2022 RBWH Foundation Project Grant recipients

Use of a snake-venom based product to control bleeding and modify healing in burns patients, and development of robotic technology for minimally invasive surgery, are just two of the fascinating and innovative research grants which received funding at the 2022 RBWH Foundation Research Awards.

Some of the brightest medical minds from Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital (RBWH) have been honoured and recognised, thanks to the incredible generosity of supporters who share the RBWH Foundation vision of advancing patient care and life-saving research.

“Being an RBWH Foundation donor means being part of something that is incredibly special and powerful,” said RBWH Foundation CEO Simone Garske.

“We have some of the country’s most brilliant minds working at RBWH, but without our valued community’s generosity and commitment, there would be no research.”

Twenty-two research grants were announced, totalling almost $1 million, across two categories: the 2022 Anglo American Burns, Skin and Wound Care Grants and the annual RBWH Foundation Project Grants.

Dr Jason Brown, Director of the RBWH Professor Stuart Pegg Adult Burns Centre, paid tribute to Anglo American for a significant philanthropic gift which funded ten ground-breaking research projects.

“If you look at the World Health Organisation data, globally, burns is still one of the largest takers of ‘quality-of-life’ years so there are opportunities to improve those outcomes,” said Dr Brown.

“There has been a huge increase in survival and patient outcomes over the last three or four decades, but there is still a lot of work to be done globally.”

The successful candidates were:

• Anita Plaza: Physiotherapy
  • Enablers and barriers to participation in physical activity programs while hospitalised after burn injury.
• Andrea McKittrick: Occupational Therapy
  • Development of a person-centred outcome measure for hand burn injuries.
• Dr Carl Lisec: Stuart Pegg Adult Burns Unit
  • A pilot study assessing the feasibility of NexoBrid versus the current standard of care of isolated upper limb burns.
• Amber Jones: Occupational Therapy
  • Evaluation and enhancement of the RBWH Multidisciplinary Burns Telehealth Service.
• Professor Anthony Holley: Intensive Care Services
  • The Development of an Australasian Burns Critical Care Registry.
• Dr Merrilyn Banks: Nutrition & Dietetics
  • Feasibility of using wearable sensors in patients with burn injury, to measure energy expenditure, and other observations, that can directly influence clinical care.
• Professor Jayesh Dhanani:  Intensive Care Medicine
  • Innovation on burns pain management: Nebulised dexmedetomidine to reduce or eliminate the need for IV pain management: Pilot Phase III trial.
• Dr Peter Gilles and Dr Andrew Dalley
  • Queensland Skin Culture Centre equipment upgrade enabling techniques using patient’s own cells to grow skin and improve recovery time.
• Dr Amanda W. Kijas and Dr Abbas Shafiee
  • Pre-clinical evaluation of the efficacy of a venom-based haemostatic agent.
• Dr Lynne Heyes
  • Psychological support: Burns survivor peer support program.

Since 1985, RBWH Foundation has supported clinician-led research within the hospital. Today, RBWH is a thriving research institute with close to 500 clinicians who each year combine direct patient care with research to answer medical questions that are important to them and their patients.

“We want to be a world-class hospital and a world-class research hospital,” said Professor Mike O’Sullivan, Director of RBWH Research and Implementation.

“The fact that we can aspire to that, thanks to our donors and RBWH Foundation, really reflects the extraordinary power of giving.”

The successful candidates for the highly competitive 2022 RBWH Foundation Project Grants were:

• Dr Clare Burns – Speech Pathology
  • Telehealth delivery of an immersive virtual reality therapy tool for communication rehabilitation: A feasibility study.
• Dr Anthony Hodge – Surgery & Perioperative: Anaesthetist
  • Pharmacokinetic profile and breastmilk excretion of sugammadex in pregnant women.
• Professor Paul Colditz – Women’s & Newborns – Neonatology
  • Brain-specific blood biomarkers of injury in the growth restricted newborn.
• Dr Scott Farrell – Critical Care
  • Development of small nerve fibre pathology in chronic whiplash-associated disorder.
• Dr Christoph Meinert – Surgery and Perioperative: Vascular Biofabrication
  • Soft Robotic Catheters for Minimally Invasive Surgery.
• Professor Leonie Callaway – Womens & Newborns
  • Aspirin for the treatment of cardiac dysfunction in preeclampsia.
• Dr Julie Adsett – Internal Medicine: Physiotherapy
  • Better get moving: Using implementation science to improve hospital mobility.
• Amanda Corley – Surgery & Perioperative
  • Does longer peripheral intravenous catheter Length optimise Antibiotic Delivery. A randomised controlled trial to reduce interruptions to intravenous antibiotic delivery.
• Dr Zhen Liu – Surgery & Perioperative
  • Saliva tumoral correlation to monitor response to treatment in oropharyngeal cancer patients.
• Dr Melissa Lai – Women & Newborns: Neonatology
  • Towards Custom Fitting CPAP devices for premature Infants – COMFIT.
• Cory Williams – Surgery & Perioperative
  • The co-design and evaluation of an e-health App to Improve the perioperative patient journey and facilitate integrated care: A pilot randomised control trial.
• Maree Raymer – Physiotherapy
  • Matching multidisciplinary care to patients needs in the state-wide Neurosurgical and Orthopaedic Physiotherapy Screening Clinics and Multidisciplinary Service.

RBWH Foundation looks forward to updating our philanthropic community as the research progresses.