Invited speakers - Tuesday 26 July

Big initiatives day

9.30am - Better Together: A Strategic Plan for Research in the ACT Health System
Prof Graham Mann

Prof Graham Mann
Director, John Curtin School of Medical Research, The Australian National University

Darlene Cox

Darlene Cox
Executive Director, Health Care Consumers Association 

Prof Imogen Mitchell

Prof Imogen Mitchell
Executive Director, Research and Academic Partnerships, Canberra Health Services

Prof Nick Brown

Prof Nick Brown
Professor Allied Health; Director UC Clinical School, Faculty of Health, University of Canberra

Prof Christine Phillips
Professor, Social Foundations of Medicine, ANU Medical School, The Australian National University

Professor Graham Mann, Chair of the ACT Health and Wellbeing Partnership Board’s Research Working Group will lead a collaborative presentation on the territory-wide research strategic plan, Better Together. The group will describe how the plan intends to guide: system-wide actions to foster a learning health system where evidence is both applied and developed as a natural product of the care and prevention process; investment in the people who serve the ACT health system; and investment in the key research capabilities, infrastructure, platforms and programs that the ACT’s health ecosystem needs to thrive.

10.50am - Research and Innovation Fund – update

The ACT Government Research and Innovation Fund (RIF) aims to support world-leading health research in the ACT, underpinning the delivery of high-quality health care through cross-discipline collaboration and engagement. The RIF aims to build research capacity and capability in key health areas to meet the health and wellbeing needs of the ACT community. In August 2021, $2.0 million was granted to the first group of nine successful RIF projects. We look forward to sharing an exciting update about the RIF during this presentation.

11.00am - Big initiatives: The Australian National University

An Aboriginal Australian Genome Project

Dr Ashley Farlow

Dr Ashley Farlow
Genome Biologist, National Centre for Indigenous Genomics, The Australian National University

 

Reconstruction of a human genome de novo from Australian Indigenous individuals reveals the amount of genetic variation that is not readily recovered using standard techniques. I will present a joint analysis of Illumina whole genome sequencing from 168 individuals and long-read de novo assemblies from 4 individuals for four remote Aboriginal communities. Consistent with their deep cultural and linguistic distinction, these communities display strong genetic population structure and a wealth of novel genetic variation. 
I will focus on the surprising observation that these assemblies reveal a substantial amount of single nucleotide variation in regions of the reference genome not previously considered problematic when using standard approaches. 

National Centre for Indigenous Genomics enabling the inclusion of Indigenous Australians in precision medicine

Dr Hardip Patel

Dr Hardip Patel
Bioinformatics Lead, National Centre for Indigenous Genomics, The Australian National University

Large-scale projects that develop perpetual community resources, such as UK Biobank, 1000 Genome Project, and the Human PanGenome Reference, play an increasingly important role in biomedical research and precision medicine. The National Centre for Indigenous Genomics (NCIG) is establishing genomic reference resources and related biospecimens from Indigenous Australians. It is an example of a community resource built to enable broad-scale representation of ancestrally diverse populations to enable equitable benefits of genomics for all humans, irrespective of their ancestry. In the first phase, we have established deeply trusted relationships with four Indigenous communities; 684 individuals (10% of population) have donated their genomic data and samples into the growing NCIG collection. We have begun generating reference genomes leading to telomere-2-telomere assemblies. In addition, whole-genome sequence data from 160 individuals using ONT long reads and Illumina short reads has revealed distinct genetic diversity missing from global resources and specific to Indigenous communities. We have established first that the unique genetic diversity of Indigenous Australia will require modification to data analysis workflows to discover genetic variations accurately. Second, many more Indigenous communities would have to be included in genetic reference resources to comprehensively ascertain genetic diversity to benefit all Indigenous Australians. The next phase of NCIG, under Indigenous governance backed by federal statutory powers, will enable integration of these genomic resources into clinical practice in coming years.

Investigating the genetic basis of chronic kidney disease in the Tiwi Islands

Dr Simon Jiang

Dr Simon Jiang
Nephrologist and Group Leader, College of Health and Medicine, The Australian National University

Indigenous Australian populations have the highest recorded rates of chronic kidney disease (CKD) worldwide. These rates of kidney disease are in excess of rates of diabetes and other cardiovascular ilness in these communities. It has been estimated that genetics accounts for 60% of the risk of CKD. We have established a national collaboration to sequence and define the genetic contribution to the high rates of CKD in Indigenous communities.

