Parallel randomised trial testing community fibrosis assessment for suspected non-alcoholic fatty liver disease: outcomes from LOCATE-NAFLD.

Objective: Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is estimated to affect a third of Australian adults, and its prevalence is predicted to rise, increasing the burden on the healthcare system. The LOCal Assessment and Triage Evaluation of Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease (LOCATE-NAFLD) trialled a community-based fibrosis assessment service using FibroScan to reduce the time to diagnosis of high-risk NAFLD and improve patient outcomes.

Methods: We conducted a 1:1 parallel randomised trial to compare two alternative models of care for NAFLD diagnosis and assessment.

Time Isn't your FoCUS, do cardiac POCUS!

Background: Physicians often cite time as a limitation to performing a focused cardiac ultrasound (FoCUS) exam. The primary outcome of this study was to determine the amount of time to complete a quality FoCUS exam. Secondary outcomes evaluated time differences between different training levels.

The costs of competition in distributing scarce research funds.

Research funding systems fundamentally influence how science operates. This paper aims to analyze the allocation of competitive research funding from different perspectives: How reliable are decision processes for funding? What are the economic costs of competitive funding? How does competition for funds affect doing risky research? How do competitive funding environments affect scientists themselves, and which ethical issues must be considered? We attempt to identify gaps in our knowledge of research funding systems; we propose recommendations for policymakers and funding agencies, including empirical experiments of decision processes and the collection of data on these processes. With our recommendations, we hope to contribute to developing improved ways of organizing research funding.