Researchers celebrated as part of Research Week

Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital (SCGH) and Osborne Park Hospital (OPH) recently celebrated research with a series of events and competitions for Research Week 2024.

Hosted by the Department of Research in partnership with the Centre for Nursing Research and Allied Health Research, the annual event was launched by Professor Fiona Wood, world leading burns specialist, and featured several presentations from research experts as well as research competitions.

The highlight of the week was an Awards Evening at the Harry Perkins Institute for Medical Research where winners were announced for the Research Poster Showcase competition, New Investigator presentations and Charlies Foundation for Research grants. 

As part of the New Investigator competitions, three medical/scientific researchers and five nursing/ allied health researchers presented their research projects to a panel of judges earlier in the week for the chance to be one of this year’s New Investigator winners. 

Congratulations to Dr Ryan Teh on winning the medical/scientific category for his research into whether functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy testing of local tissue oxygenation could predict healing in diabetic foot ulceration.  

The New Investigator competition for nursing category was won by Christina Crosbie, Nurse Practitioner and by Louise Cleary, Senior Speech Pathologist for allied health. 

As part of the Research Poster Showcase competition, 59 posters from SCGH and OPH researchers were displayed on Watling Walk, Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital (SCGH) throughout the week. 

The 59 posters were reduced to a top 10 with a panel of judges selecting a winner and three runner ups. 

Congratulations to Milad Mirzaei on winning the Poster Showcase for their project on improving the selection of fiducial-less lung cancer patients for CyberKnife radiosurgery. 

Staff and researchers were also invited to vote for their favourite Research Poster displayed throughout the week as part of a People’s Choice category. 

The winner of the People’s Choice category went to Dr Eve Foreman for her poster on "Clinical Presentation of Patients Attending SCGH Emergency Department with Presentations Relating to Family & Domestic Violence - Audit Findings?". 

Full details on competition finalists and grant recipients can be found below.

Throughout the week presentations were also delivered by Dr Bruce Robinson on his breakthrough cancer treatment, Professor Davina Porock on building a career in research that meets the need and Dr Sarah D’Souza on why communication is key to successful collaboration and innovation.

A multi-disciplinary Q&A panel discussion on how to build careers in research was also conducted as part of Research Week.

Thank you to Professor Chan Cheah, Clinical Haematologist SCGH, Adjunct Professor Martin Ebert, Director of Physics Research, Radiation Oncology SCGH, Associate Professor Kristie Harper, Research Coordinator, Occupational Therapy SCGH, Associate Professor Ravani Duggan, Academic Research. Consultant, Centre for Nursing Research, Dr Matthew Anstey, Intensivist, SCGH and Linley Buchanan, consumer engaged in Oncology Clinical Trials for being part of the session.

Research Week is kindly supported and sponsored by the Charlies Foundation for Research.

Winners and finalists

Poster Showcase winners and top 10

• WINNER: Milad Mirzaei - Improving the selection of fiducial-less lung cancer patients for CyberKnife radiosurgery: Recommendations for patient selection, simulation techniques and workflow.
• RUNNER-UP: Scott Wilson - Identification of ATP6V1A as an osteoporosis susceptibility gene that acts through osteoclasts 
• JOINT THIRD: Kirsten Bennett - Chest x-ray is inferior to low-dose CT for silicosis screening and Teagan Paton - High Throughput Phage Screening with PHLOW 
• PEOPLE’S CHOICE: Dr Eve Foreman - Clinical Presentation of Patients Attending SCGH Emergency Department with Presentations Relating to Family & Domestic Violence - Audit Findings
• Kapil Dev Maharaj - Comprehensive Analysis of Peripheral Dose in Electron Beam Therapy with a Varian TrueBeam Linac 
• Rohita Reji - Incidence and Outcomes of Post-Transplant Lymphoproliferative Disorder in the Western Australian Liver Transplant Population 
• Eve Foreman - Clinical Presentation of Patients Attending SCGH Emergency Department with Presentations Relating to Family & Domestic Violence - Audit Findings
• Emily Salisbury - Induction of lipopolysaccharide modification to improve rapid colistin susceptibility testing
• Michelle Gyr - Developing the Optimal Cannulation Kit to Support VAD practitioners in WA 
• Nicole Lafontaine - Epigenome-wide Association Study Shows Differential DNA Methylation of MDC1, KLF9, and CUTA in Autoimmune Thyroid Disease

New Investigator

Medical/scientific category

• WINNER: Dr Ryan The, Vascular and Endovascular Registrar: Does functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy testing of local tissue oxygenation predict healing in DFU?
• Dr Xuan Ni Tan, Haematology Consultant: Next Generation Sequencing in Acute Myeloid Leukaemia – A Health Economic Analysis
• Juliet Li, Radiation Oncology Programmer: Quantitative image analysis of cardiac [18F]NaF PET and CT imaging

Nursing/allied health category

• WINNER ALLIED HEALTH: Louise Cleary, Senior Speech Pathologist: What is the feasibility of conducting video fluoroscopic swallow study with a concurrent livestream to an external computer?
• WINNER NURSING: Christina Crosbie, Nurse Practitioner, Haematology: Examining the Effects of an Exercise Intervention Program Prior to Autologous Haematopoietic Stem Cell Transplant: A Comparative Analysis
• Joanna Clark, Clinical Nurse Specialist, Heart Failure:  Understanding General Practitioners experience of heart failure medication up titration
• Tamara Thornton, Physiotherapist: The impact of Trikafta on exercise capacity in Cystic Fibrosis
• Joanne Beer, Senior Renal Dietician: Dietary phosphorus intake surprisingly similar on dialysis and non-dialysis day

Charlies Foundation for Research Bright Idea Grant recipients

The 2024 Bright Ideas Grant are provided by the Charlies Foundation for Research in facilitated by our Department of Research. The grants provide funding of up to $10,000 towards research projects conducted at SCGH or OPH over the next 14 months.

• Rachel Lommerzheim, Occupational Therapy: Can a technology assisted functional maintenance intervention increase patient movement in hospital? An observational pilot study
• Toni Heinemann, Occupational Therapy: Moving to virtual assessment of executive function; Validity and reliability of the Oxford Digital Multiple Errands Test (OxMET) in hospital
• Aaron Rusnak, Endocrine Surgery: Thyroglobulin levels during surveillance for recurrent and metastatic thyroid cancer
• Lipi Mishra, Intensive Care Unit: Predictive accuracy of Anti-Cardiolipin Antibodies, Antithrombin Deficiency, D-dimer and ROTEM in delayed cerebral ischemia following aneurysmal subarachnoid haemorrhage: a pilot prospective observational study
• Bianca Mammana, Dietetics: Measured vs Estimated Energy needs in critically ill patients with a suspected infection: a feasibility study