From this we have identified rare, potentially deleterious variants in CKD-relevant genes at high frequencies in patients from the Tiwi Islands including A20/TNFAIP3, AIRE, BLK, IRF5 as well variants in IRAK3, LYN, TRAF5 and RELB which are unique to the Tiwi. Variants in A20, LYN and AIRE were validated for altered function. Whilst the LYN variant had no impact, one variant in AIRE and two in A20 impaired IFN and NFkB expression respectively, highlighting the importance of understanding the unique pathophysiologic processes in Indigenous communities.

1.30pm - Big initiatives: Australian Catholic University

Living with pressure injury: Evolving care through inclusion of the patient and carers experience
Dr Adam Burston
Lecturer, Nursing, Faculty of Health Sciences, Australian Catholic University

This multi-stage project seeks to engage with consumers to inform the evolution of care delivery for people experiencing a pressure injury.

Are you speaking to me? Receiver perspectives on speaking up conversation
Melanie Barlow
Senior Lecturer and Academic Lead for Specialist Learning Environments and Simulation, Australian Catholic University

As part of a larger study that evokes Communication Accommodation Theory to study receiver behaviour, this presentation will discuss the results of how receivers responded to speaking up messages within an actual encounter, and in a hypothetical defined context. Findings show that receiver professional identity, their evaluation of the speaking up message and the conversational context, play a more significant role than current speaking up training programs acknowledge or teach.

Interprofessional Education and Graduate Transition: A mixed-method study

Robyn Dickie

Robyn Dickie
Lecturer, Nursing, Faculty of Health Sciences, Australian Catholic University

This research aimed to identify and explore factors impacting a graduate’s ability to utilise teamwork and communication behaviours developed during interprofessional education (IPE) during workplace encounters while transitioning to clinical practice.

2.20pm - Big initiatives: University of Canberra

Health Innovations in AI and Robotics

Prof Debra Rickwood

Prof Debra Rickwood
Professor of Psychology, Faculty of Health, University of Canberra

Prof Roland Goecke

Prof Roland Goecke
Professor of Information, Technology and Systems, Faculty of Science and Technology, University of Canberra

Dr Janie Busby Grant

Dr Janie Busby Grant
Senior Lecturer, Psychology, Faculty of Health, University of Canberra

A/Prof Damith Herath

A/Prof Damith Herath
Associate Professor in Software Engineering, Faculty of Science and Technology, University of Canberra

Prof Nick Brown

Prof Nick Brown
Professor Allied Health; Director UC Clinical School, Faculty of Health, University of Canberra

A/Prof Shahid Hussain

A/Prof Shahid Hussain
Associate Professor of Biomedical Robotics, Faculty of Science and Technology, University of Canberra

In this group of presentations, we will discuss our research examining human-robot interactions within health care settings, innovative research investigating how Artificial Intelligence (AI) can be used to enhance the capacity and quality of crisis line counselling services, and the engineering science behind the development of novel rehabilitation robots, including how robot-assisted rehabilitation can enhance recovery from neurological injury and disease.

3.10pm - Big initiatives: UNSW Canberra

The Challenges of palliative care – innovating, implementing and evaluating support options

A/Prof James Conner

A/Prof James Conner
Research Project Coordinator, School of Business, UNSW Canberra

Carer burn-out as a key challenge facing those supporting a person with a life-limiting illness. One support mechanism is to provide respite services – to allow carers to rest and recharge. However, the provision of services has been very limited. Palliative Care ACT has created an innovative respite service, known as ‘Leo’s Place’ – a novel model of respite provision. I will present on the challenges of innovating the model, evaluating it and then moving into permanent provision of the service.

Cochlear implantation and carers’ employment

Prof Max Tani

Prof Max Tani
Professor, School of Business, UNSW Canberra

There is substantive evidence that childhood disability or illnesses negatively affects carers’ employment status, with mothers being the most affected. There is however less evidence about the impact of interventions against those disabilities or illnesses on parental employment. We use a unique longitudinal survey of Australian children with hearing loss and apply panel data techniques to investigate the relationship between Cochlear implantation and their carers’ subsequent employment over an eight-year period. We find that the principal carer (typically the mother) is more likely to return to work if the child receives a Cochlear implantation, and the effect is substantially stronger for principal carers from a lower socio-economic status. This result is novel and suggests that the intervention enables carers from disadvantaged groups to expedite their return to the labour market. 

Page last updated on: 17 Nov 2022