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The Predictors of Post Concussive Syndrome Protocol that we are developing concerns a study on the derivation and validation of a clinical prediction rule for PCS in children aged 5 to 18 years, who present to the ED for concussion. In order to assist clinicians in identifying patients at high risk of PCS, who will benefit from a closer follow up and early referral to a dedicated concussion clinic, we set out to derive and validate a clinical prediction rule based on pre-injury and injury-related data to be used in the ED.

The aims of our study are to determine whether the use of algorithms with point of care testing to guide the use of factor concentrates can target bleeding more quickly and precisely and lead to a reduction in red cell transfusion rates compared to the use of allogeneic blood products. We will also examine its impact on other secondary outcomes, such as morbidity and mortality, bleeding and thrombotic complications.

kContact is a three-year study to develop and trial an enhanced model of managing and supporting contact between children in care and their birth parents. The aim is to reduce current and future distress related to contact, improve children's relationships with their parents.

It is routine practice at the Haemophilia Treatment Centre at The Alfred that patients who undergo dental extraction or low risk endoscopic procedures receive tranexamic acid (TXA) with or without factor concentrate replacement (depending on proceduralist determined bleeding risk). Despite clinical reports of no increased rate of bleeding utilising this strategy, the underlying biological mechanism has not been extensively explored. We aim to evaluate the impact of TXA on functional fibrionolysis by enrolling such patients and healthy controls into the proposed study. Enrolled patients will ingest one gram of oral tranexamic acid on the day of procedure and blood will be collected immediately before and 4 hours post ingestion. Plasma samples will be prepared and stored for evaluation of fibrinolysis utilising contemporary clot lysis assay. Correlation of the results will be made with clinical bleeding as reported by the proceduralist who are blinded to the results. Healthy volunteer subjects will also take a dose of one gram of tranexamic acid and have plasma samples collected at 2,4, and 8 hours post ingestion. Fibrinolysis will be measured using a light transmission based assay where thrombin and tissue plasminogen activator are added to the plasma. The expected effect of tranexamic acid is a delay in fibrinolysis in the control samples. In the patient samples, it is expected that clot formation will be impaired by the bleeding disorder but the tranexamic acid may similarly delay fibrinolysis when compared with controls.

The purpose of this study is to determine if immunonutrition prior to pelvic exenteration surgery for people with cancer decreases complications, length of hospital stay and immune markers after their surgery. Who is it for? You may be eligible to join this study if you are aged 18 years or above, and are scheduled to undergo pelvic exenteration surgery for cancer. Study details - Participants in this study will be randomly (by chance) allocated to one of two groups. Participants in one group will consume 3 immunonutrition supplements (known as Impact Advanced Recovery) each day for 5 days prior to their surgery. Participants in the other group will instead consume 3 nutrition supplements with equivalent protein and energy as the immunonutrition supplements (3 x Resource Protein) each day for 5 days prior to their operation. All participants will be monitored for up to 3 months post hospital discharge for any post-operative complications, such as infectious or non-infectious complications and immune markers.

In Australia ~75% of eye examinations are delivered by Optometrists. Optometrists have a legal and moral obligation to identify eye disease, manage suitable cases and refer others requiring medical or surgical intervention to ophthalmologists. With an aging population, the management of chronic eye disease is an increasing issue for the already stretched health system. The NHMRC glaucoma guidelines encourage development of shared-care models between primary health care providers and ophthalmologists. The guidelines also highlight the need for low-risk glaucoma patients to be monitored by primary eye care providers and not referred to Ophthalmology thereby minimizing the possibility that the health system is overloaded with false positive referrals. Until now, this new model of glaucoma management has been largely unexplored, especially with regards to assessing the effectiveness of the current optometric profession in clinical diagnosis, referral quality, appropriately utilization of new technologies and integrating with complementary facilities and services. The Centre for Eye Health (CFEH), a joint Guide Dogs NSW/ACT and UNSW initiative is leading the way in promoting a shared care model for eye-care in Australia. Ophthalmic practitioners refer patients to CFEH for visual assessment using the latest technology. Over 830 optometrists in NSW/ACT have registered with CFEH. It is proposed that this pool of participants be analysed with regards to current glaucoma practice characteristics, effectiveness in clinical diagnosis, referral quality, appropriate utilisation of new technologies and integration with complementary facilities and services. The research will inform current models of Glaucoma management and the evidence will have direct policy implications for the regulatory partners. Ultimately, more cohesive and patient-focused service delivery will lead to improved quality of life for patients and a reduced economic burden of eye disease nationally.

Phase 1 PK study with Descriptive statistics for Chrono Nicotine Replacement Therapy System (IDC-5) Including assessment of general safety

This study will investigate the effects of a workplace exercise intervention on cardiovascular disease risk, physical fitness and psychological health in adults aged 18-65 years working within an academic institution. It is hypothesised that adherence to a regular exercise program will result in decreased cardiovascular disease risk and increased physical fitness and psychological health.

This project aims to investigate whether the use of an individually tailored intervention (adapted from the Parenting Strategies Program, www.parentingstrategies.net/alcohol) is more effective at: a) reducing parental alcohol consumption, b) modifying parental attitudes and behaviours toward alcohol use (so as to be more in concordance with the Parenting Guidelines for Adolescent Alcohol Use), and c) reducing intention to drink in adolescents of parents within the intervention group, as compared to a control group whereby the parent participants receive a non-tailored summary of the Australian Guidelines for Reducing Health Risks from Drinking Alcohol (National Health and Medical Research Council, 2009).

Knee osteoarthritis is one of the most common forms of arthritis. Pain, the main symptom, is poorly controlled by current treatment strategies. Pain is thought initially to originate from structural changes in an affected joint. However, after a while, in some people, changes occur in the nervous system that perpetuate the pain. These changes are referred to as pain sensitisation. They are not addressed by current treatments. Amitriptyline is commonly used to treat pain related to pain sensitisation, such as in shingles or diabetic neuropathy. This study is a randomised controlled trial of the use of amitriptyline, in addition to usual care, to manage pain in people with painful knee osteoarthritis. People with knee osteoarthritis will be randomised to receiving low dose amitriptyline or a placebo with many of the same side effects of the active drug, benztropine. They will be followed for 12 weeks to determine the effect of amitriptyline on pain, function and other symptoms of knee osteoarthritis.