Quicklinks
Welcome to the TAAHC Communities of Interest Webinar series for 2023!
On the last Wednesday of each month, join us for an engaging hour to learn about the research being conducted in our patch and by our northern colleagues. Some of the topics lined up for this year include innovative research in digital health technologies, reproductive health and informed decision making, models of care for chronic disease management, how to involve publics and patients in research from inception, and how research is translated to clinical practice.
Register HERE for the TAAHC webinar series.
You can view recordings of our previous webinars on the TAAHC Youtube channel.
2023 Webinars
Wednesday 30 August 1-2pm AEST
Register HERE
Research Skills Session - "Fundamentals of Research Study Design"
Presented by Dr Michael Crowe, TAAHC Statistical Support Officer
Wednesday 26 July 1-2pm AEST
Research Skills Session - "Developing a Research Question"
Register HERE
How do you turn a curious clinical question into a research question? Often we want to know the answers to our clinical questions but we don’t formulate them in a way that makes finding answers easy. The skill of identifying the critical elements to a research question is an essential first step in evidence-based practice and research. Most questions can be divided into four components. Do you know what they are?
Join Rae Thomas in this TAAHC skills webinar to learn all about PICO!
Presenter: 
Rae Thomas is an Associate Professor in Evidence-Based Practice and Research Education Lead for the Tropical Australian Academic Health Centre. Her research focusses on reducing the gap between research evidence and clinical practice. Rae’s passion is to improve evidence-based decision making in clinical practice and to use community engagement strategies to improve health systems and policy. She has taught evidence-based practice to students and health practitioners for over 10 years, conducted systematic reviews, used randomised controlled experimental designs, and explored innovative methodologies to facilitate public deliberation in health policy decision making.
Once upon a time she was a practicing Psychologist with over 20 years' experience providing psychological interventions for children and families.
Wednesday 28 June 1-2pm AEST
Improving women's health
Register HERE
This webinar, part of our Women’s Health Research and Translation Network (WHRTN), focuses on two challenging topics – unintended pregnancy and testing for fetal abnormalities. One presentation will share the results of a study that aimed to improve women’s access to information and support informed decision making while the other explores unintended pregnancy prevention and care content in undergraduate nursing and midwifery programs.
Facilitator:
Professor Cate Nagle has a conjoint appointment with Townsville Hospital and Health Service and James Cook University. Cate serves on the JCU Human Research Ethics Committee (Chair), WHRTN (Chair) the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia’s Accreditation Committee (invited Member), and the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Accreditation Council (assessor).
Speaker 1
Title: Unintended pregnancy prevention and care in undergraduate nursing/midwifery curriculum
Presenter: Sandra Downing. Sandra has both provided clinical care and conducted research relating to unintended pregnancy prevention and care. She is passionate about women being able to exercise reproductive choice regardless of geographic location.
What will I learn? What unintended pregnancy prevention and care content do, and should, undergraduate nursing and midwifery programs include? We asked academics and current/recently graduated students their opinions.
Speaker 2
Title: Facilitating pregnant women’s informed decision making: the role of a decision aid
Presenter: Cate Nagle Cate’s program of public health midwifery research is underpinned by a commitment to improve the communication of risk, women’s participation in and experience of maternity care and to enhance informed decision-making.
What will I learn? This presentation will introduce you to a decision aid app on prenatal testing for fetal abnormalities, the evidence on which it is based and how to access and use the app.
Wednesday May 31st 1-2pm AEST
Digital innovation in health
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Delivering evidence-based best practice health care to rural, regional and remote communities across northern Australia poses a variety of geographical and workforce challenges. Digital innovation in the way in which health care is provided may assist as part of the solution. However, strategies to ensure effective implementation, connectivity, user readiness and digital literacy (health workforce and health care client) and sustainability are essential and tend to lag behind. The Northern Australian Regional Digital Health Collaborative (NARDHC) is trying to bridge this divide.
