Research Excellence Awards 2026

We’re thrilled to be nominated for this award, which really represents our ability to translate a diverse program of research, which will translate the impact of the microbiome into patient outcomes, particularly for patients undergoing transplantation. I’m thrilled to work with a multidisciplinary team of other hematologists, pharmacists, infectious diseases clinicians, dieticians across both the Metro North and Royal Brisbane Hospital campuses, as well as with academic collaborators at QIMR and UQ.

I’m a nurse practitioner working in the Emergency Department at Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital. As a clinician researcher, my research focuses on improving patient care with the cannulas they receive when they come to the emergency department. Unfortunately, we don’t really do that well sometimes, as it can cause harm and unnecessary insertions. So my research uses clinical trials and implementation studies to demonstrate that co-design strategies can improve patient care and reduce harm.

Being nominated for these awards is so special to us because it doesn’t only acknowledge what we’ve researched, but how we’ve done it. We’ve involved all different stakeholders in the problem, including having two consumer co-leads, which has been fantastic. Having this work acknowledged means more consumer co-design across the system.

My research aims to address a gap that we have in healthcare. We’re very good at finding new cures and treatments, but there tends to be a gap in how we support people while they’re on treatment so that we keep them well and help them recover quickly. I like to make sure that the research involves patients, their communities, and the clinical teams that look after them.

As an obstetrician, I feel that fathers and partners are an integral part of the family unit. When mothers come to have a baby, we take care of them. In the same way, we must take care of fathers and partners, because when they’re exposed to traumatic circumstances, this can have significant consequences for their mental health and intergenerational consequences for the entire family. Metro North has an important health equity agenda that we are addressing, and this project speaks to that by allowing fathers to be recognised as partners in birthing and in how we use time and space as families, particularly in traumatic birth.

Metro North Health purchases half a million peripheral, central, and other catheters each year. But 70% of patients have difficult insertions, and one-third of catheters are removed because of complications such as infection. Coming here as a graduate nurse, I had no idea I could work on evidence in this field with my mentors Jeffrey Lipman, Joan Webster, John Fraser, and David Patterson, and now with the wonderful research nurses in the team at the Herston Infectious Diseases Institute under Jason Roberts. I’d like to thank all of the PhD students, the research nurses, the colleagues, and of course the patients who’ve contributed to this work, and I’m very honoured to receive this nomination on behalf of you all.

Being nominated is a great honour, but more than anything it’s a recognition of our whole research team. We’re a multidisciplinary group including medical, nursing, pharmacy, dietetics, physiotherapy, speech pathology, and a research hub. Nothing would have happened without every one of those people working together. To be recognised among larger academic and tertiary hospitals is very special and reflects our ability to run rigorous and internationally recognised research. From clinician-led research developed at the bedside to participation in large randomised controlled trials, we’re very proud of our interdisciplinary research culture. This nomination is a wonderful acknowledgement of years of working together.

Our research is the first in Queensland to link clinical hospital data with opioid dispensing records, tracking 129,000 injured adults. We revealed how patients use opioids after discharge in ways that we haven’t been able to see before. Surviving serious injury is only the beginning. What follows, recovery, return of function, and quality of life, is connected to effective pain management. Managed well, this can shape each patient’s future. As opioid harms continue to affect Australians, we now have a timely understanding of the risks to help guide better outcome programs for patients both in Metro North and across the rest of Queensland, enabling us to use resources more wisely.

We’ve been together as a team for 10 years under the guidance of Professor Robert Henderson. Our work is in rare neuromuscular disorders, including motor neuron disease and myotonic dystrophy. We’ve been the first site in Australia to provide gene therapy for some of these conditions. None of this would be possible without the contribution of our participants, and it’s really for these people that we do all this work. Most of the credit should be directed towards them.

Through the Drumbeat.ai algorithm, we have developed an artificial intelligence system that can analyse images of the eardrum and accurately triage ear disease. This was developed using more than 10,000 otoscopic images collected from over 100 rural and remote communities across Queensland and the Northern Territory. The next step is to test its real-world use and acceptance by end users, including clinicians, patients, parents, guardians, and communities, with the goal of improving and supporting ear health screening nationally.

I’m so excited to be nominated for this award, but this isn’t about me. This is about my role as Chief Nursing and Midwifery Officer to support researchers and people who wish to pursue a career in nursing and midwifery research. It is an exciting time, with 22 individuals having completed the Metro North Nursing and Midwifery Internships, and they are now ready to launch their careers as potential future researchers.

The Geriatric Emergency Department Intervention, or JEDI, is a model of care that started as a conversation between a couple of people and eventually developed into a scalable model of care across 26 emergency departments within Queensland Health. It aims to improve the care, decision-making, and processes for older adults who present to emergency departments across Queensland.

It’s a real honour to be recognised by our peers that our research is valuable and making an impact in Metro North. Occupational violence is not a classical research area, and we’re doing this work to benefit our health service and our community. We’re doing that in partnership, and having this partnership recognised is really valuable.

In 2016, we conducted a world-first study of robotic bronchoscopy here at Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital. Since then, with the support of our director Harvey and the Technology Future Fund, we’ve been able to put that into practice with a clinical bronchoscopic robot. We’ve seen significant improvements in the early diagnosis of lung cancer.

At the Allied Health Research Collaborative, we support researchers across the entire journey, from the first insight to real-world impact. By connecting people, ideas, and expertise, we help turn questions from clinical practice into research. But we don’t stop there. We also support the implementation of research back into practice, improving patient outcomes and experiences, strengthening our workforce, advancing equity, and delivering greater value for health services locally and around the world. Allied Health Research Collaborative: from insight to impact.

2026 REA Event Video

0:31 – Music.

1:00 – Music.