Year-in-Review-2021-22 - Flipbook - Page 90
A snapshot of Research in
Sydney Local Health District
Sydney Local Health District academics and
employees were contributors to more than 2111
publications in the 2021 calendar year.
88 discussed the impact of the COVID-19
pandemic across various health services.
The Research Office supported the establishment
of the Post-COVID Respiratory Clinics and Long
COVID Clinic and continued to expedite review of
COVID research studies by the Research Ethics
and Governance Offices.
Highlights:
• Innovation Week, Clinical Trials Showcase
and Clinical Trial Excellence Awards.
The Clinical Trials Showcase posted its highest
registration rates since its inception, with close
to 400 registrations for the in-person event
and over 180 for the online event. Two Clinical
Trial Awards were presented to recognise
outstanding contributions from researchers
and research support staff from Sydney Local
Health District.
• The Clinical Trial of the Year Award was
awarded to Dr Lauren Troy, RPA Respiratory
Department, for the Cryobiopsy versus Open
Lung biopsy in the Diagnosis of Interstitial
Lung disease alliance (The COLDICE Study).
The COLDICE Study was a world-first, multicentre Australian study with international
collaborators. The study compared a new
technique for diagnosing lung disease, the
cryobiopsy, to the standard surgical lung
biopsy. All participants in the study underwent
the two forms of biopsy, and a group of expert
pathologists analysed each one to determine
the accuracy of the new technique. The study,
published in Lancet Respiratory Medicine in
September 2019, showed that the cryobiopsy
had good diagnostic accuracy, with a high level
of agreement with the surgical biopsy. These
important results have already influenced
clinical practice around the world, with
inclusion of findings in international guidelines.
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• The Excellence in Clinical Trial Support
Award was awarded to Romana Cecchele,
Senior Investigational Drug Unit Pharmacist
at RPA. Romana has headed up the RPA
Pharmacy investigational Drug Unit team
for approximately 8 years. Her team of 4
pharmacists and a Pharmacy Technician work
extremely hard to facilitate all the trials across
the RPA campus, along with supporting some
of the smaller hospitals that may have little
to no experience in running trials. There are
currently more than 260 industry-sponsored
and investigator-led clinical trials that are
actively supported by Romana’s team.
• Continued to play a pivotal role in Sydney
Health Partners, one of the first four
Advanced Health Research and Translation
Centres in Australia.
Research departments recorded
446 grants that were either active
in 2021 or newly awarded in 2021
for future commencement.
138 new clinical trials were
authorised across the District,
bringing the total number of active
clinical trials to approximately 620.
414 ethics submissions were
approved and 552 governance
submissions were authorised.
Sydney Local Health District