Facilitator
Professor Sarah Larkins is an experienced General Practitioner and health systems researcher with an interest in making health systems in northern Australia work better and more equitably for rural, regional, remote, Indigenous and other underserved communities. Sarah is one of the lead researchers on the Australian Government Department of Education, Skills and Employment-funded Northern Australian Regional Digital Health Collaborative program, and Convenor, Clinical Leadership Group of TAAHC.
Speaker 1
Title: AI & IoT for smart health monitoring in rural aged care
Presenter: Dr Stephanie Baker is a Lecturer with the Electronic Systems & Internet of Things Engineering team at James Cook University, Cairns. She holds a PhD in biomedical and software engineering, and a B.Eng in computer systems engineering. Her main research interest is the development of responsible artificial intelligence systems to solve significant problems in a range of fields. Much of her research to date has focused on healthcare, which has allowed her to make significant contributions in health monitoring and prognostics assessment.
What will I learn? In this presentation, you will learn about how artificial intelligence and the Internet of Things can be brought together to support high-quality healthcare in rural settings, with a focus on aged care. Dr Baker will present her recent research in this field, which includes the use of wearable and environmental sensors to support smarter health monitoring in residential care settings.
Speaker 2
Title: A mobile app and dashboard for effective management of early-stage chronic kidney disease.
Presenter: Finley Sherwood is a recent graduate of James Cook University with a bachelor’s degree in information technology. He is currently a Research Assistant at the College of Science and Engineering, James Cook University. Finlay has a background in web and app development and is currently a member of a team developing the CKDFree mobile app. The CKDFree aims to provide effective early detection and prevention strategies for chronic kidney disease patients in rural and regional communities.
What will I learn? Finlay will tell you about the development and testing of the CKDFree mobile app for vulnerable individuals at risk of deteriorating renal function. Hear about how we are piloting CKDFree with patients in remote and rural community facilities in North Queensland.
Wednesday April 26th 1-2pm AEST
Community involvement in research
Register HERE
Are you asking the important research questions in the best way to improve health outcomes? Have you ever wondered how best to work with patients and publics (often called consumers) but don’t know where to start? In this webinar you will hear from Amy Brown, a researcher who learned that working with a consumer in her research positively changed her research experience and Leah Hardiman, a long-standing, highly experienced consumer representative who will discuss the importance of relationships and creativity.
Facilitator
Title: What is patient and public involvement in research and why does it matter?
Rae Thomas is an Associate Professor in Evidence-Based Practice and Research Education Lead for the Tropical Australian Academic Health Centre. She is passionate about reducing the gap between research evidence and clinical practice and working with publics and patients to improve health through better research.
Speaker 1
Title: Collaborating with a consumer: An invaluable experience in my PhD journey
Presenter: Amy Brown is the research fellow for the Townsville Cancer Centre at Townsville University Hospital. She supports clinician-researchers across Medical Oncology, Radiation Oncology, Haematology and Palliative Care in investigator-led projects. With a clinical background as a radiation therapist, Amy’s research interests include image-guidance for prostate cancer radiation therapy, and health preferences. Her PhD thesis is currently under examination, and it was on one of her PhD projects that she first collaborated with a consumer investigator, finding it an invaluable experience.
What will I learn? How collaborating with a consumer investigator was incorporated into a PhD project. Understand the practical steps undertaken, the challenges, considerations, and benefits of this collaborative experience.
Speaker 2
Title: My experiences as a Women’s and Children’s Consumer Representative
Presenter: Leah Hardiman is a consumer representative for women’s and newborns service. Leah is a representative at a national, state and local level (including the Statewide Maternity and Neonatal Clinical Network and the Queensland Clinical Guidelines group), and engages with women and families to improve maternity, gynaecology, neonatal and children’s services. She is a mother of two children and is passionate about the translation of evidence into policy and practice.
What will I learn? How to be creative in involving consumers and communities in research. How to develop and maintain relationships with your community to ensure that your research is meaningful and impactful.
Wednesday March 29th 1-2pm AEST
Improving women's health services
Register HERE
Improving women’s health services during pregnancy and after birth is critical for maternal and child well-being. This webinar brings together two programs of research at the pointy ends of this continuum. Hear how research evidence on best-practices during pregnancy and after birth demonstrate possible pathways for practice changes. Continuous improvement approaches can implement practice changes and improve service delivery for women. Join Cate, Shayema and Kendall to learn more!
