Griffith Health Quarterly
HealthCheck
Issue 38, 2013
Promoting Health, Enabling Communities
The
Griffith
Health
Centre Issue
Inside this issue
> New direction for molecular
research group 3
>Griffith voices rising higher
3
>A Healthy Start to a new life
4
>Early Childhood students
doubling degrees
4
>Medical students on the front line
5
>Physio clinic reaches out
5
> GHI researchers honoured by
Medical Research Awards
6
>Exercise science hits the
Wall Street Journal
6
>Gold Coast University Hospital’
7
>Welcome to your new Griffith
Health Centre
8
>Overview of the G40 Griffith
Health Centre
10
>Gold Coast Health and Medical
Research Precinct 14
>Griffith puts their best
into foundations
15
>KEEPfit program to break in Sports
Psychology Lab 15
>Anatomy moves to top floor
16
>Driving simulator puts assumptions
to the test
16
>Griffith contribution to Cambridge
collaboration
17
>Speech Pathology adds to
clinical services
17
>Pathology partnership producing
the goods
18
>Rickards into nursing Hall of Fame
18
>Foundations study’s turning on
the lights of a research career
19
>Plastination lab adds to anatomy
19
Pro Vice Chancellor (Health),
Professor Allan Cripps
Some of our staff have worked at teaching
hospitals previously and understand the
possibilities for research and professional
development for the students that
co-location brings. The new Gold Coast
Health and Medical Research Precinct will
expand this relationship across, not only
the Health Group, but also the remainder
of the University.
The timing of the completion of the new
Griffith Health Centre building (G40)
heralds the role out of the New Griffith.
The Griffith Health Centre building on
the Gold Coast is the biggest capital
investment the University has ever made
and the Health Group is keen to settle in
to the new facility and commence work
on the investment return.
The building will be officially opened
by Governor-General, Quentin Bryce on
July 19.
The vision for Griffith Health Centre
was to construct a building which would
facilitate collaboration, pool knowledge,
promote interprofessional learning and
encourage interaction with the new Gold
Coast University Hospital. The closer
integration of researchers from Medicine
and Dentistry with other disciplines on
the University’s Gold Coast campus will
also boost the research dynamism of the
Group.
Editorial: Hamish Townsend
Email: [email protected]
Telephone: + 61 (7) 5552 7017
2
Health Check
Issue 38, 2013
The Health Group, since its inception in
2005, has been scattered across the Gold
Coast campus and Southport, limiting our
access to facilities constructed to support
the then new Schools of Medicine and
Dentistry and Oral Health. Many of the
Group’s Schools have been producing
exemplary graduates without convenient
access to an anatomy laboratory. Students
have had to bus it down town for their
classes. Now no more! I look forward to
having this vital facility a central part of
our Group.
I have spoken to many students from
Medicine and Dentistry and Oral Health
who are also excited about the move.
Students are looking for a campus
experience, the chance to meet other
students outside their own discipline,
perhaps in the outstanding new library
facilities that have also been recently
completed!
I would like to take this opportunity to
thank all of those who have contributed
to the planning and function of the new
Health Centre. This has been a massive
task. This issue reflects on some of the
centres features of G40 and how they will
be used to improve the student experience,
contribute to health care priorities and to
build collaborative research collaborations
with clinicians at the new University
Hospital and academics on campus.
New direction for molecular research group
Some people don’t mind filling big shoes and
the new director of the Molecular Basis of
Disease (MBoD) research group is getting
used to a pair that would have swamped
Ian Thorpe.
Associate Professor Nigel McMillan has
taken over from Professor Lyn Griffiths,
in the role which leads Genomics, Cancer
and infectious disease research groups in
discovering some of the most important
cures in medical science.
Associate Professor McMillan arrived at
the Griffith Health Institute in 2012 from
the Diamantina Institute at University
of Queensland where he worked with
Professor Ian Fraser on the vaccine for the
Human Papiloma virus which can cause
cervical cancer.
New Director of the Molecular Basis of Disease, Associate Professor Nigel McMillan
research groups, they’re very integrated,
not narrow and exclusive. The researchers
and academics are still aligned which gives
the work some real rigour,” he said.
He completed his PhD at the University of
Otago in 1991 before spending many years
in North America at the Hospital for Sick
Children in Toronto and the Cleveland Clinic.
“The relationship with the new hospital
will be very interesting, as the Researcher/
academic/clinician relationship can be
difficult to negotiate, physicians are under
significant pressure.
“I’m really impressed with the model Griffith
Health have adopted with their
“People will collaborate if it’s organic, for
me, it’s like gardening.”
