Resident Medical Officers Research

Obesity is strongly associated with cardiometabolic risk factors such as diabetes, hypertension, endothelial dysfunction, obstructive sleep apnoea etc. Frailty has been recently shown to be an independent predictor of poor outcomes in cardiac surgery and interventional cardiology, particularly with low BMI and advanced age. Including functional status and cognitive status in the investigation of the association between obesity and adverse outcomes has been shown to improve risk prediction models in cardiac surgery. This project will enable us to identify the most useful predictive bedside measure of obesity and the mediating influence of other factors such as frailty, cognitive function and disability upon postoperative outcomes.

Gram negative Bacteraemia is frequent cause of hospital admissions and Iv Abs administration in the inpatient setting. This study will describe the outcome of stable patients with gram negative bacteraemia discharged via HITH program within 24 hours of presentation with control group treated for the same in the inpatient setting.

ieQ is a Prince Charles Hospital initiative to establish Australia’s first clinical and research collaborative supporting improved outcomes for patients with infective endocarditis.

Established in 2017, and facilitated by a Metro North SEED Grant and extensive clinician in-kind support, the collaborative has established a multi-faceted structural platform. In May 2018, the Collaborative received additional recognition and support from The Prince Charles Hospital Foundation “The Common Good”.

Infective Endocarditis [IE] is a relatively uncommon condition in general practice, but is more common in cardiothoracic referral hospitals such as The Prince Charles Hospital. This condition affects dozens of Queenslanders per year, many requiring open-heart surgery. At least 1 in 10 Queenslanders with this disease will die from it and many more will suffer serious consequences affecting their quality of life. At TPCH, we admit and treat an estimated 60-80 patients with infective endocarditis every year.

Because of the relative rarity of this condition, little is actually known about it. All current guidelines are international, and none specific to Australia. Our leads, representing TPCH, are part of a global effort to expand knowledge about this condition.

We are recruiting doctors with interest in infective endocarditis and research to assist in data collection, patient recruitment (including acquiring consent), generating abstracts and etc.