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Diabetic macular edema (DME) is the most common cause of visual loss in people with diabetes. Regular injections with the anti-VEGF agent Bevacizumab remain the current standard of care for DME involving the fovea, but this regimen is impractical in central Australia. Limiting injections to 4 monthly with Ozurdex may be as effective as the currently used Bevacizumab injections.

There are more than 7 million overweight or obese adults in Australia and on average only about 5% of this population achieve permanent weight reduction of any significance to their health. Many questions remain regarding the best way to achieve long-term weight loss, and how a person’s metabolic rate is affected both in the short- and long-term during dieting. The overall aim of this project is to design more effective and sustainable weight loss strategies for overweight and obese adults. This study, funded by the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC), aims to compare changes in weight and health using two different dieting approaches in female participants with a small comparitive male cohort; one in which the energy intake (kilojoule value) changes every two weeks, and the other where the energy intake changes every four weeks. Throughout the intensive phase of the study, participants are provided with a healthy, balanced, energy-regulated diet delivered to their home. Measures of body composition, metabolic rate and energy expenditure, hunger and satiety, blood hormone levels, body fuel usage, and metabolic health will be taken at a number of time points throughout the study

Oxygen is necessary for life, but both too much or too little, can damage eyes, lungs and brain. The preterm infant is unique, while their ability to cope with too much oxygen (oxidative stress) is limited, they also need some oxygen after birth because their lungs are not fully developed. The Torpido2 Study aims to show that preterm infants born at less than 28 completed weeks gestation who have had delivery room resuscitation initiated with 21% (air) followed by lower oxygen targeting until admission to NICU will have improved outcomes when compared with similar infants who have had delivery room resuscitation initiated with 60% oxygen followed by higher oxygen targeting until admission to NICU.

Mindless eating or habitual eating has been described as the most plausible factor to explain why we struggle to keep our excess weight off. Once we form a habit, it can be difficult to act in non-habitual ways despite our best intentions. Therefore the primary purpose of this study is to investigate the effectiveness of 2 weight management interventions which focus on habitual behaviour and assess whether we can maintain weight loss for at least 12 months if habits are altered.

This project is part of a research program examining the role that certain cognitions and behaviours play in mediating symptom reduction of internet-delivered cognitive behavioural therapy for depression and anxiety.

Meals on Wheels services provide a key avenue to access some of the most vulnerable and in need members of our community, and is a key strategy to enhance the quality of life for the individual, through supporting and maintaining independent living at home. Ensuring adequate nutrition and preventing unintentional weight loss regardless of starting body weight, diets appropriate for individual medical conditions, and promoting physical activity within community dwelling older individuals, have the potential to be significant factors in maintaining independence, as well as reducing highcost health care services. However, despite all being strongly related to adequate nutritional intake, research regarding how Meals on Wheels services could be best utilised to decrease risk of a decline in physical and mental health, cognitive functioning, functional disability and health care utilisation is missing to date. This project will aim to investigate the consumption patterns of clients in terms of Meals on Wheels meals and other meals, as well as physical activity levels to enable a better understanding of the current recipients of Meals on Wheels. It will also aim to investigate whether a short term intervention focused on assisting the clients with meal ordering and food provision improves the client’s physical and mental health.

This project will examine motor cortex excitability and cognition in people with chronic low back pain (CLBP). This project will investigate transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) for improving motor cortex excitability and cognition in CLBP. Participant’s motor cortex excitability and cognition will be measured before, and after 4-weeks of tDCS. It is predicted CLBP participants will demonstrate abnormal motor cortex excitability and impaired cognitive function, compared with age and gender-matched controls. It is also predicted that tDCS will restore normal motor cortex excitability and improve cognitive functioning in people with CLBP. The findings will provide a better understanding of the relationship between CLBP and the brain and the therapeutic potential of tDCS for CLBP.

Hypothesis: Adults with asthma using a peak flow meter regularly will improve their involvement in asthma self-management and their confidence in managing asthma. Primary objective: Evaluate whether peak flow meter introduction with appropriate education can improve participants’ engagement and confidence in managing their own asthma symptoms. Secondary objectives: - To review peak expiratory flow results - To assess influence of peak flow meter utilisation on asthma control. - To assess if peak flow meter utilisation aids in recognising breathing difficulties earlier.

General Practitioners are faced with the daily dilemma of making choices about treating the acute versus the preventive problems of their patient population. They are also faced with regular changes in guidelines and recommendations about what and who to treat. This project seeks to improve the use of existing medical software to translate evidence based guidelines into everyday clinical practice. It is a Quality Improvement initiative that will provide GP's with an integrated desk top tool to help identify the high CVD risk patients and support the General Practice in a "whole of practice" based method of monitoring and improving the prevention strategies used for these patients. The project also aims to set up a Quality Improvement Network of local GP’s that will continue to function post intervention and assist GP’s with long term QI work. Central and Eastern Sydney PHN will be the host facilitator and support coordinator for this project. Each General Practice will be provided with two quality improvement tools: 1. PenCAT Clinical Audit Tool (Trademark) which allows practice staff to download data looking at the practice patient profile (such as demographics, disease statistics and prescribing), and; 2. HealthTracker, a desk top "point of care" tool, which can be used to facilitate the identification of high CVD risk patients and assist in the introduction of "best practice" interventions by the individual GP. In a recent clinical trial (Torpedo) HealthTracker has been proven to assist GP's in this preventive care work. 80 General Practices will be invited to participate in a Quality Improvement Collaborative where they will learn about how to make use of these tools to improve their identification and use of evidence based strategies for patients with high risk of cardiovascular disease. This project is particularly interested in the feasibility of setting up a Quality Improvement Network of local GP’s, facilitated externally by the IWSML, that will enable sustainable, long term quality improvement work in the localised General practice setting. Who is undertaking the project? This project is being conducted by Dr Charlotte Hespe and will form the basis for the degree of PhD at The University of Notre Dame Australia, under the supervision of A/Professor Lucie Rychetnik (UNDA), A/Professor David Peiris (George Institute) and Professor Mark Harris (UNSW).

Objective: To examine the effectiveness of proactively offering telephone and online support for reducing health risk behaviours among TAFE students at 6-months follow-up. Design: A cluster randomised controlled trial. Methods: A total of 100 TAFE classes (50 per condition) will take part. TAFE classes will be matched in pairs with one randomly allocated to the intervention and the other to the control condition. Eligible TAFE students will be currently enrolled in a class that runs for at least 12-months, be aged 16 years or older and will not be meeting Australian health guidelines for at least one of the following health risk behaviours - smoking, nutrition, alcohol or physical activity. The same students will be surveyed at baseline and 6-months follow-up. Online and telephone support condition: At the 50 intervention classes, effective online programs (i.e. QuitCoach, Healthy Eating Quiz, THRIVE, 10,000 Steps) and telephone support (i.e. Quitline, Get Healthy Information and Coaching Service, Alcohol Drug Information Service) that target health risk behaviours will be proactively offered to TAFE students during class via the baseline computer tablet. Control condition: The 50 TAFE classes in the control condition will not receive any intervention. Outcome measures: The primary outcomes at the 6-month assessment will assess: 1) tobacco smoking; 2) serves of fruit consumed daily; 3) serves of vegetables consumed daily; 4) standard drinks of alcohol per week and 5) metabolic equivalent minutes of physical activity per week.