Jamieson Trauma Institute has welcomed its very first PhD candidate, who will take a deeper look into how trauma is treated across the state.

Dr Adam Mahoney is a medical officer and anaesthetist in the Australian Regular Army who completed his undergraduate medical training at the University of New South Wales.

After graduating in 2010, Dr Mahoney would spent some time in Tasmania before moving to Melbourne in 2017 to undertake a trauma anaesthesia fellowship at The Alfred Hospital.

Dr Mahoney said it was during his time at The Alfred that he gained a greater appreciation of the systems that could so greatly influence the outcome of trauma casualties.

“This led me to explore opportunities for traumatology research with COL Michael Reade, the Chair of Military Medicine and Surgery at the University of Queensland,” he said.

“He introduced me to his colleagues at the Jamieson Trauma Institute and the Queensland University of Technology, who have guided me in developing my current project.”

Dr Mahoney’s PhD research will link data from several sources to characterise the “spatiotemporal epidemiology” of major trauma in Queensland.

Dr Mahoney said outlier locations with higher than expected standardised incidence and case-fatality rate will be examined in order to identify potential associations with the distribution and nature of trauma services and civil infrastructure.

“I expect that that geographic disparities in trauma outcomes will have decreased over time, reflecting maturation of the Queensland trauma system,” Dr Mahoney said.