Associate Professor McMillan believes
lifting MBod’s profile and bedding itself
down as the premier site of molecular
science on the Gold Coast are the key
priorities in the next few years.
“We do some good translational work
here. Seeing something go from the bench
to the bedside is an incredible fifteen
year adventure.
“We need people who wake up every
day excited about what they might learn
that day.”
Griffith voices
rising higher
Griffith Health has started a choir. Lead
by Prosthodonist, Steve Griffin and
musical director, Johnno Albertini,
Serotonin performed their first show
of contemporary pop as part of the
Voices in Paradise concert recently on
the Gold Coast.
“The original concept came from me
observing a large number of very
musically talented students in my Dental
Science lecture groups who showed
real excitement when I mentioned the
possibility of starting a choir,” said
Mr Griffin.
Griffin is a long-term member of
Gold Coast vocal group The Blenders,
who have toured internationally and
regularly perform at public events
around South East Queensland.
“It was a fantastic experience for an
early gig. You can practice and practice,
but ultimately you have to get out
there and see how people gel under
Serotonin belt out the hits
the lights and eyes of an audience, and
they were very good,” he said.
“This is the beginning of a long term
project where The Blenders, my
home chorus, is providing the musical
directing, organisational, community
engagement and managerial support
for an ongoing choir of excellence to
be based at Griffith.
”As more talent is identified we will be
using vocal percussion and beat boxing
along with soloists to add interest to
our performances. We may even add
an instrumental variation at times.”
The group is open to all students, past
and present, under the age of 30 and
Griffin is hoping the choir establishes
itself as a permanent part of the
Health Group and acts as a catalyst for
a growing appreciation for a capella.
Griffin’s next challenge is to respond
to the howls of protest from staff at
his “under 30” rule and start a choir
for all ages.
Serotonin will be performing at the
opening of The Griffith Health Centre.
griffith.edu.au/health-check
3
A Healthy Start to a new life
Students from Griffith’s School of Medicine
have developed a program called Healthy
Start to assist refugees navigate our
health system.
Refugees usually come from non-English
speaking countries and conditions so
precarious their only option is to flee for
their lives. After the months and years in
refugee camps or detention they finally
arrive to our relatively pristine but utterly
bewildering country.
Healthy Start has proven to be so successful
it has even begun attracting sponsorship from
local not-for-profit, Medicare Local South.
from booking a GP visit to emergency
care and women’s health.”
universities to deliver the Healthy Start
program.
The team ran their first workshop in
October 2012 and were overwhelmed by
the response.
“Beyond the difference it makes in the
lives of the clients, I think it also helps
some of our more conservative colleagues
change their views toward refugees.
“All our places were full, and by the end
of the day people were really enjoying
it. Honestly it was beyond belief,” said
Mr Jayasuriya.
Mr Jayasuriya and his colleagues have
also begun training Medical students
from other South East Queensland
“You only get that kind of change when people
meet and exchange positive experiences, so
hopefully it continues to grow.”
Healthy Start are running workshops every
month in Brisbane and the Gold Coast
Marrillo Jayasuriya is a 4th year student who is
heading up the program from its Gold Coast base.
“It really started from our preventative
health workshops in primary schools and
we started to ask people about refugees
and what were people doing to help with
their resettlement and getting access to
appropriate care,” he said.
“After a lot of work we developed a six-part
program to help people negotiate our system,
Participants at a Healthy Start
Early Childhood students doubling degrees
In a wet park in Logan three Griffith
students, at different stages of their
Bachelor of Child and Family Studies, are
prepared for an onslaught of children
to take over the park participating in
activities they have spent weeks
meticulously planning.
The students were doing a field
placement with the NGO, Save the
Children assisting the organisation
to host children’s activities as part of
National Families Week, 15-21 May.
Cherie Donovan suited up and ready to go
4
Health Check
Issue 38, 2013
so decided to roll her various skills into a
career through the Logan-based degree.
“I believe the arts are essential for
children and their education and not just
for the really young ones,” she said.
“The great thing about studying like this
is I can choose to work inside or outside
the established education system. Save
the Children is a great organisation, doing
awesome work that involves whole
families, not just the children as students.”
The students are completing double
degrees combining Child and Family
Studies and Education.
“With the double (degree) I could also
work within a school environment if I
choose. Placements like this help build
those networks, which give you better
choices when you start looking for work.”
Course convenor Marilyn Casley said,
“feedback from students indicate that
they choose to do the double degree
to give themselves a broader range of
careers to choose from and more fully
round out the skills they gain from
either degree. ”
The Bachelor of Child and Family
Studies aims to increase the skills of
people, working with children and
their families following initiatives by
the Federal Government to build a
more effective national early childhood
development system.