Facilitator
Professor Cate Nagle has a conjoint appointment between Townsville Hospital and Health Service and James Cook University. Cate holds numerous State and National leadership positions in midwifery, nursing and women’s health influencing policy development, practice and education.
Speaker 1
Title: Improvement of pregnant women's healthcare services in Timor-Leste using Continuous Quality Improvement approach by midwives
Presenter: Shayema is a Public Health Physician with more than 10 years’ experience in healthcare, especially in maternal and child health services. She worked in several Health Ministries (Timor-Leste, Bangladesh); UN organizations (UNICEF Timor-Leste, UNICEF Bangladesh, UNFPA Bangladesh) and in Sydney Children's Hospital Network as a Global Health Technical officer. While working in Timor-Leste for over 3 years, Shayema provided support for formulating policy and implementing various healthcare programs.
What will I learn? You will gain an understanding of gaps in quality service delivery for pregnant women’s healthcare in a low-resource, pacific setting. You will learn how a continuous quality improvement approach may improve women’s experiences and hear how several factors impact research implementation in this setting.
Speaker 2
Title: Symptoms of depression in parents after discharge from NICU associated with family-centred care. A multicentre cohort study
Presenter: Dr Kendall George is the Director of Midwifery at Townsville Hospital and Health Service and holds an adjunct Assoc Professor position at James Cook University. Kendall has worked in a variety of roles across her career as a midwife and previously worked as a Senior Research Fellow and Lecturer at the Sunshine Coast University. Kendall is passionate about enhancing the interprofessional maternity care team partnership and improving women’s experiences of maternity care.
What will I learn? Learn about key factors associated with parent’s positive perception of family centred care and what neonatal units can do to enhance mental wellbeing of parents of preterm infants. Learnings from the research team involved in the multicentre cohort study involving 23 NICUs across 15 countries will also be shared.
Wednesday February 22nd 1-2pm AEST
Translating research into practice to improve health outcomes
There is a time lag between effective health research and changes in health practice. Without specific translation (implementation) strategies the average gap between research and practice change is 17 years, with translation strategies it’s 3 years.
Join Rae Thomas, Ben Glenwright and Sally West to hear about what research translation means and how Ben and Sally are using these techniques to improve the health of Queenslanders.
View a recording of this webinar
Title: What is research translation and why does it matter?
Presenter: Rae Thomas is an Associate Professor in Evidence-Based Practice and Research Education Lead for the Tropical Australian Academic Health Centre. She is passionate about reducing the gap between research evidence and clinical practice. Rae works with HHS staff to improve their understanding of research, how they conduct research, and how they translate their research knowledge into practice.
What will I learn? What research translation is and how using established methods of implementation science improves your chances of creating practice change.
Title: TRIP journey: QI to PhD
Presenter: Ben Glenwright is a senior physiotherapist in acute orthopaedics at Cairns Hospital. He has 14 years’ experience practicing as a physiotherapist, mostly in acute hospital ward-based work. Hi is a buddying early career clinician researcher having commenced his MPhil in 2020 and recently upgraded to a PhD at the beginning of 2023.
What will I learn? How the many pathways into research as a clinician. How a clinician has translated research into practice, and how the journey of research translation is just as important as the destination.
Title: PARIS Remote: Implementation of nasal high flow therapy in a remote context.
Presenter: Sally West is a Registered Nurse and has worked clinically in rural and remote communities for the past 10 years with a particular interest in reducing health discrepancies between remote populations versus urban populations. She is a PHD candidate at James Cook University (JCU) and a COHORT member with JCU. Her current research is evaluating the implementation of Nasal High Flow Therapy in the remote context and translating the evidence for this therapy into a remote context.
What will I learn? How a clinician researcher in Weipa has used implementation science to implementation nasal high flow therapy for children with respiratory disease in three remote health services (Thursday Island, Weipa, Cooktown).