Standing ‘stronger together’ for Allied Health Professions Day 2023
This week we celebrated Allied Health Professions Day by acknowledging the importance of these disciplines in translating today’s research into tomorrow’s treatments.
From clinicians to biologists, physiotherapists to engineers, mental health experts to data scientists, CCRG’s multidisciplinary team is what sets us apart. Only by working together can we take ideas and see them fully realised into new treatment methods that improve the lives of critically ill patients.
Allied Health Professions Day was first held in England in 2018 and is now an international event held annually on 14 October, celebrating the allied health professional community. This year’s theme of ‘stronger together’ perfectly encapsulates CCRG’s collaborative approach to innovation and highlights the benefits of multidisciplinary approach to healthcare and research. While it is well known that allied health professionals play a key role in the health and wellbeing of all Australians, health system reform is finally recognising the value, both economic and clinical, of multidisciplinary care.
It is vital that allied health professionals are recognised for their role in designing and implementing a comprehensive healthcare system, that truly wraps around the patient.
CCRG researchers and physiotherapists Oystein Tronstad and Luke Churchill
Two CCRG allied health researchers, Oystein Tronstad and Luke Churchill, were invited to present at the Australian Physiotherapy Association’s IGNITE Physiotherapy Conference, held in Brisbane last week.
Oystein Tronstad is a physiotherapy clinical lead at The Prince Charles Hospital (TPCH) with extensive critical care clinical and research experience. He is the project manager for the ICU of the Future, a project examining the effect the ICU environment has on patients and their recoveries. The world-first project saw two bedspaces incorporating new design features open at TPCH in December 2022, with the first patients admitted in January 2023.
“Ongoing evaluation of this space is now underway to determine the newly designed environment’s impacts on patient outcomes during and after ICU admission, including physical, cognitive, and mental health recovery, incidences of delirium, and quality of sleep,” explains Oystein.
Luke Churchill, who is currently undertaking his PhD with CCRG, presented at the IGNITE Physiotherapy Conference on the increasing use of ultrasonography in cardiorespiratory clinical practice.
“Our research is aimed at improving rapid diagnoses of lung conditions after surgery and helping patients to get the right treatment as quickly as possible. We feel this is extremely important in critical care, and in healthcare in general.” says Luke.
Postoperative pulmonary complications (PPCs) frequently occur after cardiac surgery and may lead to adverse patient outcomes. Traditional diagnostic tools such as auscultation or chest x-ray have inferior diagnostic accuracy compared to the gold standard (chest computed tomography). Together with Allison Mandrusiak, Jana Waldmann, and Peter Thomas, Oystein and Luke’s work investigating the use of lung ultrasound ins combating PPCs was recently published by Australian Critical Care Journal.