EAsIEr study: Evaluating the use of clinical decision Aids In the Emergency Department

Quick facts

Principal investigator:

Prof Gerben Keijzers

Team members:

Prof Gerben Keijzers, Mr Adam Brand, Dr Zoe Michaleff, Prof Paul Glasziou, Ms Laetitia Hattingh, Dr Paulina Stehlik, Prof David Henry, Prof Sharon Mickan, A/Prof Rae Thomas, Ms Hannah Larsen, Dr Joan Carlini

Everyday, clinicians in emergency departments make hundreds of decisions about the care of patients. Often these decisions are made in rapidly changing, time-pressured and complex conditions which can leave the clinician uncertain about the required tests and/or treatments.
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Clinical decision aids are research-based “tools” about patient care, tests, and treatments that can guide clinician’s decisions. Routine use of these tools has been found to benefit:
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1.patients by ensuring they receive the right care and reducing waiting time
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2.clinicians by assisting with reliable and research-informed decisions and,
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3.healthcare system by improving the value and efficiency of care i.e. ensuring patients receive the best care, at the right time, every time.
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Despite these benefits, clinical decision aids are underused. Research knowledge that is not used in clinical practice is a problem because it means that patients are not receiving the best care, at the right time, every time. A solution is to integrate clinical decision aids into the electronic health system for clinicians to use with the right patient, at the right time, every time. This can improve patient outcomes and increase the quality and reliability of the care provided by clinicians and the health service.
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Clinical decision aids are not currently integrated in the electronic health system at the Gold Coast Hospital and it is not known which “tools” emergency clinicians use and how regularly. Our research has two phases. Funding is sought for Phase 1 - a survey of clinicians’ current use of clinical decision aids, and an audit of medical records to check if these tools are recorded. The findings from Phase 1 will be used to inform Phase 2 - developing and testing the integration of clinical decision aids into the electronic health system for use by emergency clinicians."
 

Grants Awarded

2020 Collaborative Research Grant Scheme
$29,240

Objective Pre-oxygenation in paediatric EmeRgency Airway management (the OPERA study)

Quick facts

Principal investigator:
A/Professor Shane George
Team members:
A/Professor Shane George, Dr Simone Fagan, Dr Susan Humphreys, Professor Andreas Schibler, Mr Riku Haataja
Project commenced:
2020

Children sometimes present to an emergency department with severe illness which requires the insertion of a breathing tube into their windpipe and supporting their breathing with a mechanical ventilator (breathing machine). The insertion of the breathing tube is a high risk procedure due to both the severity of the child's illness and also the technical difficulty of inserting the tube. If the tube is not inserted successfully on the first attempt, there is an increased risk of the worsening of the child's condition and other serious complications.

Grants Awarded

2020 Collaborative Research Grant Scheme
$99,262

End-of-life deciSionS in the EmergeNcy department and Intensive cAre: where is the Law? (the ESSENTIAL project)

Quick facts

Principal investigator:
Dr Nemat Alsaba
Team members:
Dr Jayne Hewitt, Professor Andrea Marshall, Dr Katya May, Dr Greg Comadira, Professor Lindy Willmott, Professor Ben White, Dr Kerina Denny, Dr Tom Torpie, Ms Lucy Tripp, Dr Nemat Alsaba
Project commenced:
2020

End-of-life deciSionS in the EmergeNcy department and Intensive cAre: where is the Law? (the ESSENTIAL project)

Grants Awarded

2020 Collaborative Research Grant Scheme
$93,140

Research funds for children with broken arms

A Queensland Advancing Clinical Research Fellowship of almost $145,000 will help Dr Peter Snelling complete a research project which explores the benefits of point-of-care ultrasound for children with broken arms.

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Enhancing Clinician Research: A Mixed Methods Study Examining Australian and New Zealand Specialist Trainees’ Experiences and Research Outputs

Quick facts

Principal investigator:
Paulie Stehlik
Team members:
P. Stehlik, R. Bourke, D. Henry, C. Brandenburg, C. Noble, C. Whithers, A. Barnett, S. Mickan, P. Glasziou, A. Bannach-Brown, D. Ellwood, D. Pearson, E. Veysey, G. Keijzers, G. Wright, H. Joshi, I. Scott, K. Forrest, M. Morgan and R. Liang
Project commenced:
2020

P. Stehlik, R. Bourke, D. Henry, C. Brandenburg, C. Noble, C. Whithers, A. Barnett, S. Mickan, P. Glasziou, A. Bannach-Brown, D. Ellwood, D. Pearson, E. Veysey, G. Keijzers, G. Wright, H. Joshi, I. Scott, K. Forrest, M. Morgan and R. Liang, Enhancing Clinician Research: A Mixed Methods Study Examining Australian and New Zealand Specialist Trainees’ Experiences and Research Outputs. 2020.

