College of Anaesthetists Awards MMS Researchers Over $500,000 in Grants

Academic Enhancement Grant recipient Alicia Dennis.

Nine clinician researchers affiliated with the Medical School’s Anaesthesia, Perioperative and Pain Medicine Unit, from six MACH partner hospitals, have been awarded more than $500,000 from a pool of $1.7 million in the latest Australian and New Zealand College of Anaesthetists (ANZCA) annual grant round. This grant program is open to all Fellows of ANZCA across Australia, New Zealand - approximately 5,000 medical specialists - and is administered by the ANZCA Research Foundation.

Each year a program grant is awarded to a senior academic anaesthetist. Associate Professor Alicia DennisDepartment of Anaesthesia, Royal Women’s Hospital; is the recipient of the 2018 Academic Enhancement Grant, which she will use to pursue her haemodynamic and cardiovascular research program in obstetric anaesthesia and critical care.

Project grants were awarded to seven University clinician researchers:

  • Prof David Story, Chair of Anaesthesia with Prof Guy Ludbrook, University of Adelaide: Extended Post-Anaesthesia Care – a feasibility study. This study was also awarded the Elaine Lillian Kluver ANZCA Research Award
  • Prof Bernhard Riedel, Director of Anaesthesia, Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre: Volatile Anaesthesia and Perioperative Outcomes Related to Cancer: The VAPOR-C Trial (Feasibility Study)
  • Dr Jai Darvall, Department of Anaesthesia and Pain Management and Department of Intensive Care, Royal Melbourne Hospital: A randomized non-inferiority trial of chewing gum versus ondansetron to treat postoperative nausea and vomiting in female patients after breast and laparoscopic surgery (The Chewing Gum Study)
  • Dr Forbes McGain, Department of Anaesthesia and Pain Management and Department of Intensive Care, Western Health: Capturing anaesthetic gases; an exploration of the chemistry and chemical engineering required to capture and potentially reuse sevoflurane
  • Dr Lachlan Miles, Department of Anaesthesia, Austin Hospital: A prospective observational study examining the impact of iron deficiency on patient outcomes after cardiac surgery, and
  • Dr Lachlan Miles, Department of Anaesthesia, Austin Hospital: The Impact of non-anaemic iron deficiency correction on exercise capacity and perioperative outcomes in colorectal cancer surgery (ADEPT)
  • Dr Tuong Phan, Departments of Anaesthesia and Acute Pain Medicine, St Vincent’s Hospital: Optimisation of Perioperative Cardiovascular Management to Improve Surgical Outcomes II “OPTIMISE II”

Novice Investigator Grants support researchers who have not had previous grant support.

  • Dr Ned Douglas from the Department of Anaesthesia and Pain Medicine, Royal Melbourne Hospital received a Novice Investigator Award for High flow humidified nasal oxygen to prevent desaturation during EBUS, a randomised trial. His supervisor is Dr Irene Ng, also from RMH.

In congratulating the grant recipients Professor David Story noted the diversity of research interests of University of Melbourne anaesthetists, ranging from nanotechnology for scavenging anaesthesia drugs, through to cardiac ultrasound for patients with pre-eclampsia, translational, cardiometabolic and onco-anaesthesia.