Biography

I am an Occupational and Environmental Medicine Registrar with over a decade of surgical and orthopaedic experience. I have worked in clinics and in theatre with some of the leading specialists in Australia with experience in orthopaedics, pain, neurosurgery and general surgery. I have extensively worked with injured workers managing their treatment, rehabilitation and return to work.

In parallel with clinical practice, I maintain a strong commitment to applied research. I am the lead researcher at Cuff Link, a multidisciplinary service model dedicated to the management of work-related shoulder injuries, with a focused interest in improving both clinical recovery and return-to-work outcomes. The service provides the clinical foundation for the prospective cohort study examining outcomes in injured workers with rotator cuff pathology.

I am also interested in medical device innovation, and have contributed to the development and technical validation of emerging medical technologies developed by ArthroLase and StomaLife.

Short project description

Rotator cuff-related shoulder pain is one of the most common causes of shoulder problems in working adults. It often leads to time off work, high medical costs, and long compensation claims. This study will follow 150 injured workers in Western Australia who have shoulder pain caused by damage to their rotator cuff. Researchers will track their recovery over time to see how different treatments — like physiotherapy, scans, injections, or surgery — affect their shoulder function and return to work.

Participants will complete regular clinical tests, and answer questionnaires about their shoulder pain and how it affects their daily activities. These results, combined with imaging reports and medical records, will help the study understand which treatment pathways work best.

By comparing this group to past cases, the study will highlight whether following recommended treatment guidelines leads to better outcomes. The project also aims to see whether early interventions, such as exercise-based therapy, improve recovery and shorten the time workers are away from work.

The findings will provide important evidence to guide doctors, insurers, and policymakers in managing work-related shoulder injuries more effectively. Ultimately, this research hopes to improve care for workers, reduce the impact of shoulder injuries, and help people return to their jobs sooner.

Biography

Dr Jonathan Ciofani is a cardiology advanced trainee at Royal North Shore Hospital in Sydney. He completed his Doctor of Medicine with the University of Sydney and a Master of Public Health with Imperial College London, where he developed expertise in genetic epidemiology and Mendelian randomisation methodology. His research focuses on leveraging genetic data to identify drug targets for cardiovascular disease, with a particular interest in aortic stenosis – a condition affecting over 12% of individuals over 75 years of age that currently has no medical treatment options. His work has been published in journals including the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, European Heart Journal: Cardiovascular Pharmacotherapy, and Circulation: Genomic and Precision Medicine. Dr Ciofani serves as Chair of the Cardiac Society of Australia and New Zealand Fellows in Training Committee and as Section Editor for Genomics and Precision Medicine at Heart, Lung and Circulation.

Short project description

The aortic valve controls blood flow between the heart and the rest of the body. When the heart contracts, the aortic valve opens and blood travels from the left ventricle of the heart (the main pumping chamber) to the aorta (the body’s main conduit for blood flow).

Aortic stenosis (AS) is the abnormal narrowing of the aortic valve that progresses from a mild to severe stage. This impairs the flow of blood from the heart to the rest of the body and causes heart failure, loss of consciousness and death. Approximately 12% of individuals over the age of 75 years are diagnosed with AS, of whom over a quarter have severe AS. If left untreated, up to 50% of patients die within two years of symptom onset. The only treatment option currently available is an aortic valve replacement. At present, there are no tablet-based medical therapies to prevent or treat AS.

The current research project aims to identify anti-calcific drug targets to prevent and treat AS. Our team has particularly advanced skills in leveraging genetic data to evaluate causal relationships between risk factors and diseases, and to use this data to identify potential drug targets likely to be effective in diseases of interest. The principal methodological approach we use is Mendelian randomisation. This is a research approach that can effectively perform in silico clinical trials in a time and cost efficient manner. Overall, this research aims to develop evidence for medical therapies for valvular heart disease.

Biography

Dilip Jayasimhan is an intensive care specialist and respiratory physician based in Aotearoa New Zealand. He is currently undertaking a PhD with the Medical Research Institute of New Zealand and Te Herenga Waka–Victoria University of Wellington. Dilip’s research programme centres on understanding the effect of spontaneous breathing in acute hypoxaemic respiratory failure requiring invasive mechanical ventilation. He is the chief investigator of SABRE-NZ (Spontaneous Breathing in Respiratory Failure Evaluation in New Zealand), a prospective multicentre inception cohort study.

Short project description

Critically ill patients often develop lung failure, needing breathing support from a ventilator. Current medical guidelines encourage clinicians to use a strategy of low tidal volumes (giving smaller breaths through the ventilator) to prevent further damage. However, many clinicians in Australia and New Zealand allow patients to breathe a little on their own earlier than in other countries. This is called “spontaneous breathing.” While this can make it harder to adhere to the recommended smaller breaths, studies show that death due to severe lung failure is less common in Australia and New Zealand than in many other countries. This raises an important question: Could allowing patients to breathe on their own earlier help them recover? Before we can test this idea in a large study, we need to better understand current usual practice in more detail. This study will evaluate how often and how early patients in New Zealand are allowed to breathe on their own while on a ventilator. It will also examine how closely current care follows recommended guidelines and what the outcomes are for these patients. This research will help us determine if a future large trial is possible, and how it should be designed.

Biography

Dr Simon Paget is a Rehabilitation Medicine Paediatrician and clinician researcher with a growing leadership role in paediatric rehabilitation medicine and cerebral palsy. He graduated from the University of London, UK and completed his PhD at the University of Sydney. His current roles include Senior Staff Specialist at Gold Coast University Hospital and Clinical Senior Lecturer at the University of Sydney. Dr Paget’s research sits at the intersection between childhood disability, health care equity and access and digital health. His recent work has leveraged data collected routinely in the health system and consumer co-design to better understand the needs of families of children living with disabilities. Dr Paget is passionate about the potential of clinical research to drive improvements in service delivery. The receipt of this grant will further his mission to translate data-driven insights into transformative health outcomes.

Short project description

Navigating the healthcare system can be overwhelming for families of children with complex health problem, including children with cerebral palsy (CP), the most common physical disability in childhood. Children with CP and significant support needs often need to see numerous different specialists and have frequent hospital visits, but their care isn't always well-coordinated, leading to stress and preventable emergency trips. Our project aims to understand this complexity better to improve care. We will be studying thousands of existing, de-identified health records from children with severe CP in New South Wales and the ACT. By connecting the dots in their healthcare journeys, we can see the bigger picture of what they need. Using powerful computer methods to analyse this information, we will look for hidden patterns to identify different ‘types’ of health needs among these children. For example, some groups might frequently use emergency services, while others rely heavily on planned specialist appointments. By identifying these distinct groups, we can create a roadmap to help doctors anticipate a child’s needs. This will lead to better, more personalised and proactive care, ultimately resulting in fewer stressful hospital visits and improved quality of life for these children and their families.