Current projects
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NIISQ Research Funding
For an overview of our current research projects, view our NIISQ research project summary or read further detail below.
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Collaboration partner:
Griffith University
Commenced: 1 October 2024
Project duration: 3 years
Project lead: Prof Tim Geraghty and Samantha Borg
Project description: The aim of the Aus-InSCI Translation Project is to undertake planned translational activities based on the results of the 2018-19 and 2024 Aus-InSCI Community Survey. The Survey aims to identify problems in functioning across the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) domains, and evaluate changes over time in health, functioning and self-reported quality of life for people with spinal cord injury (SCI).
Outcomes: The findings of this project will be translated to help positive changes to clinical practice, changes in relevant policies and systems, and to help identify areas requiring enhanced community support for people with a spinal cord injury.
Benefits to our participants: Improved outcomes on the treatment, care and support for participants with a spinal cord injury in hospital and community settings.
Total budget: $511k
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Collaboration partner:
Griffith University
Commenced: 1 October 2024
Project duration: 3 years
Project lead: Dr Ronak Reshamwala
Project description: NIISQ is supporting a Fellow, Dr Ronak Reshamwala to develop a minimally invasive nerve bridge transplantation method for spinal cord injuries. The Fellow’s work aligns with MAIC’s Spinal Cord Injury Repair Project led by Prof James St Johns.
Outcomes: A key focus is to enhance the imaging protocol to address the challenge of visualising the injury site in the presence of metalwork, helping improve treatment options and targeted rehabilitation activities.
Benefits to our participants: The Fellow seeks to advance spinal cord injury treatment and provide more effective and less invasive solutions for individuals with spinal cord injury.
Total budget: $560k
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Collaboration partner: University of Queensland
Commenced: 1 September 2024
Project duration: 1 year
Project lead: Dr Robert Cuthbert
Project description: The project will work with consumers with lived experience to understand their needs with respect to wheelchair selection and mobility training. Using a novel approach of co-design with end users and healthcare professionals, researchers will develop and evaluate a prototype VR application to help consumers be informed when making a decision on selecting a motorised wheelchair.
Outcomes: The project will deliver a prototype VR application to help improve the motorised wheelchair selection process. If successful the VR application could be used in healthcare settings to help participants select a suitable wheelchair based on their individualised needs.
Benefits to our participants: Selecting the correct wheelchair in a safe training place is critical for NIISQ participant wheelchair users. This project will ensure participants can receive a wheelchair that is specifically tailored to their unique needs and requirements taking into account physical ability, lifestyle and environment helping maximise independence and quality of life. Furthermore, the VR wheelchair selection process may help to prevent pressure sores and discomfort that may arise from selecting a wheelchair that is not-well suited to the individual.
Total budget: $36k
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Collaboration partner:
Children’s Health Queensland Hospital and Health Service
Commenced: August 2024
Project duration: 3 years
Project lead: Professor Karen Barlow
Project description: The project aims to establish a virtual clinician community of practice ‘Supporting mental health and Adjustment during Recovery after Brain and Spinal Cord Injury in Kids and Youths’ (known as SPARKY).
Outcomes: SPARKY will be the first mental health mentoring network that aims to strengthen community clinicians’ capacity, self-efficacy, and confidence in managing the mental health needs of children and youths, and their families, after a brain or spinal cord injury, across Queensland (including rural and remote communities).
Benefits to our participants: SPARKY will help provide a more effective healthcare pathway for families to take, a more personalised care with tailored interventions specific to the NIISQ participant cohort and their health-related risk factors. Upskilling community clinicians, children and youths’ mental health needs will be addressed early to help better equip them to navigate the complexities of adolescence and adulthood especially with an underlying brain or spinal injury.
Total budget: $500k
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Collaboration partner: University of Queensland (Queensland Brain Institute)
Commenced: May 2024
Project duration: 3 years
Project lead: Associate Professor Fatima Nasrallah
Project description: The Queensland Brain Injury Collaborative (QBIC) enables a collection of researchers, scientists, clinicians, health professionals, people with lived experience and other stakeholders to connect, collaborate and improve care across the trajectory of brain injury.