Cherie Donovan is a 26 year old actor and
dancer who loves working with children,
http://www.griffith.edu.au/health/
child-family-studies
Medical students on the front line
At 7am on a wet Saturday the Southport
Ambulance station is bustling through
a shift change; paramedics in green,
officials in two blues. Cars and equipment
are checked and rechecked, overnight
stories and gossip are shared over folded,
muscled arms.
In the gloomy garage is an open, brightly
lit ambulance. In the ambulance is 22 year
old medical student, Thomas Basso. He
will spend the next twelve hours attending
emergencies large and small around the
northern Gold Coast.
For Thomas this is an introduction to the
people who are generally first on the
scene of a trauma.
“The day ended up being relatively quiet,
no bad car accidents or anything, but I did
notice their amazing skills at asking the right
questions of people,” he said.
“...and their stories and sense of humour. I’m
not sure how you would describe it, ‘gallows’
kind of does it, but it’s unique for sure.”
Medical student Thomas Basso, relaxed and ready to go at Southport Ambulance station.
“The major thing is that whatever terrible
state a person is in when they arrive in
hospital, they were a hell of lot worse when
these people found them.”
The Griffith School of Medicine association
with the Queensland Ambulance Service
is as old as the school itself and Associate
Professor Gary Rogers believes it as vital a
learning experience as can be offered.
Physio clinic reaches out
“In medicine we are all dependent on the skills
and information we share. As a doctor you
may be quite a way down the information line
so you need to be sure you understand the
skills of the original attending professionals.
“It sounds like Thomas has gained, what I
hope is, an enduring respect for the people
and skills of people he will depend on.”
“It was a bit of a health check for
carers with a follow-up after four
months to get some feedback on the
program and check in with people
to see how they are going,” said Dr
Ralph-Wilkie.
“While physiotherapy was the
lead program, it was very much
an interdisciplinary program. The
psychology sessions were obviously
important, there are a lot of issues
with carers about grief and loss and
guilt, it was a huge session.”
Carers Queensland believe carers have
the lowest collective wellbeing of any
population group, due to the demands,
stress and isolation suffered.
Physio workshops for carers in South-East Queensland are part of the Griffith Health Clinics service
Not everything needs to happen in a
building. For some clinical services, it can
be a base for outreach work to develop
the capacities and health of people in need.
The Griffith Physiotherapy and Active
Health Centre is conducting courses in
the Gold Coast region to support and
empower carers who often face difficult
and isolating circumstances, with little
support from government agencies.
The individual and social circumstances
of carers is one of societies little secrets
with children sometimes taking care of
chronically ill parents, or chronically ill people
left to take care of each other. Even in
the best of circumstances carers can often
neglect themselves and their own health.
In partnership with Carers Queensland the
clinics, led by Dr Joni Ralph-Wilkie, began
delivering a six-week support program in
February 2013 which included nutrition,
exercise, relaxation and psychology.
As well as confronting difficult physical
and emotional issues the Griffith
Health Clinics program was also
focussed on social aspects, so carers
could meet and trade experiences and
insights, go shopping and develop an
organic network.
The physiotherapy clinic will be on
level four of the new Griffith Health
Centre http://www.griffith.edu.au/
health/clinics
http://www.griffith.edu.au/health/
clinics/physiotherapy-and-activehealth-centre
griffith.edu.au/health-check
5
GHI researchers honoured by Medical Research Awards
Griffith Health Institute was one of the
major winners in the recent Australian
Society for Medical Research (ASMR)
Awards, including the prestigious clinical
researcher of the year award won by
Professor Alfred Lam.
Dr Carlos Aya Bonilla from the
Griffith Health Institute (GHI) and
the university’s School of Medical
Science received the prize for Best
Poster Award. His study of common
anti-cancer genes in two of the most
common non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma
sub-types was enough to win.
“The aim now is to investigate the
role of this particular gene and in the
future, hopefully this finding can lead
to the discovery and development of
better therapies,” said Dr Bonilla.
Queensland Clinical Researcher of the year, Professor
Alfred Lam
Dr Bridget Maher and Professor Alfred
Lam also won awards. Dr Maher was a
finalist for the Post Graduate Student
Award for her research into migraine
Exercise science hits the Wall Street Journal
treatments and Professor Lam won
the Clinical Researcher Award.
The Health Group’s Pro Vice Chancellor,
Professor Allan Cripps and GHI director
Lyn Griffiths were both extremely
proud of the individual and group
achievements.
“These awards show the very high
level of research being conducted at
the Griffith Health Institute. Bridget
and Alfred, in particular, have made
great strides in their fields and brought
much credit to the Institute,” said
Professor Cripps
As GHI Director, Professor Griffiths
was very pleased to attend the Awards
in Brisbane, where so many researchers
from the GHI were represented.
