Pictured: Professor Britta von Ungern-Sternberg, Associate Professor Chris Brennan-Jones, Dr Vanessa Fear and Dr Pam Laird.
The Kids Research Institute Australia-led research projects will share in $2.1 million of funding under a State Government program designed to help translate research findings into changes which benefit patients and help the health system run more efficiently.
The Kids-helmed projects made up four of the eight Research Translation Project (RTP) grant recipients announced by Minister for Medical Research, the Hon. Stephen Dawson. The RTP2021 program provides grants of up to $270,000 to short-term projects that demonstrate improved cost-effectiveness and efficiencies for the WA health system, while maintaining or improving patient outcomes.
The Kids Research Institute Australia recipients include:
Professor Britta von Ungern-Sternberg will lead a team from Perth Children’s Hospital (PCH) and The University of Western Australia (UWA) who have received RTP funding of $269,912 to undertake the CHIMP Study, trialling clonidine to help improve pain management following tonsillectomy surgery in children. Tonsillectomy is one of the most common childhood surgical procedures, with more than 40,000 performed in Australia every year, but children can experience significant and prolonged pain afterwards – leading to a high rate of re-presentation and readmission to hospital. Some of the currently typically used medications to control this pain can increase risk of post-operative bleeding, breathing complications and nausea/vomiting. This project will trial clonidine, a medication used successfully in children during anaesthesia which does not increase the risk of such complications, but which has not yet been tested for longer term pain management following tonsillectomy. If found effective, it will help control children’s pain and reduce the need for post-operative opioids.
A team headed by Associate Professor Chris Brennan-Jones and including researchers from The Kids Research Institute Australia, PCH, Curtin University and Edith Cowan University have been awarded $269,311 to undertake a clinical trial aimed at helping to resolve persistent otitis media with effusion (OME) – also known as ‘glue ear’ – in children on specialist wait lists. Glue ear is one of the common reasons for referral to the PCH Ear, Nose and Throat and Audiology Departments, with the high volume of referrals meaning many children face extended waits for initial assessment and treatment. Many go on to need grommet surgery, however some children experience spontaneous resolution of OME before getting to this point, with their eardrums returning to normal. This project will trial a low-cost, family-led intervention known as the Breath, Blow, Cough (BBC) program to test its effectiveness in helping to improve the spontaneous clearing up of OME – thus reducing the need for surgical intervention.
Dr Vanessa Fear and a team from The Kids Research Institute Australia, Genetic Services of WA and Curtin University have been awarded $267,501 to undertake functional genomics and neuronal disease modelling to facilitate rare disease diagnosis. Rare diseases affect around 63,000 WA children, with more than 80 per cent of cases having a genetic basis. However, diagnosis is elusive for most children, with families waiting an average of more than five years – and sometimes decades – for a prognosis due to the lengthy processes involved in identifying and then validating the tiny DNA changes that may be responsible for each rare disease. Some patients never receive a diagnosis. This project aims to reduce the time it takes to diagnose rare diseases from years to months. The team will apply a unique combination of state-of-the-art molecular biology techniques with high-throughput functional genomic assays – tools which will help them streamline the assessment of rare genetic disease variants.
Dr Pam Laird, who is part of the BREATH team at the Wal-yan Respiratory Research Centre – a powerhouse partnership between The Kids Research Institute Australia, Perth Children’s Hospital Foundation and Perth Children’s Hospital – and a team from The Kids, the Child and Adolescent Health Service, UWA, Curtin University and the Menzies School of Health Research have been awarded $264,068 to help improve follow-up for Aboriginal children hospitalised with chest infections. Aboriginal children hospitalised with acute chest infections are particularly vulnerable to developing the chronic lung disease bronchiectasis – a condition which can be prevented with effective, prompt and culturally secure treatment. After studying the barriers and facilitators for follow-up of these children, the team will implement a strategy they have developed to improve follow-up rates and improve the cough-related quality of life of Aboriginal children hospitalised with chest infections within the three months after discharge. They will then evaluate the effectiveness of the strategy, including undertaking an economic analysis. Results will inform nationwide implementation of the follow-up strategy in the future.
Associate Professor Brennan-Jones’ grant will be administered through Curtin University, while the other three grants will be administered through the Centre for Child Health Research, The University of Western Australia.