When you think of smaller hospitals like ours, research may not be the first thing that comes to mind. Within the CKW Research Development Unit (RDU), we aim to change that.

The RDU was established in 2016 with three part-time researchers. Today, the RDU has seven team members (pictured) and our purpose is to help build research capacity and capability among staff in CKW.

The growth of the RDU reflects the growth of research at CKW. In the last year alone:

• a total of 28 new research studies were approved

• 50 CKW staff published in peer-reviewed journals, with a majority of our publications in Q1 ranked journals

• successful grant funding continued to triple year-on-year, from $148,000 in 2017/2018 to $1.6 million in 2021/2022.

While they say it takes on average 17 years to translate research from the lab into routine clinical practice, at Caboolture we have shown that we can shorten this timeframe because our projects are meaningful to our community and closely aligned with clinical practice.

Some recent research highlights include:

• Our allied health team led a three-year funded multisite trial that showed that integrated care coordination for children with non-complex medical conditions (e.g. anxiety, ADHD) improved child and family quality of life outcomes.

• Our midwifery team evaluated our community-led midwifery model for young Caboolture mums. We found that mums (as young as 14 years old) were significantly more like to deliver their babies full-term, instead of premature delivery, when engaged with our service model.

• During the COVID-19 pandemic, Caboolture Hospital’s Intensive Care Unit (ICU) was part of an international trial which evaluated the effectiveness of specific drugs on the survival rates of critically ill COVID-19 patients receiving organ support in ICUs. This work was published in internationally renowned journals and cited in World Health Organisation guidelines during the pandemic.

While the RDU is relatively new, clinicians have been involved in research since Caboolture Hospital’s opening nearly 30 years ago.

The first ever Caboolture Hospital article was by the late Dr Aldo Vacca (OAM, MBBS, FRCOG, FRANZCOG, Grad Dip Ed) in 1996 in
the Journal of Paediatrics and Child Health.

Dr Vacca was renowned as a tireless advocate and educator of vacuum-assisted delivery (VAD), both in Australia and internationally.

His efforts are estimated to have avoided 100,000 cases of maternal trauma in Australia alone.

Dr Vacca identified and refined the five steps common to all vacuum deliveries and had an academy named after him.

While we were only a small hospital 30 years ago, Dr Vacca’s story highlights that great champions can come from the humblest of beginnings.

I draw inspiration from understanding Dr Vacca’s research journey and hope that we can all continue to build on his healthcare legacy in the years to come.

I want to make Caboolture Hospital a lead site where innovation and research is embedded in clinical practice.

A place where past, current and future collaborators will come to because they know that the work we do is high quality, impactful and makes a difference to the community we serve.

You can contact the research team via email: RDU.Caboolture@health.qld.gov.au.

Have you got a story to share? Email ckw-engage@health.qld.gov.au.