“These prestigious awards recognise
excellence in all areas of health-related
research performed in Queensland and
the GHI was highly successful this
year. Congratulations to these GHI
researchers,” she said.
“One of the interesting points we did
find was that less intense forms of
exercise, like walking, might make you
eat less.”
Mr Schubert reviewed the results of
29 studies from 1994 to 2012 on the
effects of exercise on the food intake
of 584 people from eight countries.
The exercise trials were 30 to 120
minutes in length and involved cycling,
running, walking, resistance training
and swimming.
Crossing from academic to mainstream
publishing can be problematic in the
translation, but for Nutrition and Exercise
Science PhD candidate, Matt Schubert
going straight to the top makes it easier.
2013 began with his work being written
up in the Wall Street Journal, one of the
biggest newspapers in the world.
Matt’s research focuses on ways to
manipulate energy (food) intake for
health benefits and found that people
6
Health Check
Issue 38, 2013
who exercise do not automatically
compensate for their higher energy use
by eating more.
“I suppose its one of those assumptions,
that people who exercise generally
eat more in order to account for what
they expend; the evidence just doesn’t
support it,” said Mr Schubert.
“The difference in food consumed, was
only about 200KJ, that’s nothing.
Subjects were monitored for between
two and 14 hours after exercise and
given meals with a known energy
content so their KJ consumption could
be measured and subtracted from the
kjs they burned during exercise.
Like most simple ideas the first
question is why didn’t someone else
think of this?
“I don’t know, I suppose people have
thought of it. There were lots of little
studies producing a combination of
things that were maybe too minor
for other researchers to pick up and
put together.”
Gold Coast
University Hospital
to open in September
The Gold Coast will be home to Australia’s largest hospital, delivering new and expanded health
services to the local community from September this year.
Gold Coast University Hospital (GCUH) will open on
Saturday 28 September following the relocation of
patients, staff and equipment from the existing Gold
Coast Hospital in Southport.
The team at Gold Coast Health are busily preparing
the new facility and staff to move in. This involves
installing over 195,000 items of furniture and
essential equipment such as telephone systems and
specialised medical machinery used to diagnose and
treat medical conditions. It also involves training and
orientating over 4500 staff members, volunteers,
students and contractors to the new facility which is
over three times bigger than the current hospital.
A specialist facility, GCUH is equipped with the latest
technology to enable clinicians to provide the highest
level of patient care and comfort. It has been built with
750 overnight beds, more than 70 per cent single patient
rooms and capacity to become one of the largest clinical
teaching and research facilities in the country.
There will be 12 retail shops within the facility for the
convenience of patients and their visitors. Internal
courtyards and landscaped gardens contribute to the
hospital’s contemporary atmosphere as a modern
workplace and world-class health facility.
Gold Coasters residents will have the chance to
sneak a peek behind the scenes at GCUH on Saturday
7 September at its inaugural community open day, prior
to the commencement of health services. Staff will be on
hand to conduct guided tours to assist the community to
get to know their new hospital.
Stay up to date about the opening of GCUH online:
www.goldcoast.health.qld.gov.au
Key facts
•
$1.76 billion budget
•
•
Capacity of 750 overnight beds; 189 same day and
bed alternatives and 56 Emergency Department
treatment bays including nine specifically for children
Located next to a 283 bed private hospital
(due to open in 2015)
•
10 cranes on site at one time – the most number
in Australia ever
•
2300 construction workers on site at peak construction
•
Largest single ICT contract ever awarded to an
Australian company (UXC Limited, value $40M+)
•
Each one of the four power generators in the
Central Energy Plant is capable of powering
250 residential homes
•
Design completed by two joint ventures: three
architectural firms in one, and three engineering
firms in the other
•
20 hectare site compared to 3.5 hectare
at the existing Gold Coast Hospital
•
Over 70 per cent single patient rooms
•
Approximately 8330 individual rooms
•
Floor space (170 000 square metres)
•
Capacity of 20 operating theatres
•
Seven integrated main buildings
griffith.edu.au/health-check
7
Welcome to your NEW
Griffith
Health Centre
By Grant Shepherdson, Project User Coordinator
Welcome to your new building, the Griffith Health Centre, or G40 as we know it.
The editors of Health Check wanted me to write something about the building, the process
of its construction and perhaps reveal a secret or two. There aren’t many secrets, but it is a
very technical building and all those involved in the design and construction process deserve
acknowledgement for their excellent work.
Our wet weather of the last eighteen months has
made some parts of the build very difficult but most
construction targets have still been met.
