will use state-of-the-art technology to track and record movements of the tongue and lips during speech and to investigate how well the neural command pathways leading from the brain to the lip and tongue muscles are functioning in persons with MS. The results of the study will direct the development of more specific and effective speech therapy procedures that will empower persons with MS with intelligible speech.Read moreRead less
Improving Functional Capacity In Patients With Chronic Lung Disease With High Intensity Respiratory Muscle Training
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$340,880.00
Summary
Patients with chronic respiratory disease have limited exercise capacity, which severely impairs their quality of life. The mechanisms responsible for this impairment may relate to their lung disease, or to the long-term effects that inactivity has on the cardiovascular and musculoskeletal systems. Pulmonary rehabilitation programs involving whole-body exercise are now widely used as an addition to standard medical therapy as a way of decreasing symptoms and optimising function. While these gene ....Patients with chronic respiratory disease have limited exercise capacity, which severely impairs their quality of life. The mechanisms responsible for this impairment may relate to their lung disease, or to the long-term effects that inactivity has on the cardiovascular and musculoskeletal systems. Pulmonary rehabilitation programs involving whole-body exercise are now widely used as an addition to standard medical therapy as a way of decreasing symptoms and optimising function. While these generalised, broad-based programs result in modest improvements in peripheral muscle function, cardiovascular function, functional exercise capacity and quality of life, it is now apparent they have little or no effect on respiratory muscle function, which is also greatly impaired in COPD. The aims of this study are to answer two longstanding questions that are fundamental to rehabilitation programs in patients with COPD (i) does a program of specific respiratory muscle training alone improve whole-body exercise capacity, dyspnoea, and-or quality of life? and (ii) does the addition of a program of specific respiratory muscle training to a standard whole-body exercise rehabilitation program result in improvemed exercise capacity, dyspnoea and-or quality of life to a greater degree than a program of whole-body exercise training alone? The study is of importance to patients with COPD by investigating the mechanisms underlying the improvement in exercise capacity following a rehabilitation program and the role of respiratory muscle training in such a program. By more accurately defining the mechanisms of exercise limitation we may be able to maximise the benefits obtained during a rehabilitation program, including improved work capacity, reduction in the degree of breathlessness and improved quality of life.Read moreRead less
Peripheral Nerve Grafts, Neurotrophic Factors, And Ex Vivo Gene Therapy In Visual System Repair
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$240,990.00
Summary
Worldwide, hundreds of thousands of people are victims of severe brain and spinal cord injuries, often as a result of motor vehicle accidents or sporting mishaps. Thousands more are added to this population each year. Because there is only limited intrinsic potential for the regeneration of axons in the adult mammalian central nervous system (CNS), traumatic injury almost always results in long-lasting functional impairments (mental and-or physical). The personal, social and economic costs for t ....Worldwide, hundreds of thousands of people are victims of severe brain and spinal cord injuries, often as a result of motor vehicle accidents or sporting mishaps. Thousands more are added to this population each year. Because there is only limited intrinsic potential for the regeneration of axons in the adult mammalian central nervous system (CNS), traumatic injury almost always results in long-lasting functional impairments (mental and-or physical). The personal, social and economic costs for the long-term clinical care and maintenance of functionally impaired patients are enormous. The proposed study aims to develop new and unique surgical and molecular approaches to CNS repair, using the rodent visual system as the experimental model. Pieces of peripheral nerve (PN) will be cellularly and genetically manipulated to produce increased levels of growth promoting factors. The modified PN tissue will then be transplanted into the injured CNS. It is expected that the increased levels of neurotrophic factors will promote and guide the regeneration of increased numbers of nerve fibres through the bridges and back into appropriate parts of the brain. A major goal is to determine if it is possible to harvest adult peripheral glia (Schwann cells) from the PN of a host, expand and engineer these cells ex vivo, and then graft these cells back into the same host to promote the repair of injured fibre tracts. Such an approach would be of considerable benefit in the surgical repair of CNS injuries in humans. It is thus intended that our experimental studies will lead to the development of new therapeutic strategies for the treatment of human brain and spinal cord injuries, resulting in improved functional outcomes and better quality of life after neurotrauma.Read moreRead less
Needs Based Access To Specialist Palliative Care Services: Development And Evaluation Of A Consumer Toolkit
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$286,572.00
Summary
The study will test the cost-effectiveness of two models of supportive care coordination for advanced cancer against _usual care�: a Telephone Caseworker model and an Oncologist-GP model. Both models are aimed at improving patients� and their informal caregivers� health and psychosocial status; are patient-centred, evidence based and readily transferable across health care settings. The Telephone Caseworker model has the additional advantage of reaching people isolated through geography, physica ....The study will test the cost-effectiveness of two models of supportive care coordination for advanced cancer against _usual care�: a Telephone Caseworker model and an Oncologist-GP model. Both models are aimed at improving patients� and their informal caregivers� health and psychosocial status; are patient-centred, evidence based and readily transferable across health care settings. The Telephone Caseworker model has the additional advantage of reaching people isolated through geography, physical disability or age.Read moreRead less