October 28, 2025Well, Research Week has come and gone for another year. What a week!
This is my third Research Week since starting at Northern Health and I have to say, each year the event seems to build on the one before. This year, we received 96 abstracts – a 23 per cent increase on 2024 – a lovely indication of how research activity is growing at Northern Health. These abstracts were received from a wide variety of areas across Northern Health, and represented clinical and laboratory, quantitative and qualitative projects. I think you will agree that through oral presentations, poster presentations, and the digital poster gallery, Northern Health really showed up for research!
Alongside abstract presentations, we had the pleasure of hosting a number of keynote speakers and special focus sessions. Daily scientific highlights included:
- Monday’s special opening ceremony with presentations from Chief Executive Debra Bourne and Acting Director of Research Mayur Garg, on the importance of research to continued improvement to the care we deliver to our community. This was followed by a keynote presentation from Professor Vassilis Kostakos (University of Melbourne) where he provided examples of how human-computer interactions and big datasets can improve health care. He finished by reassuring us that robots won’t take over the world!
- Tuesday’s showcase of Health Research in the Digital Age, with a keynote from Professor James Boyd (La Trobe University) outlining the drivers, barriers and enablers of digital health, along with the opportunities it presents to drive equity. This was followed by rapid-fire presentations from the VVED team with some really exciting data on VVED uptake, economic benefit, reach into vulnerable populations, and a case study of the power of the virtual healthcare approach. Also on Tuesday, some outcomes of the Allied Health Stepping Into Research program were presented, demonstrating the power of structured learning and mentoring in helping our staff get started on their researcher journey. The SIR ‘graduates’ commented that “you need a team to succeed” and I couldn’t agree more.
- Wednesday’s keynote from Professor Vasso Apostolopoulos (RMIT University), which showed us just how much ‘bench to bedside’ can be achieved across decades of dedication to research. Prof Apostolopoulos described key contributions to cancer, autoimmunity and infection care that span greater understanding of disease mechanisms, development of drugs and vaccines, the value of some natural bioactive compounds in healthcare, and the importance of community engagement in defining research directions.
- Thursday’s keynote from our own Dr Katharine See, was a real standout. Katharine and her CLEO team are working hard to ‘measure what matters, use what matters, and do what matters’ across our health service via digital care pathways co-designed with consumers. Also on Thursday, the Surgical Research Forum showcased the breadth and depth of research being undertaken across our surgical units, from laboratory-based investigations, through to generation of data aimed at saving dollars, and our planet.
- Friday’s Northern Health Foundation Research Breakfast, where keynote speaker Associate Professor Sam Forster (Hudson Institute of Medical Research) described how research is quickly growing our understanding of the microbiome, and how we can harness this understanding for improved health. This was followed by a joint presentation with our RMIT University colleagues on our Clinical Translation Partnership, and presentations from Northern Health researchers who have successfully attracted external funding for new research endeavours.
The week wrapped up with a bit of light-hearted fun – The Great Debate 2025. Affirmative (Karen Barclay, Don Campbell, Russell Hodgson) and Negative (Ravinder Kumar, Rebecca Jessup, Shekhar Kumta) teams battled it out over the topic “Robots will replace clinicians by 2050”. There was laughter, tears, plenty of robots, and a surprise harmonica, but in the end the Negative team took the win to thunderous applause (and reconfirmed Vassilis Kostakos’s sentiments from Day 1!).
Finally, awards for best abstract presentations were announced. Congratulations to the following researchers:
Best Printed Poster Day 1: Dr Jordan Kahn. Title: What is the correct duration of antimicrobials in infected, obstructed nephrolithiasis?
Best Printed Poster Day 2: Anabelle Shimmins. Title: Mental Health Nurses burnout and implications upon recovery-orientated care within the inpatient mental health services.
Best Printed Poster Day 3: Vince Chen. Title: Perioperative Outcomes in Smokers Undergoing Major Surgery: A Retrospective Audit at Northern Health.
Best Printed Poster Day 4: Dr Chamani Kodikara. Title: Patient experiences of Medical Obstetrics at Home (MOAH) care at Northern Health: A qualitative study.
People’s Choice Award for Best Poster: Satnam Kaur. Title: From Lipid Extraction to Analysis: The Clinical Potential of Vibrational Spectroscopy-Based Lipidomics of Human Plasma.
Best Abstract Oral Presentation – 3rd Place: Dr Swapna Gokhale. Title: Delirium risk prediction from routinely collected electronic health records: model development and internal validation.
Best Abstract Oral Presentation – 2nd Place: Dr Roy Wong. Title: Large Bore Mechanical Thrombectomy for Intermediate-High Risk Pulmonary Embolism: Northern Health Experience.
Peter Brooks Research Award 2025 (Best Abstract Oral Presentation – 1st Place): Ella Francis. Title: Pre-operative fasting times and the incidence of regurgitation and aspiration – a single-network retrospective data analysis.
Thank you to all who contributed to Research Week – our keynote speakers, abstract submitters, oral presenters, poster presenters, abstract reviewers, judges, MC’s, debate participants, and session attendees. A special thanks to Public Affairs for working alongside us to keep you informed of all the activities and telling the world about it through social media.
A HUGE thanks to the entire Research Development and Governance Unit (RDGU) Team for delivering Research Week 2025. It’s a very big event to deliver, with planning commencing more than six months prior, and your organisational skills are second-to-none. Particular shout-outs to Britt Szabo and Pree Holman, our exceptional admin team, who have worked tirelessly for months, and to Dr Tilini Gunatillake for gluing it all together as we moved through the week.
The RDGU team organises Research Week on behalf of our Northern Health Researchers – that’s you! If you would like to let us know how we can improve next year, or deliver activities that better meet your needs, please complete our Feedback Survey! We have a $50 Henry’s voucher up for grabs for a randomly selected respondent. The survey closes on Friday, 31 October.
Until next year!
Associate Professor Justine Ellis
Research Operations Manager