The Griffith Health Centre will comprise total usable
floor space of 17,157m2 across 10 floors and include:
•
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School of Dentistry and Oral Health
School of Medicine
Anatomy and pathology teaching facility
School of Applied Psychology
School of Rehabilitation Science’s Speech
Pathology program
Nutrition & Dietetics teaching facility
Research facilities
Multidisciplinary Health Clinics, including
96 dental chairs
Griffith Health Institute and Griffith Health
Executive offices
600-seat auditorium, 250-seat lecture theatre
and supporting seminar rooms and learning centre
Commercial dental laboratory, dental radiology
facility, bookshop and restaurant
There will be wet research labs, psychology research
labs and other spaces to support student development
and research.
We’ve aimed to make the building as environmentally
friendly as possible with features such as rain water
harvesting for gardens and toilets, low energy light
fittings, sensor controlled air-conditioning, hot water
heating with natural gas booster, low energy induction
heaters in clinics and dental labs and making sure
the building faces north to maximise the benefits of
natural light.
The anatomy and research laboratories were the
most technically challenging areas as specific health
and safety and legislative requirements govern
their design.
The first few months of any building are a time when we
complete some fit-out details, so I hope you are patient
with us as we discover anything that needs attention,
but hopefully there will be very little.
As the year progresses and landscaping is completed
and commercial tenants fill out their spaces, The
Griffith Health Centre will become an enormous focus
of activity and wonderful front door to the University.
Overview of the
The Griffith Health
Centre (G40)
Level 1
• Anatomy receival
• Central sterilisation
unit
• Store
• Workshop
• Plant rooms
Level 5
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Level 3
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Dental laboratories and simulation suite
Higher degree research student workrooms
PBL rooms
Small (250 seat) auditorium,
Upper floor of large auditorium
Main University entrance level
Dental clinics
Bookshop/pharmacy
Restaurant
Level 9
Level 7
• Medical research laboratories
• Research staff offices
• Higher degree research student workrooms
• Office space
• Dentistry
and Psychology
• Problem-based
learning rooms
Level 10
Level 6
Level 2
• Public entrance level
• Psychology research
laboratories
• Dietetics teaching
kitchens
• Dietetics and Social
Work office space
• Higher degree
research student
workrooms
Level 4
• Multidisciplinary clinics
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psychology
physiotherapy
exercise science
speech pathology
audiology
clinical trials
community education
• Seminar rooms
• Large (600 seat) auditorium
• Learning centre
• Medicine clinical skills
• Problem-based learning rooms
Level 8
• Office space
• Medicine
• Griffith Health
Institute
• Health executive
• Administration
• Griffith Enterprise
• Go Health
Go Griffith
• Communications
• INS
• Development
and Alumni
• Anatomy laboratories
• Plastination Lab
• Histology/Pathology
Lab
• Three specialist
pathology laboritories
• Surgical skills
laboratory
SURF ERS PAR ADISE
Gold Coast Health and Medical Research Precinct
Griffith puts their best into foundations
The bridge from high school to
University has always been a difficult
one. School leavers enrol in degrees
they often know little about, for
careers they know even less about.
For the last few years Griffith Health
has confronted this challenge through
Foundation Studies. To ensure its
success Griffith Health have some of
their best teachers ready to meet them.
Dr Natalie Colson and Dr Helen Naug
are two of Griffith’s most recognised
and awarded teachers with Colson
(genetics) receiving a National Office
of Learning and Teaching Award,
amongst many others in 2012 and
Naug (Anatomy and Physiology) a
Griffith Excellence in Teaching Award
for large class teaching.
“Some (students) can arrive with lots
of background in the subject area,
while others might have none. There can
be up to 700 in a course so you really
have to find a way of connecting;
with genetics it’s not that easy,” said
Dr Colson.
Dr Natalie Colson (left) and Dr Helen Naug
“For many people the concept of
‘there are no silly questions’, is just
rhetoric, but we absolutely mean it.
Students have to have the confidence
to ask a question in front of 300
other people in a lecture theatre, no
matter what the question and know
the question will be respected.
“We also make sure we work with the
students until they have that moment
where the connections suddenly meet up
in their brain. We don’t give up on them,”
she said.
Director of Research and regular subject
of student projects, Professor David Shum
believes it is good practice to have the best
teachers meeting new students.
“The best teachers should always teach
first year, it gives us the best chance to
inspire the students and keep them going.”
KEEPfit program to break in Sports Psychology Lab
Sports Psychology has grown so fast it
has found it difficult to find a home on the
Gold Coast campus, but it has finally found
one at The Griffith Health Centre and is
looking to establish a more prominent place
in the school in the lead-up to the 2018
Commonwealth Games.
