Dr Caitlin Brandenburg is a speech pathologist turned researcher who completed her PhD at UQ in 2015. She is a part-time Research Fellow for the Watch-house study, which is investigating the provision of emergency care to detainees in police watch-houses across Queensland. She also holds roles as Health Practitioner Research Fellow at Metro South Health, and Honorary Adjunct Assistant Professor at Bond University.
Caitlin has over 30 academic publications and more than $1 million in competitive research funding in fields as diverse as audiology, occupational therapy, palliative care, trauma, emergency care, speech pathology and paediatric critical care. She specialises in health services evaluation, qualitative and Knowledge Translation methodology. Caitlin’s passion is in supporting frontline clinicians to engage in research.
- 2016 Stroke Society of Australasia Nursing & Allied Health Scientific Award
- 2016 FreshScience Queensland finalist
Riku has a decade of Emergency Nursing experience in Finland and Australia, with the last 5 years spent focusing on improving the care we provide to our paediatric population. His passion for Paediatric Critical Care has led him to coordinate several international multicentre RCTs as well as help implement an array of studies; from fluid resuscitating the septic child to improving safety in the paediatric emergency intubation.
Riku hopes to one day be able to use his experience to conduct his own study, but in the mean time he spends most of his free time chasing his two energetic boys around the beaches/skateparks of Tugun.
After finishing medical school in 2014, I discovered my love for Emergency Medicine. I commenced the ACEM training program in 2017 after being offered a position at the Royal Brisbane & Women's Hospital Emergency and Trauma Centre and completed my Fellowship requirements in mid-2022. I have a longstanding interest in mathematics, which was the subject of my undergraduate degree, and pursued a Master's degree in Biostatistics while completing my ED training. This helped me to achieve my current position as ED Research Fellow at Gold Coast University Hospital.
In many ways, statistics is the language of the medical literature, and I have found this special skill to be invaluable as I pursue my interest in medical research. I enjoy working with teams to analyse data and write papers as well as sharing my knowledge of clinical medicine and critical appraisal with junior doctors. Outside of work, I like playing chess and spending time with Roland, my big black poodle.
My research interests include the COVERED COVID research program and multiple ultrasound research studies through the Sonar Group. For my next project, I am looking to develop an audit program for GCUH ED.
Awards and Achievements
- Master's of Biostatistics
- Member of the Sonar Group (2022)
Emma is a research coordinator who joined the GCH Emergency Care Research Group in 2020. She supports the ‘Vulnerable Populations’ and ‘Appropriate Emergency Care’ pillars in multiple projects, including the ARISE Fluids RCT, COVERED COVID, BEST-DKA, SPEED-ED and CALD projects. Emma has a special interest in cardiology research and was previously involved with the LEGEND and SAMIE cardiac studies. She additionally works as a research nurse and sessional academic for the School of Nursing at Queensland University of Technology.
Currently, Emma is undertaking the Master of Medical Research program at Griffith University investigating the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on cardiac-related emergency department presentations.
Exploring Cultural and Linguistic Diversity in the Emergency Department (CALD ED) study: Phase 1 Quantitative study
Quick facts
Prof Julia Crilly, Dr Dinesh Palipana, Ms Amy Sweeny, Mr Robert Lee, Dr Ping Zhang, Dr Wietske Blom-Ham, Ms Marina Chand, Professor Cindy Shannon and Dr Shahina Braganza
Exploring Cultural and Linguistic Diversity in the Emergency Department (CALD ED) study: Phase 1 Quantitative study. Gold Coast Health Collaborative Research Grant Scheme 2021.
This study aims to explore cultural and linguistic diversity (CALD) in the Emergency Department (ED). It is hoped that the outcomes of this study will help inform subsequent research and clinical evidence-based strategies to support research sustainability regarding patients from CALD backgrounds who present to the ED.
Grants Awarded
Enhancing clinician research: A mixed methods study examining Australian and New Zealand specialist trainees’ experiences and research outputs
Quick facts
Dr Pauline Stehlik
Dr Pauline Stehlik, Dr Rachel Bourke, Professor David Henry, Dr Caitlin Brandenburg, Dr Christy Noble, Dr Caitlin Withers, Professor Adrian Barnett, Professor Sharon Mickan, Professor Paul Glasziou, Dr Alexandra Bannach-Brown, Professor David Ellwood
High quality healthcare research underpins quality patient care. It asks patient relevant questions and measures meaningful outcomes, uses appropriate study design and statistical analysis, along with open and transparent publishing methods. This enables clinicians to access, understand, and apply the findings to their patients and provide them the best possible care.
However, it has been estimated that up to 85% of all research is of low quality, with poor research questions, inadequate designs and unnecessary duplication, costing ~$100 billion annually. This number is likely even greater as poor research then leads to low-value healthcare, such as unnecessary tests, procedures, and treatments.
There have been international efforts to combat this crisis in research. However, there has been little to no focus on professional medical associations, such as specialty training colleges and their educators. All specialist doctors in Australia are trained through these Colleges, including in research skills and produce ~3,000 new fellows each year.
Our review of 58 Australian and New Zealand specialist medical training colleges and their subspecialty divisions found that, while 55 require trainees to complete a project as their primary method of learning about research, the majority did not require formal research methods training, nor supervision by a research experienced supervisor. This is likely to be counterproductive, placing trainees at risk of conducting poor quality projects and producing fellows that may not appreciate how quality research contributes to positive patient care.
Several other colleges in Australia and overseas have begun to question the value of the current system and have been calling for change. We do too.
This study will inform a larger program of work that aims to improve this research training system and by understanding what is happening in practice; namely the quality of trainee experience and the quality of the research itself."
Grants Awarded
EAsIEr study: Evaluating the use of clinical decision Aids In the Emergency Department
Quick facts
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.
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:
1.patients by ensuring they receive the right care and reducing waiting time
2.clinicians by assisting with reliable and research-informed decisions and,
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.
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.
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
Objective Pre-oxygenation in paediatric EmeRgency Airway management (the OPERA study)
Quick facts
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
End-of-life deciSionS in the EmergeNcy department and Intensive cAre: where is the Law? (the ESSENTIAL project)
Quick facts
End-of-life deciSionS in the EmergeNcy department and Intensive cAre: where is the Law? (the ESSENTIAL project)
Grants Awarded
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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