We are pleased to present the seventh cohort of Fellows who commenced their Metro North Health Clinician Research Fellowships in 2025.
The seventh cohort of Fellows at the Fellows Welcome Breakfast, November 2025
(L-R) Professor Steven Lane (Executive Director Research), Dr Dharmenaan Palamuthusingam, Dr Michelle Roets, Dr Deanne August, Nick Steele (Chief Executive), and Dr Gianluigi Li Bassi. Dr Julian Williams (not pictured) was unable to attend.
Dr Gianluigi Li Bassi
Dr Gianluigi Li Bassi
Intensive Care, The Prince Charles Hospital
A Breath of Fresh Air in ARDS: From the Sunshine State to the World-New Pathophysiology Discoveries, Treatments, and Reducing Harm/Cost
Gianluigi’s program of research will seek to advance the understanding of Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS) pathophysiology, enhance treatment, and reduce iatrogenic harm/costs. He will lead a program to characterise dissemination of infection/inflammation through the airways, during the early-stage of ARDS, distinguishing this process from dissemination via the bloodstream. This will be achieved using an innovative model of P. aeruginosa ARDS they have recently developed, in which single-lung ventilation/perfusion is fully isolated. He will investigate the use of adjunctive nebulized-amikacin alongside intravenous-antibiotics in preclinical studies to provide valuable insights for the design of future clinical trials. He will also lead a nation-wide prevalence study with the George Institute/ANZICS to gather data on the use of lung protective ventilation and to safely managing ventilators and reduce harm/costs.
Dr Julian Williams
Dr Julian Williams
Emergency and Trauma Centre, Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital
Infections and sepsis in emergency – a programme to advance diagnosis and therapies
Julian’s program of research will focus on sepsis investigation and therapies. A centrepiece of the Fellowship will be a planned multi-centre RCT examining the use of albumin in sepsis resuscitation, leveraging learnings and outcomes from the completed ICARUS-ED pilot study. Further studies will be carried out to examine other aspects of sepsis such as mechanistic studies examining tissue perfusion and endothelial glycocalyx biomarkers, and retrospective analysis of evolving daily organ dysfunction. Work on blood culture quality will be extended to include multi-centre validation and ideally implementation of a decision rule for blood culture collection in emergency departments. Julian will collaborate with colleagues to validate alternative diagnostics and metagenomics in the ICARUS cohort, and biomarker panels in patients with immunosuppression and suspected infection.
Dr Deanne August
Dr Deanne August
Neonatal Unit, Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital
Building evidence and assessment tools to improve neonatal skin integrity
Deanne’s research aims to reduce the impact of hospital related skin injuries/conditions for neonates or newborns. This will be achieved by examining skin integrity prevention and treatment principles, and investigating skin integrity health outcome measures through a rigorous systematic review; followed by national benchmarking of skin injury practices and a co-design workshop with parents and clinicians to understand treatment choice and fidelity; in preparation for a feasibility trial on dressings and topical applications for neonatal injury.
Dr Michelle Roets
Dr Michelle Roets
Anaesthesia, Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital
Technological Advances associated with Improved Patient Outcomes during Peri-Operative blood Transfusion (TAIPO-POT).
Michelle’s program of research will address knowledge gaps relating to Peri-Operative Blood Transfusion with a view to improving the scientific understanding of transfusion-related immune modulation (TRIM), and leading the development of the next generation of intraoperative cell salvage (ICS) devices. The first component will consider the safety of ICS during major abdominal cancer surgery (The C-I-ICS Study). The second component will evaluate patient outcomes during transfusion for major spine surgery (allogenic blood transfusion vs intraoperative cell salvage) (The POSS-ICS Study).
Dr Dharmenaan Palamuthusingam
Dr Dharmenaan Palamuthusingam
Nephrology, Kidney Health Service
Harnessing Big data in nephrology: Insights, Innovations and Implications
Menaan will use his Fellowship to leverage routinely collected real-world datasets to answer clinically important questions and advance perioperative medicine and clinical trials in nephrology. The research will develop an automated system for patient trial eligibility screening and recruitment using existing hospital electronic datasets, reducing trial costs and time, compared to current labour-intensive manual processes. It will provide vital health service insights by evaluating critical care utilisation and hospital readmission rates using national data-linkage infrastructure. A key outcome of the research is the development of a decision aid tailored for dialysis and kidney transplant patients. Unlike existing tools, this model will integrate kidney replacement therapy(KRT)-specific characteristics to improve outcome predictions. By identifying modifiable perioperative risk factors, this research will identify potential targets for future interventions.