Where once there was only listening to Eye
of the Tiger before the game and some cold
ones after, there is now a battery of testing,
preparation, realignment and more testing.
The new Sports and Exercise Psychology
Laboratory will involve research facilities and
additional testing rooms, and specifically
designed exercise/sport performance room.
The first large scale project to be conducted
in the new laboratory will be the KEEPfit
project run by Associate Professor David
Neumann and Dr Lauren Rose.
“We’re looking forward to the physical
location, being in the same building as our
related disciplines such as exercise science
and medicine to enhance the potential and
multidisciplinary scope of the research,”
Associate Professor Neumann said.
“KEEPfit is the third phase of an ARC
grant. We’re looking for healthy volunteers
between 30-59 years of age who have not
engaged in an exercise program in the last
year to take part in the community study.
Participants will have to attend an initial 2
hour session in the new Sport and Exercise
Psychology Lab, complete a training diary
and attend a re-assessment of blood
pressure and aerobic capacity at the end of
the 12 weeks, with follow up questionnaires
at 6 months and 9 months.”
Like all other psychology labs, our laboratory
is located adjacent to the Higher Degree
Research student offices, enhancing access
and research training of Griffith students. It
will be located on level 2.
email: [email protected] for more
information
griffith.edu.au/health-check
15
Anatomy moves to top floor
Almost all the work of Griffith Health
staff and students centres on the human
body. The key to much of this is an
understanding of the physical body and
it structures.
For too long The Griffith Anatomy facility
has been a bus ride from the main
campus, but now it will be back, at the
top of our centre.
The new anatomy teaching laboratories
will have an increased student capacity
with the three wet labs able to cater
for up to 300 students at one time. The
area also includes a 10 table surgical
skills laboratory, fitted out with surgical
lights, camera and hydraulically operated
surgical tables. This room was designed
in response to the increasing number
of allied health professionals wishing
to undertake commercial and workshop
activities.
The 90 seat Histology/Pathology lab will
be fitted out with a combination of large
LCD screens, microscopes and computers
and will allow for the varied teaching
styles offered.
The 50 seat Anatomy and Pathology
learning centre is also a welcome new
addition and will allow for anatomy
students to access teaching materials
outside of scheduled class times. This
room will be set up like a library, but
instead of getting a book off the
shelf, students will be able to access
anatomy and pathology teaching
specimens, skeletal material, models
and text books.
As always, anatomy facility will
operate as a service provider for all
Griffith University elements wishing to
undertake human anatomy teaching.
At the same time as the new labs are
being opened the school will also be
unveiling a new memorial sculpture
at the Gold Coast, Southport Lawn
Cemetery in recognition of the School
of Anatomy donors and their families.
All enquiries regarding the Anatomy
Body Donor Program can be directed
to the Anatomy Support Officer on
5552 7700.
Gino Cepon keeping things in order around the lab
Driving simulator puts assumptions to the test
A new driver testing simulator on
level 2 is a living, shuddering, vibrating
reminder of where new directions in
public health research are heading.
Current Bachelor of Nutrition and
Dietetics student Sophie Monement
is researching distraction in drivers,
comparing eating whilst driving to
SMS messaging. The 21 year old
from Logan is using some serious
technology to explore a very common
behaviour of many individuals.
“I’m not sure I’ll prove my hypothesis;
eating and driving is far more socially
sanctioned than texting, but wasn’t
listed as one of the ‘fatal five’ during the
Easter road blitz by Queensland police.”
The simulator formally lived in a room
as far from every other part of the
University as possible, next to the
shipping containers.
Sophie Monument, collecting data on driving and texting.
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Issue 38, 2013
These days the sim is proudly part of
the Nutrition and Dietetics program,
which has moved from its former
site, in the portable offices, behind
the School of Pharmacy to the new
Griffith Health Centre. The simulator
is part of a research collaboration
between Nutrition and Dietetics and
Applied Pyschology.
Sophie is hoping she returns for a
PhD one day so she work out of
the building. “This commitment to
bring everyone together and feeding
off each other’s ideas sounds like a
really attractive thing to be part of”,
said Sophie.
Sophie’s supervisor, Associate
Professor Ben Desbrow keenly
supports research like Sophie’s and
believes such projects will only be
enhanced through their proximity
to others.
“I think work like Sophie’s is great,
and it can only be improved with a
collaborative approach, through as
many different projects as possible.
Buildings don’t do this for you, but
they can definitely help push the
process along,” he said.
Griffith contribution to Cambridge collaboration
It’s the fuel that drives the human
machine but finally nutrition education
for health professionals (at least in the
UK) is about to get a powerful boost,
significantly improving their ability to
provide nutritional advice to patients.
evaluate the nutrition education program
that Cambridge University has for their
medical students. Hopefully the results
will provide effective and useful for other
institutions, including Griffith University.”
