ANZCA Foundation update: April 2022
14 April 2022
New this month: PPR guide launched; perpetual award honouring Dr Patricia Mackay established; smoking cessation study published; 2022 AMERS and AMEARA awarded.
Professional practice research online guide launched
The college has launched a new online library guide to assist fellows and trainees conducting or planning professional practice research (PPR).
The PPR guide has been developed to encourage qualitative and mixed methods research into questions relating to the professional practice domains of communicator, collaborator, leader and manager, scholar, health advocate and professional in anaesthesia, perioperative and pain medicine.
The PPR guide is now available online in the ANZCA Library, within the Research Support Hub section, and offers a range of support resources relevant to the PPR practitioner such as handbooks, publications, key professional documents, articles, and network resources.
The resources are intended to support research in many important areas of professional practice including leadership and teamwork, systems design, human factors, wellbeing, equity, cognitive processes and decision-making, and the development of expertise.
ANZCA’s Professional Practice Research Network Executive, library, and foundation have collaborated to produce the PPR Guide, and will continue to add appropriate resources to the guide as they become available.
Major gift to establish new Dr Patricia Mackay award
A conversation starting in 2019 has culminated in the first of two major gifts to the foundation for an exciting new annual ANZCA research award in memory of the late Dr Patricia Mackay OAM.
Dr Mackay’s daughter, Ms Indi Mackay, has generously donated $100,000 for the award, and pledged a further $100,000 gift in July. The funds will be added to the foundation’s investment corpus to provide ongoing income to support the new Patricia Mackay Memorial ANZCA Research Award. The Research Committee will confer the award annually on the grant application it believes to be most relevant to advancing patient safety and quality of care.
Dr Mackay, an ANZCA medallist and past ASA president, was a prominent and highly respected Victorian anaesthetist and innovator based at Royal Melbourne Hospital for much of her career. She established the hospital’s first acute pain service, redesigned the anaesthetic record still in use today, pioneered the tracking of adverse perioperative events, and chaired the Victorian Consultative Council on Anaesthetic Morbidity and Mortality from 1991-2005.
The foundation is enormously grateful for Ms Mackay’s generosity and is thrilled to be a part of establishing this perpetual award honouring a pioneering and visionary leader in anaesthesiology and patient safety.
Research grant applications for 2023
The ANZCA 2023 research grants round closed on Friday, 1 April 2022 with an encouraging number of applications received. Once again, grants were sought for a wide range of proposed studies in anaesthesia, pain and perioperative medicine.
There were 36 applications in the Project Grants category (including a simulation/education study submitted in the category due to a to scholarship request), four for the highly-sought Academic Enhancement Grant, two for the prestigious quadrennial Lennard Travers Professorship, and four in the Novice Grant category.
One application was received for our brand new Environment and Sustainability Grant. Six came in for the new Patrons Emerging Investigator Grant, and one for the exciting Skantha Vallipuram Scholarship which was established last year.
Reviewers are being sought and will be allocated by the Research Committee in early May. If you are an experienced researcher and would like to assist by conducting a review please contact the ANZCA Foundation.
Foundation-supported smoking cessation study published
The results of a clinical trial on mailed nicotine for smoking cessation before elective surgery, led by Dr Ashley Webb of Peninsula Health and based on an earlier ANZCA Foundation-funded pilot study in 2017, were released online in March.
Webb AR, Coward L, Meanger D, Leong S, White SL, Borland R. Offering mailed nicotine replacement therapy and Quitline support before elective surgery: a randomised controlled trial [epub ahead of print, 2022 Mar 10]. Med J Aust. 2022;10.5694/mja2.51453.
The study will be published in the Medical Journal of Australia on 18 April, with an editorial supporting this type of intervention to reduce smoking before surgery.
The study showed proactively offering nicotine replacement therapy and the ‘Quitline’ online service doubled the rate of quitting smoking before surgery, with substantial potential to improve patient outcomes.
The initial ANZCA Foundation-funded pilot study was published in Anaesthesia (college ID and password required to access).
Dr Webb said that surgery is a ‘teachable moment’ to substantially improve people’s health behaviours.
Dr Webb also said “The latest trial was supported by the Heart Foundation, but there is no doubt that without the earlier ANZCA project grant, none of this would have been possible.”
2022 AMERS and AMEARA Awarded
The ANZCA Melbourne Emerging Researcher Scholarship for 2022 has been awarded to Dr Earlene Silvapulle from Royal Melbourne Hospital, to support her PhD and related study entitled ‘IntEgratioN of the DUke Activity Status and FRAilty Indices in High-risk NonCardiac surgEry (the ENDURANCE study)’.
The ANZCA Melbourne Emerging Anaesthesia Researcher Award for 2022 has been awarded to
Dr Geoffrey Wigmore of Austin Health, Melbourne, for the study ‘Impact of fluid bolus therapy with 20 per cent albumin on kidney function after cardiac surgery’.
The foundation congratulates these two worthy recipients on receiving these awards, and extends its thanks to Dr Peter Lowe as the generous benefactor of these awards every year since 2015. To date, Dr Lowe has made it possible for the foundation to support eight emerging investigators through AMEARA, and five PhD students through AMERS scholarships.
Foundation Friends webinars
The foundation held its second ‘Foundation Friends’ webinar on Thursday 14 April, with 106 people registering to hear Professor Kirsty Forrest, Professor David Story, and Associate Professor Jai Darvall speaking on the theme ‘University Pathways for ANZCA Emerging Researchers’.
These webinars are designed to provide interesting content and updates for supporters and beneficiaries of the foundation, and to showcase the work supported. All are welcome, so please watch out for upcoming webinars!
University of Newcastle survey - boundary challenges and doctor stress
A University of Newcastle anonymous survey is exploring doctor stress from everyday boundary challenges with patients and colleagues. It will seek to understand the frequency of these challenges, the stress caused, and how well prepared doctors feel for them.
To participate or learn more, please visit the university boundaries and burnout research page or watch their video.
Contact and support
To donate, please search ‘GiftOptions – ANZCA’ in your browser.
For queries, contact:
- Rob Packer, General Manager, +61 3 (0)409 481 295.
- Leah Wolf, Fundraising Administration Officer
Research grants program: