Associate Professor Leigh Kinsman has travelled to Canada to work on an evaluation project of Saskatchewan’s health care transformation using the Lean Management System.

Leigh will work with Dr Thomas Rotter from the College of Pharmacy and Nutrition, University of Saskatchewan, and meet with a research team from the University of Western Ontario.

The group is looking to adapt the Lean Management System to the health industry to reduce health-care costs, maximize efficiencies and improve patient oriented experiences. The initial focus for the group is on leadership, strategic alignment, training, and creation of a supportive infrastructure.

This is the planning phase to develop a complete evaluation plan where the goal is a whole system transformation that produces ‘better health, better value, better care, and better teams.’

The third issue of the Centre of Research Excellence (CRE) in Rural and Remote Primary Health Care newsletter will be available early in July.

If you would like to go on the electronic mailing list or if you would prefer to receive a hard copy by snail mail, send an email lisa.lavey@monash.edu to place your order.

The newsletter will also be available on the CRE website.

Events can also be followed on twitter.

Mildura

The experiences of pre-school children from the Pacific Islands and their families, who now live in Australia, will be examined in a study in the Mildura region.

The study is being conducted by the School of Rural Health and Sunraysia Community Health Services and will provide a snapshot of how experiences before starting school can affect a child’s development.

Fiona Tipping, Occupational Therapist at Sunraysia Community Health Services and Monash adjunct, said that there were significant gaps in early childhood development and by the time children started school it was hard to change their developmental pathway.

Mildura Rural City Council has a high proportion of children who are considered developmentally vulnerable. While not all those from culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) backgrounds are developmentally vulnerable, it is one of the risk factors.

A recent Mildura Rural City Council investigation found that the number of CALD children accessing funded kindergarten places in the year before starting school was extremely low and there are also low rates of utilisation of paediatric allied health services.

The Mildura region has a diverse population. The Pacific Island migrant community is one of the larger migrant groups in the region, with approximately 2000 Pacific Islanders from Tonga, Samoa, Cook Islands, Fiji and the Solomon Islands.

Dr Bernadette Ward from the School of Rural Health said early childhood was a critical time in development where experiences prepare children for transition to full time school, and establish lifelong learning pathways.

“We are interested in hearing from parents about what they feel is important for their family and child’s journey before they start primary school,” Dr Ward said. “This research will assist us to better understand the factors that influence people from rural Pacific Island migrant communities’ decisions in accessing services for their children.

“It will guide local services in the area of health and education and ensure early years services are appropriate and accessible for Pacific Island migrant children in the Mildura region.”

The researchers are calling on parents from Pacific Island migrant communities in the Mildura region, who have a 4-5 year old child due to start school in 2014, to participate in the study.

Those who want to participate in the study have been asked to contact Dr Ward on 03 5444 9064 / 0427 059 205 Bernadette.Ward@monash.edu or Fiona Tipping on +61 3 5022 5444 / 0437 844 503 ftipping@shcs.com.au

Information taken from Research Professional regarding some of the scholarships and funding available for the next four months is listed below. Thanks to Helen Chambers for providing the information.

VFFF RACP research entry scholarship in rural health

The Royal Australasian College of Physicians and the Vincent Fairfax Family Foundation enable Australian fellows and trainees of the college to undertake research into rural health issues. Proposed research must include collaboration or partnership with rural organisations, and involve some time spent in outer regional, rural and remote areas.

Applicants must be enrolled in, or about to enrol in a research higher degree and specialise in rural health.

The scholarship is worth $30,000 per year over two years.

• Closing date: 8 July 13
• Award type: Directed grants for individual investigators; Financial aid for postgraduate students; Early-Career fellowships; Predoctoral fellowships
• Award amount max: $60,000
• Consortium requirements: Required
• Australian category: Category 3

Information Society Innovation grants

The Information Society Innovation Fund provides financial support for information society innovation and development projects in the form of small grants. The funding categories for 2012 are:

• innovation on access provision – ICT access is a prevalent issue in the Australia Pacific region, especially for services that require broadband connectivity. Innovative solutions offering low cost deployment, low power consumption and low maintenance that expands fixed and mobile access to the internet through new forms of technical and organisational arrangements as well as improve the quality of access based on issues of accessibility, disability and linguistic diversity;
• innovation on learning and localisation – capacity building and localisation efforts have been key to develop the skills needed to design, maintain and manage ICT infrastructure and services in local languages, supporting local talent and creating job opportunities in rural or urban marginalised areas;
• code for the common good – high mobile penetration in the Australia Pacific region has been a catalyst in the development of mobile-based services, applications and software solutions. These solutions have been used to support timely and relevant information dissemination on a large scale using a range of network infrastructures through a variety of devices, even where literacy rates are lower;

Grants of up to AU$30,000 for a period of six to 12 months are available.

• Closing date: 10 Aug 13 (Forecast)
• Award type: Directed grants to institutions, research groups etc; Equipment and materials; Innovation grants; Publish, edit, translate, disseminate; Technology innovation/development; Hosting conferences
• Award amount max: $30,000
• Consortium requirements: Not Known
• Australian category: Category 3

The 2013 SRH Graduate Research Forum was held at MUDRIH on Tuesday 4 June. The theme of this year’s forum was ‘Beyond the PhD – Where to from here’. HDR (Higher Degree by Research) students from across the school came together for the day and were joined by supervisors and other staff from across the School, both in person and via video and teleconference.

A number of the students gave short presentations on their studies which resulted in good discussion and feedback from the rest of the group. Presentations were made by the Head of MIGR, Dr Charles Tustin, the MPA on HDR hot topics, our Faculty HDR Associate Dean – Sharon Ricardo, Jahna Pulman on Strategic Career Planning and Professor Bob Williamson, who discussed the importance of good mentorship. Presentations will be made available on the School’s intranet shortly – on the soon to be launched HDR page.

The School also held its round of the three minute thesis competition which was judged by Angelo D’Amore, Clare Van Den Dolder and Professor Bob Williamson.  The judging panel declared it a draw with the $200 prize being split evenly between Marita Chisholm and Nicole Kellow.  However, the judging panel decided that Marita will represent our School at the Faculty round of the competition in the next couple of months.

SRH Graduate Students at Research Forum

Dr Dennis O’Connor was the only representative from a rural school at the recent ‘Skilful GP Conference’ at Prato, Italy.

Dennis was involved in a plenary session address and facilitation of three practical workshops.  His presentation covered the ‘role and importance of regional and rural medical undergraduate education and retention of graduates in these areas.’

Being the only rural school representative and with a rural background proved helpful in networking with medical and academic colleagues from regional, rural and metropolitan Australia, Malaysia and Europe.

Marita Chisholm attended the ‘Alzheimer’s Australia 15^th National Conference’ in Hobart, Tasmania.

The conference theme was ‘The tiles of life – colouring the future’ and included sub themes of liberation, rehabilitation, leisure, service, creativity, research and wellbeing.

The conference brought together researchers, service providers, carers and most importantly people with dementia to discuss ways of moving forward, and how to support people living with dementia and their carers.

Marita’s PhD explores ‘access to dementia care and support services for rural Victorians’ and she found the conference particularly valuable for her ongoing research.

Centre for Research Excellence (CRE) team members recently attended meetings in Canberra over three days, which raised the profile of the CRE within the Department of Health and Ageing and other organisations such as Health Workforce Australia (HWA).

At the CRE National Advisory Committee in mid-May there were several presentations from postdoctoral fellows and PhD students, including two from Bendigo, Dr Deb Russell (retention) and Dr Bernadette Ward (access).

The National Advisory Committee includes members of leading rural health organisations and community members from across the country.

The consensus from the Committee is that the CRE is on track and providing some valuable evidence about rural and remote primary health care.

On the second day, a whole of CRE team meeting discussed progress and future possibilities post 2014.

On the final day, there were several meetings with the Department of Health and Ageing.  A presentation by Emeritus Professor John Humphreys and Professor John Wakerman highlighted how research evidence can translate into policy and was very well received.

There was particular interest in the work of John and Dr Matthew McGrail on the review of the ASGC classifications, and Dr Deb Russell’s work on retention of health workers.

A seminar was also held and was open to all staff at the Department of Health and Ageing.  Seventy people attended and were highly engaged.  Meetings were also held with the Performance and Quality Branch and several other key personnel of DoHA.  All in all, it was a very successful day of meetings and presentations with positive feedback.

The next big conference is the Primary Health Care Research Conference in Sydney in July.

Four CRE staff members will be presenting, Dr Matthew McGrail, Dr Bernadette Ward, Dr Deb Russell and Lisa Lavey. Dr Penny Buykx is also named on a poster presentation by Professor Mike Jones, a CRE Associate Investigator.

How patients are involved in the education of health professionals is the topic of the next School of Rural Health Journal Club.

All education, clinical, research staff and students are invited to take part in the discussion, which is on Wednesday 12 June starting at 12 noon, for one hour.

The Journal Club is held in Meeting Room 3 (Level 2), at the Bendigo School of Rural Health or by videoconference (IP 130.194.213.113) or teleconference (9903 5988) from other sites.

The full title of the article, by Towle et al (2010) is ‘Active patient involvement in the education of health professionals.’ Medical Education 44:64-74.

Facilitator is Pam Harvey.

Congratulations are extended to Penny Buykx who was recently awarded ‘The Advancing Women’s Research Success Grant.’

The Monash award identifies the need to significantly increase the representation of women in senior academic roles and has been designed to support women’s career progression. It also assists the University in meeting its targets in relation to senior academic women.

The program acknowledges that women may experience significant tension between academic success and family duties.  It is intended to support women to enhance, maintain or re-invigorate their research profile at a critical time in their careers.

By providing funding that can be used flexibly, the grants can reduce the impact of career breaks and/or intense caring responsibilities on women’s research productivity and career progression.

Penny plans to make good use of the grant by undertaking career development coaching sessions as well as in other areas yet to be decided.

Penny Buykx