ANZCA Foundation update - April 2024
12 April 2024
In this update: 2025 grant applications resurgence, ASM foundation cocktail reception, a case for foundation and research support, Timor Leste teaching visit.
Resurgence in research grant applications for 2025
There has been an encouraging turnaround in the number of applications for ANZCA Foundation research grants as of 2 April this year, the deadline for applications for grants in 2025. A total of 60 ‘RegKeys’ were requested from interested applicants, with 51 applications actually received.
This compares with the 43 applications received to 1 April 2023 for grants for 2024; a decline from the previous annual average of 50 to 55 applications. Although demand for ANZCA Foundation grants has always been high, the temporary reduction is believed to have been associated with the COVID-19-related time and resource challenges faced by clinician researchers.
Record registrations for ASM Foundation Cocktail Reception
The ANZCA Annual Scientific Meeting is fast approaching, and a record number of delegates have registered to attend the foundation’s evening cocktail function on Sunday 5 May. Thank you to all who have registered.
We are really looking forward to hearing President-elect Professor David Story talk to us on the close connection between leadership in perioperative medicine, and leadership in research.
The event will feature the annual ANZCA Foundation Named Research Awards Presentation, conducted by chair of the ANZCA Research Committee Professor Britta Regli-Von Ungern-Sternberg, and be a great opportunity for social networking among delegates interested in the work supported by the foundation.
A timely case for supporting the ANZCA Foundation: sustaining leadership in biomedical research and health equity
The ASM is the college’s premier scientific and educational event. Many of its sessions are founded on bio-medical research in perioperative medicine and pain medicine, including significant contributions from ANZCA and FPM fellow-led studies.
The case for supporting the research efforts of our fellows and trainees through the Foundation is therefore timely.
If anaesthetists and pain medicine physicians were to stop conducting high-quality medical research to expand scientific knowledge in our specialties, it is likely their representation our universities and research institutes would be even further diminished.
Australian and New Zealand anaesthetists’ and pain medicine physicians’ long history of driving continuous improvement through many forms of research would also lose momentum. Supporting the Foundation is one way to help ensure that doesn’t happen.
The ANZCA Foundation, Research Committee, and our donors continue to work to increase research support for education and clinical practice, and improve access to funding. We now have eight named grants and awards - the most recently added being the ‘Patrons’ Emerging Investigator Grant’, the ‘Innovation and Technology Award, and the ‘Skantha Vallipuram Research Scholarship.’
ANZCA Foundation-supported studies are improving the science and evidence base, and leading to more government-funding for pragmatic randomised clinical trials through the ANZCA Clinical Trials Network (CTN) that deliver evidence for implementation into clinical practice. Outcomes are regularly disseminated via ANZCA and other scientific meetings, and regular publication in the top medical journals.
The foundation also funds the ANZCA Health Equity Grants Program, supporting research and education projects that assist doctors and specialists in resource-challenged countries in the South Pacific and beyond, and in Indigenous healthcare.
The projects are almost exclusively led by fellows volunteering their time. Grants only fund direct project expenses and may not be used to replace any investigator remuneration. Scholarships are the only exception, although most of these are also used for project expenses.
Support from foundation donors means we can continue to support high-quality projects by as many Fellows as possible, grow our world-leading CTN, and help make perioperative care as evidence based and effective as possible for patients in the face of ever-increasing demand.
Thank you for all your amazing support of the Foundation, and we hope you will continue and encourage others to contribute, to advance research, education, and global and Indigenous health.
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Timor Leste anaesthesia teaching visit
From 19-24 February this year, Dr Meg Walmsley and Dr Phil Blum from Royal Darwin Hospital and Dr Alice Goldsmith from Westmead Children’s Hospital, Gosford, were funded by a foundation-funded ANZCA Health Equity Project Fund grant to deliver an obstetric anaesthesia refresher for anaesthesia registrars, nurse anaesthetists, and anaesthesia consultants in Dili, Timor Leste.
The visit followed a request from senior anaesthetists Dr Ming Herculano and Dr Colom da Silva at the National Hospital Guido Valadares (HNGV) in Dili.
Two days were spent teaching the registrars and nurse anaesthetists, and another two on upskilling with the consultant anaesthetists.
It had been many years since many of the participants had received formal teaching or upskilling. The nurse anaesthetists were the only anaesthesia providers for many of the peripheral hospitals in Timor Leste.
The registrar and nurse anaesthetist days saw 25 attendees, with topics including high spinal, pre-eclampsia, APH/ PPH, blood/massive transfusion, sepsis, rheumatic heart disease, RHD in pregnancy and maternal ALS, and some simulation sessions.
Four consultant anaesthetists and three registrars attended the sessions on the other two days, with topics including running a quality and safety meeting, M&M, conducting audits, RHD, PET, pregnancy physiology, trauma in pregnancy and massive transfusion/ blood, as well as discussion of barriers to anaesthetic care in Timor.
Written feedback on completion of the program was very positive, and the team hopes to use the remaining grant funding to deliver a similar course focussed on paediatric anaesthesia in 2025.
Contact & support
To donate, please use the 2024 subscriptions form, search ‘GiftOptions – ANZCA’ in your browser.
For queries, contact:
Research grants program:
ANZCA Clinical Trials Network: