Mater Research Institute – UQ Winter Research projects - Faculty of Medicine - University of Queensland

MRIUQ#1: Narrative review on psychotherapeutic trial outcome measures in palliative care

Project title: MRIUQ#1	Narrative review on psychotherapeutic trial outcome measures in palliative care
Project duration, hours of engagement	4 weeks from 24^th June to 19^th July 2024 Hours expected per week: 32 hours per week on site
Description:	Program background – medicinal cannabis research program Description of project: There has been the introduction of prescribing of several psychotherapeutic medications – psychedelics and medicinal cannabis for therapeutic use without going through rigorous trials. Clinically relevant trials outcome measures are needed. Hypothesis: There are no clearly defined outcome measures for trials in psychotherapeutic medications Aim: Review clinical trial outcome measures in regards to the new availability of psychotherapeutic medications (with an emphasis on use in palliative care setting). Develop suggested clinical trial outcome measures for future clinical trials in palliative care and psychotherapeutic medications Approach: Narrative review of clinical trial outcome measures of psychotherapeutic medications Discuss some approaches/improvements going forward.
Expected outcomes and deliverables:	Learn about clinical trial outcome measures Develop skills of doing a review and publishing articles.
Suitable for:	Students with an interest in trial outcome measures –medical/biomedical/statistics/maths/science background.
Primary Supervisor:	Professor Phillip Good
Further info:	Please contact for further information Phillip.Good@mater.org.au

MRIUQ#2: Review of healthcare policy changes in regards to prescribing of psychotherapeutic medications in the palliative care setting in Australia

Project title: MRIUQ#2	Review of healthcare policy changes in regards to prescribing of psychotherapeutic medications in the palliative care setting in Australia
Project duration, hours of engagement & delivery mode	4 weeks from 24^th June to 19^th July 2024 Hours expected per week: 32 hours per week on site
Description:	Program background – medicinal cannabis research program Description of project: 1. There has been the introduction of prescribing of several psychotherapeutic medications – psychedelics and medicinal cannabis for therapeutic use without going through rigorous trials. Hypothesis: This has been a change in healthcare policy in Australia that has been consumer driven. Aim: Review healthcare policy changes in Australia (and compare to rest of world) in regards to the new availability of psychotherapeutic medications (with an emphasis on use in palliative care setting). Include the health economic impact on consumer use of these medications when they are not available on the PBS. Approach: 1. Narrative review of changes to healthcare policy of psychotherapeutic medications in Australia 2. Include health economic impact upon consumers 3. Discuss some approaches/improvements going forward
Expected outcomes and deliverables:	Learn about healthcare policy Develop skills of doing a review and publishing articles
Suitable for:	Students with an interest in health policy/health economics.
Primary Supervisor:	Professor Phillip Good
Further info:	Please contact for further information Phillip.Good@mater.org.au

MRIUQ#3: Global scorecard for stillbirth

Project title: MRIUQ#3	Global scorecard for stillbirth
Project duration, hours of engagement & delivery mode	4 weeks from 24^th June to 19^th July 2024 Hours expected per week: 20-36 hours Project can be completed under a remote working arrangement, ideally completed on-site.
Description:	In 2014, the Every Newborn Action Plan (ENAP) led by WHO-UNICEF set an ambitious target of 12 or fewer stillbirths per 1000 births in all countries by 2030, to close equity gaps and improve coverage of care along the continuum for all mothers and their babies2. This was followed by the Lancet’s 2016 “Ending Preventable Stillbirths” series, which sought to highlight missed opportunities and identify actions for accelerated progress to end preventable stillbirths, concluding with a Call to Action3. The Call to Action covers three distinct areas – (1) 2030 mortality targets, (2) universal health care coverage targets, and (3) global and national milestones for improving care and outcomes for all mothers and their babies and specifically for women and families affected by stillbirth. Without a systematic tracking system for the Lancet’s Call to Action for Ending Preventable Stillbirths, the global context of stillbirth risks remaining obscured and programs under resourced. The main objective of this project is for the student to prepare summaries, figures, and tables with the support of senior researchers. The project outputs will directly contribute to a peer-reviewed ‘scorecard for stillbirth’ manuscript. This project seeks to reduce the global burden of stillbirth and track regular progress at a global level towards the Call to Action. Particularly, it seeks to highlight areas where insufficient progress is being made and where further investments and actions are needed.
Expected outcomes and deliverables:	Students will gain skills in the following areas and will have an opportunity to generate a publication: Summary analysis: Analysing public stillbirth reports and preparing estimates for use in a publication. Interpretation of findings: Drawing conclusions from the data analysis, the study will offer insights into the measuring progress on improving stillbirths globally and implications for healthcare policy and practice.
Suitable for:	This project is open to applications from students with experience or interest in clinical and epidemiology research in 3^rd or 4^th year.
Primary Supervisor:	Dr Jessica Sexton
Further info:	Contact Dr Jessica Sexton: jessica.sexton@mater.uq.edu.au

MRIUQ#4: Public Awareness Campaign for Stillbirth Prevention (Phase 2)

Project title: MRIUQ#4	Public Awareness Campaign for Stillbirth Prevention (Phase 2)
Project duration, hours of engagement & delivery mode	4 weeks from 24^th June to 19^th July 2024 Hours expected per week: 20-36hrs Project can be completed under a remote working arrangement, however, ideally completed on-site.
Description:	This project is related to Phase 2 of a Public Awareness Campaign for Stillbirth Prevention. The Phase 2 campaign was built on the Still Six Lives National Mass Media Campaign which was launched in February 2021. The campaign had a reach of 229 million via news coverage, 255,600 website views, and 2.9 million completed online video views. This project is related to Phase 2, which was to develop and deliver a second campaign strategy which included revision of messaging used in the initial campaign based on the evaluation. https://stillbirthcre.org.au/news/together-we-can-stop-stillbirth-evaluation-of-the-public-awareness-campaign-around-stillbirth/ The Phase 2 campaign is funded through the 2022 Stillbirth Education and Awareness Grant “Reducing Stillbirth: Stillbirth Education and Awareness - GO5351”. The Phase 2 campaign ran from mid-2023 to end 2023. Phase 2 focus Preliminary evidence suggests that while women who have recently given birth in the acute care settings are aware of some of the key safer pregnancy messaging, there remain gaps in awareness, especially with regard to actions they can take if they are concerned about any aspect of their pregnancy. This phase 2 of the campaign will focus on empowering and reassuring expectant mothers and their partners with actionable strategies they can implement to reduce their risk of stillbirth, and empowering clinicians to have conversations around risk-reduction strategies with expectant parents. The aim of this SEED project is to summarise the campaign evaluation with support from project collaborators, including RedNose. The summary information will provide evidence as to change in awareness and attitudes towards stillbirth and knowledge of behaviours that can reduce the risk of stillbirth among Australian women aged 18-41 and women who are pregnant.
Expected outcomes and deliverables:	Students will gain skills in the following areas and will have an opportunity to contribute to a Department of Health (DoH) Report. • Synthesising evidence from the Phase 1 campaign to provide context to the survey findings. • Interpretation of findings: Drawing conclusions from the data analysis, the study will offer insights into change in awareness and attitudes towards stillbirth and knowledge of behaviours that can reduce the risk of stillbirth which has implications for healthcare policy and practice. • Report: Developing an official report to funders (DoH) including supporting materials and recommendations.
Suitable for:	This project is open to applications from students with experience or interest in public and/or health services research in 3^rd year or above.
Primary Supervisor:	Dr Christine Andrews
Further info:	Contact Dr Christine Andrews: christine.andrews@mater.uq.edu.au

MRIUQ#5:

Project title: MRIUQ#5	Cultural adaptation of the Safer Baby Bundle (baseline evaluation)
Project duration, hours of engagement & delivery mode	4 weeks from 24^th June to 19^th July 2024 Hours expected per week: 20-36hrs Project can be completed under a remote working arrangement, however, ideally completed on-site.
Description:	This project involves the baseline evaluation component of the cultural adaptation of the Safer Baby Bundle (CASBB), funded by the Commonwealth Department of Health and Aged Care (DoHAC). Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and some migrant & refugee communities have been identified as the target cohorts for stillbirth prevention in the Australian Government’s National Stillbirth Action and Implementation Plan (the NSAIP) due to disproportionately higher rates of stillbirth in these communities. As part of the CASBB project, a suite of co-designed, in-language resources, called 'Stronger Bubba Born' and 'Growing a Healthy Baby', have been developed from the evidence-based Safer Baby Bundle to improve maternity care the target cohorts. The aim of these resources is to improve knowledge and awareness about stillbirth in these communities and ultimately contribute to reducing stillbirth rates in Australia. This project is related to Phase 2 of CASBB- which is to evaluate the effectiveness of these co-designed resources in meeting their target of contributing to positive change in the knowledge and awareness on stillbirth among the target communities. Phase 2 focus The phase 1 community consultations found that women from the target cohorts wanted tailored messages on stillbirth and its prevention using resources that are sensitive to their cultural needs, including communication from maternity health care professionals when attending antenatal appointments. The phase 2 of the project will focus on assessing the effectiveness of the newly developed resources in addressing those messaging and communication needs. The aim of this winter seed project is to work on the baseline component of the CASBB evaluation. This component involves surveys of target population groups prior to the active dissemination of the co-designed resources. Surveys will be completed by the target cohorts between April and May 2024. This component of the evaluation will provide understanding of the baseline awareness and knowledge on stillbirth and on behaviours that can reduce the risk of stillbirth among Australian women from the target cohorts.
Expected outcomes and deliverables:	Students will gain practical skills on literature synthesis and describing survey results and will get an opportunity to contribute to a manuscript summarising the baseline evaluation of the project. • Synthesising evidence from the literature to provide context to the survey findings. This will partially contribute to the background and discussion sections of the manuscript. • Interpretation of findings: Writing narrative description from the anonymised data analysis results (in a tabular format) provided by the student’s supervisor. The student will not be given access to any identifiable data. This narrative description will contribute to the results section of the manuscript.
Suitable for:	This project is open to applications from students with experience or interest in public and/or health services research in 3rd year or above.
Primary Supervisor:	Dr Rupesh Gautam
Further info:	Contact Dr Rupesh Gautam: rupesh.gautam@mater.uq.eu.au