 

Grants Awarded

Collaborative Research Grant Scheme 2020
$99,052

Improved Early Respiratory Support of Infants and Children

Quick facts

Principal investigator:

Dr Donna Franklin

Team members:

Dr Andreas Schibler, Prof Franz Babl and Prof John Fraser

Project commenced:
2021

Hypoxaemia remains the main reason of death in children with pneumonia with the highest health care burden on society world-wide. With increasing hospital and intensive care admissions, respiratory support is now targeted early in the progression of the disease. Recent developments have shown that early intervention with non-invasive and well tolerated respiratory support systems have reduced the need to escalate therapy and offloaded the pressure on high cost ICU beds. This has recently been proven with the COVID-19 pandemic, where nasal high-flow therapy has reduced the need for invasive ventilation and likely mortality in adults. The key objectives of 5 large projects within this program aim to demonstrate that early and less invasive respiratory support system will lead to improved overall outcomes in paediatrics.

Grants Awarded

National Health and Medical Research Council - Emerging Leadership
$645,000
Lions Dunning-Orlich NHMRC Emerging Leadership Investigator Award (2021) Travel Grant
$3,000
HIIRO Early Careers Researcher Fellowship
$300,000

Dr Gerben Keijzers is adjunct Professor of Emergency Medicine. His research revolves around topics relevant to clinical practice in critical care, with special interest in sepsis, appropriateness of antibiotic use and respiratory medicine. He encourages curiosity and critical thinking.

Gerben’s research related roles at Gold Coast Health include Emergency Department Collaborative Research Group Chair, Research Council member, clinical trials steering committee member and Human Research Ethics Committee member.

Related links

Bepress

Awards/Achievements
- Honorary Professor of Emergency Medicine at Bond University
- Associate Professor at Griffith University
- Gold Coast Health Researcher of the Year (2023)
- Emergency Medicine Foundation (EMF) Outstanding Contribution to Emergency Medicine Research (2018)

Connect with Prof Keijzers : Search gate

Queensland Health’s Artificial Intelligence Hub Datathon

Quick facts

Principal investigator:
Amy Sweeny, Dr Katya May, Dr Nimai Etheridge
Team members:
Amy Sweeny, Dr Katya May, Dr Nimai Etheride
Project commenced:
2020

Queensland Health’s Artificial Intelligence Hub Datathon winners, 2020: Amy Sweeny, Dr Katya May, Dr Nimai Etheridge… $25,000 in Amazon Web Services credit to pursue a project leading to faster reporting of chest x-rays for ED patients.

Grants Awarded

Queensland Health’s Artificial Intelligence Hub Datathon winners, 2020:
$25,000

Host Gene Expression Signatures to Diagnose Sepsis in Children

Quick facts

Principal investigator:
Dr Shane George
Team members:
A/Prof Luregn Schlapbach, Prof Keith Grimwood and Dr Peter Snelling

Host Gene Expression Signatures to Diagnose Sepsis in Children, following on from the RAPIDS project: “Host Gene Expression Signatures to Diagnose Sepsis in Children”. Our paediatric pillar lead, Dr Shane George, is one of the principal investigators on this study, led by A/Prof Luregn Schlapbach from Children’s Health Queensland and UQ. Prof Keith Grimwood and Dr Peter Snelling are also co-investigators. Specific aims of the project include the creation of a paediatric biobank, identification of gene markers for sepsis, and evaluation of a point of care test that rapidly determines whether a critically ill paediatric patient has an infection (bacterial or viral).

Grants Awarded

MRFF - Genomics Health Futures Mission
$2,406,970

Epidemiology, treatment and outcome of patients with lower respiratory tract infection presenting to emergency departments with dyspnoea (AANZDEM and EuroDEM studies).

Rousseau, G., Keijzers, G., van Meer, O., Craig, S., Karamercan, M., Klim, S., Body, R., Kuan, W.S., Harjola, V.P., Jones, P. and Verschuren, F., Epidemiology, treatment and outcome of patients with lower respiratory tract infection presenting to emergency departments with dyspnoea (AANZDEM and EuroDEM studies). Emergency Medicine Australasia.

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