MDRP Project wins Western Health Research Award

The 2019 Western Health Research and Best Care Conference was held between 14 -18 October.

Reinetta Tanujaya, an MD student at the Western Clinical School, undertook a Medical Student Research Project (MDRP) in the Department of Paediatric Emergency Medicine at Sunshine Hospital, and was awarded the best poster prize.

Her supervisor was Associate Professor David Krieser, the Director of Paediatric Emergency Medicine, at Sunshine Hospital.

Her project was entitled Cervical spine injury in attendees aged below 21 years presenting to a suburban ED from 2014 to 2016: an audit of clinical features and medical imaging.

The high mortality and morbidity associated with cervical spine injury is well recognised, however, there are no standardised protocols to exclude significant injury in children.

The Canadian Cervical Spine Rule was derived from adult patients, but is often applied to children.

Her work will inform multi-centre studies that are under development to determine a clinically useful decision rule for children who present with potentially devastating cervical spine injury.

We congratulate Reinetta on her outstanding achievement and we look forward to welcoming her back to Western Health for her internship in 2020.