Outcomes: Research often takes place within multiple universities separate to health services. The main goal of QBIC is to act as a central organisation linking universities, hospitals, people with lived experience, and others to introduce and exchange knowledge and data, to collaborate and co-design new and updated evidence-based research that can be implemented into practice to transform Queensland’s healthcare.
Benefits to our participants: Improving cost-effective interventions that are coordinated, co-designed and evidence-based across the brain injury continuum, within and across health and community settings, will ensure people with brain injuries receive the best available evidence-based treatment, care and support.
Total budget: Approx. $890k
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Collaboration partner:
University of Sunshine Coast
Commenced: April 2024
Project duration: 2 years
Project lead: Dr Michele Verdonck
Project description: This project seeks to understand how technology can be used in the homes of participants to improve independence, manage their disability and enhance quality of life, health and well-being.
Outcomes: The project will increase our knowledge and understanding of technology-enabled homes to be able to grow a community of practice for participants to empower their use of smart technology. Guidelines will be created for best practice as well as a resource platform/library on benefits and challenges for smart technology use.
Benefits to our participants: Participants will have a community of practice allowing for an opportunity to share knowledge and empower other participants to manage their injury through effective smart technology use. The resource platform/library will allow participants to understand different smart technologies to suit their needs and injury, whilst reviewing the benefits and challenges.
Total budget: $156k
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Collaboration partner: QUT
Commenced: 4 March 2024
Project duration: 3 months
Project leads: Jacelle Warren, Joy Wang, Prof Kirsten Vallmuur and Eloise Hummell
Project aim: To review and evaluate data collected by NIISQ that may be available for use for insights around goal attainment and treatment, care, support options.
Objectives:
- The project will identify and test appropriate methods to extract themes from rich text-based participant goal statements for use in analytics.
- Explore relationship between goals and:
a) Goal attainment
b) The participants stage in their recovery journey (intake, empower or independence)
c) Other factors - To explore themes in new applications with linked data from the Claims study.
Total budget: $156k
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Collaboration partner: James Cook University
Commenced: February 2024
Project duration: 2 years and 3 months
Project lead: Associate Professor Ruth Barker
Project description: The aim of this project is to pilot a highly skilled regional Community Integration Team (CIT) in Far North Queensland and Northwest Queensland to support participants’ access, navigate and integrate high quality care and support from within and outside the region.
Outcomes: The project will determine the feasibility, acceptability and sustainability of the regional CIT as a solution for equity of access to high quality services and frontline capability, and capacity in Far North Queensland and Northwest Queensland.
Benefits to our participants: The regional CIT will enhance community integration, working with NIISQ participants to access specialised rehabilitation services, whilst increasing capability and capacity of local service providers to help improve outcomes for individuals with Traumatic Brain Injuries and other complex disability conditions.
Total budget: Approx. $595k
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Project 1: Mixed methods RCT of telehealth Program for the Enrichment of Relational Skills (PEERS®) for teens: Co-designed
Project 2: Mixed methods RCT of PEERS® for Primary School
Collaboration partner: University of Queensland
Commenced: 05 January 2023
Project duration: 3.5 years
Project lead: Associate Professor Leanne Sakzewski. PhD, Bachelor of Occupational Therapy
The project aims to test the effectiveness, acceptability and feasibility of a telehealth delivered social skills program, called PEERS® to high school aged youth with brain injuries and face-to-face group delivered PEERS® for primary school in two pilot randomised controlled trials to:
- Achieve social participation goals
- Improve emotions, relationships and socialisation
- Improve social skills
- Increase social skills knowledge
- Decrease peer victimisation
- Improve quality of life
Anticipated outcomes and impact of project for NIISQ participants and NIISQ Agency: children and youth with brain injuries (including NIISQ participants) who complete PEERS® will have improved confidence in social situations, develop skills to make and keep friends with overarching positive impact on quality of life. Importantly, is anticipate that caregivers will develop the skills to coach their child in challenging social situations, and these skills will enable sustainability of outcomes of this intervention in the longer term.
Is anticipate that the new evidence generated by these projects will:
(1) enable flexible delivery options of PEERS® for youth with brain injuries (face-to-face or telehealth);
(2) give clinicians evidence of an effective program to improve social functioning of primary school aged children with brain injuries.
Total budget: $269,057.00
Last updated: November 2024