Welcome Message

Awards are still open for the 2017 round! Don’t forget, Boehringer Ingelheim COPD awards close on Friday at midnight.

With this newsletter I am happy to announce that the TSANZ Research Committee has revised the Indigenous Nurses career development award to better support respiratory nurses in indigenous research. The new and improved version is the TSANZ Respiratory Nurse Career Development Award for Indigenous Research and aims to increase the number of respiratory nurses participating in the TSANZ ASM, foster networking opportunities, and support research into indigenous health.

The AstraZeneca Grant-in-Aid for Severe Asthma Research is also now open. 

To those of you who are just returning from the recent APSR 2016 in Bangkok, welcome back. I trust there were many robust discussions about novel research and that everyone is now looking forward for @APSR17 in Sydney! 

Enjoy your November Research Roundup,

Prof Phil Hansbro

Chair, Research Sub-Committee

The following articles will take you to thelimbic.com

Towards new therapies for severe steroid insensitive asthma. In this month’s holy grail Jay Horvat, a Senior Lecturer in Immunology and Microbiology at Newcastle University in NSW, describes his progress in addressing a major unmet need in asthma therapy – new therapies for severe forms of steroid-insensitive asthma. Read More. 

TSANZ calls for mandatory accreditation all sleep centres. In its submission to the Thoracic Medicine Clinical Committee’s review of MBS respiratory and sleep items the professional body has called for the accreditation of all sleep laboratories but concedes there may be push back from parts of the community. Read More.

Clinicians won’t solve asthma alone. The fact that asthma management has changed little since the 1960s should be a wake up call that we need a new approach to research in order to advance patient outcomes, says an international expert who delivered the Ann Woolcock lecture last week. Read More.

Too much oxygen for too little benefit. US research published in the NEJM that finds long-term oxygen has no benefit in patients with stable COPD is consistent with TSANZ guidelines and strengthens evidence regarding supplemental oxygen in patients with SpO2 range of 89-93% an expert says. Read More.

Negative bronchodilator response can exclude asthma in young kids. Spirometry can be useful in preschool aged children to help predict asthma – with a bronchodilator response based on FEV0.75 shown to offer the most discrimination, Australia experts say. Read More.

Simple home based pulmonary rehab offers hope for some COPD patients. Home-based pulmonary rehabilitation delivered using minimal resources has similar – and in some cases even superior – outcomes to centre-based pulmonary rehabilitation, Australian researchers have found. Read More.

Open Awards

TSANZ Awards currently open

Boehringer Ingelheim COPD Research Award *closes Friday!*

Boehringer Ingelheim COPD Travel Award *closes Friday!*

AstraZeneca Grant-in-Aid for Severe Asthma Research

TSANZ AWARD Indigenous Respiratory Nurse Award *revised award*

External Awards

European Respiratory Society: RESPIRE3 Marie Curie programme

Watch this space for more awards announcements…

Lungs for Life Grant Bulletin

The Lungs for Life project has identified the following direct-to-researcher grants due between now and the first quarter of 2017:

Advance Queensland Johnson & Johnson Innovation Quick Fire Challenge – closes 30 Nov 16

Sir Edward Dunlop Medical Research Foundation – closes 18 Jan 17

Thrasher Research Fund – Early Career Awards – closes 15 Mar 17

Research Project and Survey Requests

Acceptability and Perceived Benefit of Prehabilitation amongst Thoracic surgeons throughout Australia

Dear TSANZ members

This survey is being conducted to determine the Acceptability and Perceived Benefit of Prehabilitation amongst Thoracic surgeons throughout Australia. It is part of a larger research project looking at the benefits of prehabilitation for individuals having lung cancer surgery in Australia.

This survey is open to Thoracic surgeons currently practicing in Australia and New Zealand.

Your help in completing this survey is greatly appreciated. It is hoped that the results of this survey will assist the direction of future research into exercise interventions for patients with lung cancer.

It is anticipated this survey will take approximately 10 -15 minutes to complete. Responses to this survey are anonymous and will remain confidential. All responses are voluntary. Completion of the survey will indicate your consent to participate. Please follow the link below to complete the survey online.

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/PREHAB

For further information or assistance with completing this survey please contact Anna Shukla (Senior Cardiorespiratory Physiotherapist – St Vincent’s Hospital, Melbourne):

Email: anna.shukla@svha.org.au

This research has been approved by the School Of Health Sciences Human Research Ethics Advisory group (Ethics I.D 1646932) at the University of Melbourne.

Barriers and facilitators to optimal use of acute oxygen therapy in adults

Dear colleagues,

Our research  team is conducting a study to investigate the  barriers, facilitators and attitudes of health care professionals towards the prescription and delivery of oxygen therapy in the acute care setting. We hope that the results from this study will provide information that will be used to inform and facilitate the translation of evidence based guidelines into clinical practice.

As a clinician who delivers care to patients who use oxygen therapy, we understand that your views and opinions are important. You are invited to participate in this voluntary online survey. It is expected that this should take no longer than 15 minutes. There are no correct or incorrect responses, this survey is designed to explore your opinions regarding acute oxygen therapy.

This study has been granted ethics approval by Hunter New England Human Research Ethics Committee  (Approval number: 16/04/20/5.03) and the University of Newcastle Human Research Ethics Committee (Reference Number: H-2016-0222). For further information you can view the participant information HERE

There are no anticipated risks to you for taking part in this survey. Information that you provide will be anonymous and remain confidential. Only those directly involved in this research have access to any answers that you provide. Participation in the survey implies consent and can be completed by clicking  the  OXYGEN SURVEY LINK HERE

Please feel free to contact us directly if you have any questions regarding this research.

We thank you in advance for participating and ask you to consider forwarding this survey to other colleagues, who also deliver care to patients with oxygen therapy.

Kind Regards

Professor Vanessa McDonald
Professor Peter Wark
Joyce Cousins (PhD Scholar)
Contact: joyce.cousins@uon.edu.au

Inhaled Liposomal Amikacin for treatment resistant MAC infection – a randomised control trial enrolling now.

Dear TSANZ members,
There is currently an industry sponsored RCT of Nebulised Liposomal Amikacin for pulmonary MAC infection which has failed six months of standard therapy or relapsed after treatment. This is the first RCT of a novel compound for NTM infection. Inclusion and exclusion criteria are in the link below.

https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT02344004?term=LAI&rank=3

The CONVERT STUDY is an international, multi-centre study and there are a number of study sites in Australia and New Zealand. The study sponsor is prepared to pay for travel and accommodation expenses for people in regional areas to travel to study sites.
If you wish to discuss possible patients for screening and enrolment, I can be contacted via email at andrew.burke@health.qld.gov.au, and I can direct you to your nearest study site.

Dr Andrew Burke
Thoracic and Infectious Diseases Physician
The Prince Charles Hospital, Brisbane
(study PI, no conflicts)

APSR Respiratory Updates is a unique publication bringing you the most important clinical research in respiratory medicine. Each month an expert within the APSR will identify and review ten key publications in their field. In addition to a link to the publication, a brief commentary on why the study is important will be provided. This series represents an important initiative of the Education Committee of the APSR. We hope you find it informative and useful in your clinical practice.

Dr David CL Lam