Griffith Nutrition and Dietetics researcher
Dr Lauren Ball has been drafted in, with
a colleague from Auckland University, as
part of the evaluation into the nutrition
education of Cambridge University’s
Medical students.
Dr Ball began her career with an undergrad
degree in Exercise and Sports Science
before completing a masters of Nutrition
and Dietetics at Griffith. Following work
as a consultant dietitian with Queensland
Police service, she returned to Griffith to
complete her PhD.
“I’ll be a visiting scholar at Cambridge
from September. Myself and my colleague
will be working on a sub-section of the
main project that involves researchers
from the British Dietetic Association,
Cambridge University Hospitals, the
UK Medical Research Council, Human
Nutrition Research Unit at Cambridge and
the UK Society for Nutrition Education and
Behaviour,” she said.
“It will be great to see how such a broad
coalition comes together, and also
“I just LOVE FOOD - who doesn’t? It
definitely helped me to decide to have
a career in nutrition. I was fairly lucky
with my PhD that I didn’t have any major
dramas,” she said.
“Cambridge will be a great opportunity,
but I’m also really looking forward to
returning to the new health centre and the
collaborative research opportunities that
will occur with the new hospital.”
Lauren Ball
Speech Pathology
adds to clinical
services
The Griffith Clinics are about to add
Speech Pathology to its suite of services,
with a purpose built clinic in Griffith
Health Centre.
The Speech Pathology clinic will be helping
people who have problems speaking,
either through stuttering or swallowing
problems or acquired speech difficulties,
such as strokes.
Head of Speech Pathology, Associate
Professor Elisabeth Cardell is looking
forward to the clinic as a learning,
teaching, treatment and research space all
rolled into one.
“We would expect to see children,
adolescents, and adults who might have
speech, language, voice, stuttering and
swallowing difficulties,” she said.
We also work with literacy, and some of
our clients require alternative modes of
communication if they cannot express
themselves verbally, for example,
gestures, communication books, and
high-tech devices which convert writing
to speech.
To ensure a positive beginning, Dr Cardell
has already established links with the
new Gold Coast University Hospital.
“The clinics will build capacity in clinical
placement opportunities for students at
a time when placements are becoming
more difficult to source. Also, the clinics
will offer specialist experiences for
students in areas of practice that are
traditionally difficult to gain.
“These links will only strengthen once
we are co-located, and we look forward
to developing some specialist speech
pathology student experiences and new
research projects.
“I also believe that having in-house clinics
will foster a sense of “ownership” for staff
and students, which in turn will make
them feel like they are a very important
sector of Griffith Health’s community.”
“We are very excited to be at the forefront
of establishing best-practice speech
pathology clinics for Griffith University
that will facilitate student education
and engage the local community as a
resource for them.”
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Pathology placements producing the goods
QML Pathology have been a significant
partner with Griffith’s School of
Medicine since the school began
training its first students.
In a complex professional training
environment your corner pathologist
has kept a steady pace of medical
students, who nearly all draw their first
real blood sample in a QML clinic.
Lyndall Kopp her first phlebotomy
work at a QML Pathology office in
March at Ashmore Plaza and can’t
speak highly enough of the experience.
“Not only are they extremely good
at their jobs but Anne, who I did my
placement with, was great at working
with me. She made me feel calm, gave
really positive feedback and after a
few clients, I felt confident,” she said.
Second year student Cedric Ng Liet
Hing, did his placement in Labrador.
It takes a bit of coaxing to get an
admission of nerves at drawing his first
blood sample.
“What do you say? We’ve done lots
of practice to get ready, I was more
excited than nervous, but yeah I
suppose I was a bit nervous,” he said.
Lyndall Kopp and phlebotomist, Ann Baldock
“I told the guy it was my first time and
he looked a bit alarmed, but he was
young, so it was pretty easy to find a
vein and it all went pretty smoothly.”
The school’s professional learning
director, Associate Professor Gary
Rogers can’t speak highly enough of
QML Pathology.
“It’s businesses like the local QML
Pathology which are our learning bread
and butter,” he said.
“What is learnt on a placement like
this is a skill perfected through basic
repetition. Get it right and its easy,
ignore the lessons these phlebotomists
can teach and you will struggle to be a
good doctor.”
Rickards into nursing Hall of Fame
Griffith’s reputation as a world-leading
authority in nursing has been firmly
cemented following the announcement that
Professor Claire Rickard will be inaugurated
into the International Nurse Researcher Hall
of Fame.
