Assessing research capacity in Victoria's south-west health service providers.

Objective: To investigate the research interest, capacity and culture in individuals, teams and health organisations across south-western Victoria.

Design: Cross-sectional survey.

Setting: Eight public health services in the south-western region of Victoria.

Risk factors for fouling biomass: evidence from small vessels in Australia.

Invasive non-indigenous species (NIS) are a threat to marine biodiversity and marine reliant industries. Recreational vessels are recognised as an important vector of NIS translocation, particularly domestically. This paper reports on a novel application of multilevel modelling and multiple imputation in order to quantify the relationship between biofouling biomass (wet weight) and the vessel-level characteristics of recreational and fishing vessels.

Why do 'fast track' patients stay more than four hours in the emergency department? An investigation of factors that predict length of stay.

Objective: Low-acuity 'fast track' patients represent a large portion of Australian EDs' workload and must be managed efficiently to meet the National Emergency Access Target. The current study determined the relative importance and estimated marginal effects of patient and system-related variables in predicting ED fast track patients who stayed longer than 4 h in the ED.

Methods: Data for ED presentations between 1 July 2014 and 30 June 2015 were collected from a large regional Australian public hospital.

When Does Poor Governance Presage Biosecurity Risk?

Border inspection, and the challenge of deciding which of the tens of millions of consignments that arrive should be inspected, is a perennial problem for regulatory authorities. The objective of these inspections is to minimize the risk of contraband entering the country. As an example, for regulatory authorities in charge of biosecurity material, consignments of goods are classified before arrival according to their economic tariff number.

Protocol for a single-centre, parallel-arm, randomised controlled superiority trial evaluating the effects of transcatheter arterial embolisation of abnormal knee neovasculature on pain, function and quality of life in people with knee osteoarthritis.

Introduction: Symptomatic knee osteoarthritis (OA) is common. Advanced knee OA is successfully treated with joint replacement surgery, but effectively managing mild to moderate knee OA can be difficult. Angiogenesis increases with OA and might contribute to pain and structural damage.

Prevalence, goals of care and long-term outcomes of patients with life-limiting illness referred to a tertiary ICU.

Objective: To describe the prevalence, characteristics, long-term outcomes and goals-of-care discussions of patients with objective indicators of life-limiting illnesses (LLIs) referred to the intensive care unit.

Design, Setting And Patients: A prospective, observational, cohort study of all adult inpatients referred to the ICU by the medical emergency team or by direct referral, during the period 30 August 2012 to 1 February 2013, at a tertiary teaching hospital in Australia.

Main Outcome Measures: Mortality, LLIs, discharge destination and documentation on goals of care in medical record.

The Post-Anaesthesia N-acetylcysteine Cognitive Evaluation (PANACEA) trial: study protocol for a randomised controlled trial.

Background: Some degree of cognitive decline after surgery occurs in as many as one quarter of elderly surgical patients, and this decline is associated with increased morbidity and mortality. Cognition may be affected across a range of domains, including memory, psychomotor skills, and executive function. Whilst the exact mechanisms of cognitive change after surgery are not precisely known, oxidative stress and subsequent neuroinflammation have been implicated.

Few geographic and socioeconomic variations exist in primary total shoulder arthroplasty: a multi-level study of Australian registry data.

Background: Associations between socioeconomic position (SEP) and the uptake of primary total shoulder arthroplasty (TSA) is not well understood in the Australian population, thus potentially limiting equitable allocation of healthcare resources. We used the Australian Orthopaedic Association National Joint Replacement Registry (AOA NJRR) to examine whether geographic or socioeconomic variations exist in TSA performed for a diagnosis of osteoarthritis 2007-11 for all Australians aged ≥40 years.

Methods: Primary anatomical and reverse TSA data were extracted from the AOA NJRR which captures >99 % of all TSA nationally.

Ten-year outcomes using low dose rate brachytherapy for localised prostate cancer: An update to the first Australian experience.

Introduction: To report long-term prostate-specific antigen (PSA) and toxicity outcomes for patients with localised prostate cancer treated with Iodine-125 permanent implantation at a single Australian centre.

Methods: Between September 1994 and November 2007, 207 patients at Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital with localised prostate cancer were consecutively treated with Iodine-125 permanent interstitial implantation. Post-therapy assessment was performed three times a month and included clinical review and biochemical (PSA) evaluation.

Changes in Bone Mineral Density in the Year after Critical Illness.

Rationale: Critical illness may be associated with increased bone turnover and loss of bone mineral density (BMD). Prospective evidence describing long-term changes in BMD after critical illness is needed to further define this relationship.

Objectives: To measure the change in BMD and bone turnover markers (BTMs) in subjects 1 year after critical illness compared with population-based control subjects.

The Epidemiology of Incident Fracture from Cradle to Senescence.

To reduce the burden of fracture, not only does bone fragility need to be addressed, but also injury prevention. Thus, fracture epidemiology irrespective of degree of trauma is informative. We aimed to determine age-and-sex-specific fracture incidence rates for the Barwon Statistical Division, Australia, 2006-2007.

FRAX (Aus) and falls risk: Association in men and women.

Purpose: The WHO fracture risk prediction tool (FRAX®) utilises clinical risk factors to estimate the probability of fracture over a 10-year period. Although falls increase fracture risk, they have not been incorporated into FRAX. It is currently unclear if FRAX captures falls risk and whether addition of falls would improve fracture prediction.

Hepatitis C virus treatment in the 'real-world': how well do 'real' patients respond?

Background: Published clinical trials of the treatment of HCV are largely multicentre prospective pharmaceutical trials. Patients in clinical trials tend to have more favorable outcomes than patients in the 'real-world', due to strict patient selection and differences in treatment conditions and available resources.

Objectives: To assess the outcomes of Hepatitis C infected patients treated at the Barwon Health Liver Clinic with combination Pegylated interferon (PEG-IFN) and Ribavirin (RBV) therapy and to determine factors associated with a treatment response.

Associations between socioeconomic status and primary total knee joint replacements performed for osteoarthritis across Australia 2003-10: data from the Australian Orthopaedic Association National Joint Replacement Registry.

Background: Relatively little is known about the social distribution of total knee joint replacement (TKR) uptake in Australia. We examine associations between socioeconomic status (SES) and TKR performed for diagnosed osteoarthritis 2003-10 for all Australian males and females aged ≥ 30 yr.

Methods: Data of primary TKR (n=213,018, 57.

Impact of high-sensitivity cardiac troponin I assays on patients presenting to an emergency department with suspected acute coronary syndrome.

Objective: To determine whether introduction of high-sensitivity cardiac troponin I (hscTn-I) assays affected management of patients presenting with suspected acute coronary syndrome (ACS) to the emergency department (ED) of a tertiary referral hospital.

Design, Patients And Setting: A retrospective analysis of all patients presenting to the Geelong Hospital ED with suspected ACS from 23 April 2010 to 22 April 2013 -2 years before and 1 year after the changeover to hscTn-I assays on 23 April 2012.

Main Outcome Measures: Hospital admission rates, time spent in the ED, rates of coronary angiography, rates of percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) and coronary artery bypass graft surgery (CABGS), rates of discharge with a diagnosis of ACS, and rates of inhospital mortality.