Grant success for ANZCA fellow

15 February 2023

Congratulations to ANZCA fellow Associate Professor Andrew Toner on being awarded a National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Investigator Grant.

Associate Professor Toner was awarded an emerging leadership level one grant totalling $A452,575 for his research program focused on improving outcomes after high-risk surgery. The investigator grant scheme is notoriously competitive, with a success rate of only 18 per cent at this level in 2022.

The project consists of three programs of work which will implement novel interventions and embrace precision medicine to tackle two major problems: post-surgical complications and deaths, and the development of long-term disability through chronic post-surgical pain.

The first program aims to evaluate whether a cost-effective approach to remote, continuous postoperative ward monitoring and early intervention is associated with reduced 30-day mortality in high-risk patients. Program two includes the LOLIPOP Trial and focuses on whether perioperative lidocaine infusions reduce chronic post-surgical pain after breast cancer surgery. The third program aims to develop a surgical inflammation risk prediction tool that can identify patients most likely to benefit from anti-inflammatory interventions.

“Over a five-year period, I aim to raise the profile of postoperative death and disability as a health burden comparable to cardiovascular disease and cancer…” Associate Professor Toner explains. “My vision is to improve outcomes after high-risk surgery using the world-class infrastructure of the ANZCA Clinical Trials Network and Royal Perth Hospital.”