Operated by Sigma Theta Tau International,
the awards recognise members who are
nurse researchers and who have achieved
significant and sustained broad national
and/or international recognition for their
work and whose research has impacted the
profession and the people it serves.
Professor Rickard from the University’s
Health Practice Innovation program and the
School of Nursing and Midwifery, has been
widely acclaimed for her research into acute
and critical care which has significantly
influenced hospital practices.
Professor Rickard had her groundbreaking
research into intravenous catheter (IV drip)
replacement published in The Lancet last year.
Professor Claire Rickard
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Health Check
Issue 38, 2013
“It’s a real honour to receive this award, not
just for me but on behalf of my team at
Griffith, my Project Manager Nicole Marsh
and the nurses we work with in hospitals
throughout Australia, especially Professor
Joan Webster from the Royal Brisbane and
Women’s Hospital,” said Professor Rickard.
“Joan has been a real inspiration to me in my
work in terms of using high level science
to look at everyday nursing practices, and
in bringing research to the bedside.
“This award also demonstrates Australian
nursing’s ‘coming of age’ onto the world
stage. This country has had a much shorter
history of nursing research when compared
to countries such as the USA, however
Australia has really begun to catch up now,
and in many areas now leads the world.”
Professor Rickard will be travelling to Prague,
Czech Republic in July to be inducted into
the International Nursing Researcher Hall
of Fame.
Foundations study’s turning on the lights of a research career
“Initially I wasn’t that interested and
thought we’d spend our time sitting with
some old fuddy duddy who’d be really
boring, but it was the complete opposite,”
said Nabilah.
“I had thought of research as a possibility,
but I’d never actually met a researcher,
with a career,” said Caitlin.
With multilingualism being a feature of the
group, the international career possibilities
of health research quickly became the
focus of conversation.
Professor Andrew Davey with Foundations Studies students who had their minds turned on to a research career
How many school-leavers start
University wanting to be researchers?
Evidence would suggest very few,
but a project within Griffith Health’s
Foundation Studies program, in which
first year students interview top-level
researchers, is turning that around.
Foundation Studies is a crossdisciplinary program, run by the Health
Group in first year to give as many
students as possible an equal grounding
in health sciences and ready them for
the professional environment they will
one day enter.
Pharmacy students Caitlin Low (18),
Michael Bobko (20), Nabilah Hussain
(19) and Erika Alejo (18) came away
from two hours with Professor Andrew
Davey with a new avenue in life and
enthusiasm to take it on.
“I speak Tagalog (Philippines) and a bit
of Japanese and didn’t understand the
possibilities for research around the world.
The more I asked him the more I felt I
could do,” said Eriza Alejo.
Adding to the tension the students felt
was the fact Professor Davey is the Head
of the Pharmacy School.
“He told us how when he was young it
was either football, the army or the mines,
that’s just like me and my friends. He’s also
worked all over the world and that’s what I
want to do,” said Michael
Plastination lab adds to anatomy
As part of the new anatomy facility,
Queensland’s only plastination lab is
being established for the preservation
and exhibition of anatomical samples.
The facility, to be located on the tenth
floor, is a purpose-built space and the
staff who will manage it have been
trained in Germany.
Plastination was invented in 1977 by the
controversial German doctor, Gunther
von Hagens, and involves the removal of
a body’s water and fat and replacement
with special plastics.
It leaves specimens in a condition very
close to their original state, but they
can be viewed and touched like a plastic
model, without damage or need for
specialised anatomy facilities.
“It’s another learning tool, if a rather
impressive one”, said Professor of
Anatomy, Mark Forwood.
“The results of the process are quite
remarkable and increase the range of
teaching specimens available to our
students, specifically in the new Anatomy
and Pathology Learning Centre. It also
complements the educational services
we offer other schools and institutions.
“As a teaching facility, we aspire to
be the leading anatomy facility in
Queensland, and access to specialised
techniques, such as plastination,
increases our teaching resources. Such
facilities are difficult to retro-fit into
existing buildings, so the opportunity
was taken to include it in the new facility
from the start.”
The techniques of plastination are not
dissimilar to traditional embalming
techniques, but the process results in
a specimen that can be readily handled
and of a far higher durability. Plastinated
specimens do not have an unpleasant
odour, and do not decay.
Von Hagens exhibited some of the
samples of his work in the spectacular,
BODY WORLDS exhibition, which toured
the world from 1995 to 2009.
Plastination Exhibit from Body World exhibition,
San Diego. Photo credit: Patty Mooney/foter.com
/cc by-nc-sa
griffith.edu.au/health-check
19
Griffith Health will, through leadership and innovation in teaching, research
and community engagement, create sustained improvement in all aspects
of health and health care for local, national and international communities.
griffith.edu.au/health