Some good news at the centre! Bruno was successful in winning a research grant and fellowship by FAPESP (São Paulo Research Foundation) for developing telehealth research in Brazil (~$350k). The project will include three Cochrane reviews on telehealth on chronic conditions plus the development of a telehealth program for chronic pain and testing through a randomised controlled trial. This will complement the research in telehealth being conducted at the centre and expand our links to Brazil.

The project will also include two new collaborators: A/Prof Blake Dear, who is a NHMRC Research Fellow, Clinical Psychologist, Co-Director of the eCentreClinic (ecentreclinic.org) and a Core Project Team member of the MindSpot Clinic (mindspot.org.au), based at Macquarie University, Australia. And A/Prof Leonardo Costa, who is a clinical researcher, physiotherapist, and coordinator of the Master and Doctoral program at Universidade Cidade de São Paulo, Brazil.

SPRiNG 2017

The team here at the Centre is buzzing after hearing from some inspiring individuals earlier this week at SPRiNG 2017 (Sydney Pain Researchers: the Next Generation). SPRiNG is a one-day symposium that aims to bring together researchers and students working on similar topics in the area of musculoskeletal health. Amanda, a PhD candidate from the Centre, recaps her day:

It was 4.20am, I could lie and say I jumped out of bed eager to get to SPRiNG but even the most studious PhD candidate would choose glorious sleep over such an early start. After a train ride from Newcastle to Sydney I started to wake up and was glad I made the effort. I was looking forward to hearing from the line-up of esteemed researchers and sharing ideas and struggles with the other PhD students and early career researchers.

We heard from Professor Vicki Flood who discussed the challenges of increasing research capacity in clinical practice and offered strategies to overcome these. After a much needed coffee, we returned to hear from Professor Rob Herbert who taught us how observational data should be treated differently depending on if we are looking for causal effects versus examining predictors of a condition. Professor Ian Harris followed and described his research which looks to find out the truth about whether common orthopaedic surgeries actually work (why hasn’t this been done before?!). Lastly, Professor Luke Wolfenden taught us all about implementation science, an area of opportunity for musculoskeletal researchers. All in all, I got the vibe that the attendees enjoyed all of the presentations – question time was lively!

Then it was lunchtime – my favourite part of any day.

After lunch, we heard from Elliott Richardson who taught us some tips for getting our research out in the media and then it was time for the much anticipated informal poster session. Basically, the posters are displayed simply to break the ice – to start a conversation. It worked a treat, the room was alive with chatter in a few short minutes. I found myself chatting to a few people about systematic reviews (a particular interest of mine).

After a wrap-up from our very own Chris Williams (including a few Dad jokes) the end of the day had arrived, but not before a quick brainstorm about where post-SPRiNG ‘networking’ (food and beer) would occur.

Interested in attending the next SPRiNG? Follow @theICECReamBlog (International Collaboration of Early Career Researchers) on Twitter to keep in the know!

Grant Success!

Some good news for our Kids’ research program. Steve, Tie, Chris, and Hopin were successful in winning a grant for $15K from the Sydney Musculoskeletal, Bone and Joint Alliance. The project will use data from the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children to look at the relationship between chronic pain and exercise and sports participation in children as they progress from childhood at ~10years into adolescence at ~14.

We are also excited to start working with some new collaborators on this project. Namely; Professor Kate Steinbeck, who is a paediatric endocrinologist and Professor of Adolescent Medicine, based at the Children’s Hospital Westmead, and Professor Natasha Nassar is a paediatric epidemiologist and Chair of Translational Childhood Medicine at the Charles Perkins Centre, University of Sydney. We are confident these new links with world-leaders in clinical adolescent medicine and the effects of perinatal exposures on long-term health will nicely complement our expertise in clinical research and population health, and open up new questions and opportunities.

Success!

Last week Chris was awarded the Gladys M Brawn Fellowship from the Faculty of Medicine in the University of Newcastle. The fellowship recognises outstanding research leaders, and provides support for their work and career. Typically, the University only award one of these per year, so it is an important achievement. Chris’ success was on the back of his research track record, along with the vision captured in the program of work we are doing at the Centre for Pain, Health and Lifestyle.

This is great news for Chris, and for the Centre, and more validation of the strength of our people and program.

Champagne corks popping at the Centre. Tie has just had her PhD awarded by the University of Sydney.

Tie came to Australia from Sao Paulo in Brazil 4 years ago to do a PhD with Prof Chris Maher at the University of Sydney. She’s done a spectacular job in that time, her thesis includes 7 published papers, mostly focused on reporting and understanding methods in clinical research. A highlight being an editorial published concurrently in 16 physiotherapy journals in which all agreed to adopt the same set of guidelines for reporting of complex interventions.

For the past few months Tie has been with us at the Centre working on some of our kids’ pain projects. We’re looking forward to what comes next!