The state's first lung cancer registry, maternal obesity and a multicentre neurological trial will be among key research projects conducted in Northern Tasmania next year.
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The Clifford Craig Foundation revealed the recipients of its 2020 medical research grants on Thursday, with five new projects to receive funding equaling more than $314,000.
They include a multidisciplinary approach to antenatal care, led by Sharon Lucciano; the establishment of Tasmania's first lunch cancer registry, led by Dr Sukhwinder Sohal; the implications for the treatment of insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes, led by Dr Stephen Myers; a potential probiotic to reduce ear and lung infections caused by Haemophilus influenza, led by Dr Stephen Tristram; and a randomised control trial testing the effectiveness of a commonly used diabetes drug to improve stroke outcomes, led by Dr Matt Lee Archer.
Further funding has also been provided to existing projects led by infectious disease specialist Professor Katie Flanagan, including $200,000 for an influenza vaccine trial extending the project to 2021, and $48,500 to the Understanding of Immunity if Influenza in Children study to the end of 2020.
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With total funding equaling more than $560,000, Clifford Craig Foundation chief executive Peter Milne said the research would ultimately lead to better access to professional health care in Northern Tasmania.
"For regional communities like North and North-West Tasmania, it [research] is vitally important," he said.
"It is hard to attract professionals and hence the public have to go to either Hobart or Melbourne to get specialist care.
"If we can attract specialists here, through funding their research interests ... then the people of North and North-West Tasmania don't have to travel.
"They can get that care they need from those specialists. And about 49 per cent of Tasmanians rely on this hospital as their acute referral hospital."
Among the recipients, Mrs Lucciano aims to improve the health of pregnant women and their offspring through the implementation of the HOFF - Health Outcomes for the Future - program.
A North West study, one of the project's primary objectives is to implement an evidence based model of care as part of routine care provided at antenatal clinics in rural Tasmania.
With a recent audit estimating 54.6 per cent of pregnant women presenting at North-West antenatal clinics were overweight or obese, Mrs Lucciano said she hoped the study would form a formal sustainable blueprint for lifestyle interventions within antenatal clinics.
"We want to build capacity. We don't want to step in at the end of the program and have services that can't stay, because there is no funding for it," she said.
"We hope we will be able to reduce gestational weight gain, that we will be able to promote lifestyle changes within these families and prevent the poor perinatal outcomes and complications of pregnancy into the future."
The Clifford Craig Foundation has been operating for 27 years. In that time the community-driven organisation has funded more than 150 research projects.
Jessica Willard
Being a health reporter to me is about more than just reporting the problems. It's about asking why they are happening in the first place and what needs to change to fix it.
Being a health reporter to me is about more than just reporting the problems. It's about asking why they are happening in the first place and what needs to change to fix it.
