Highlights

February – March 2025 Highlights

New VicHealth and Deakin Commercial and Economic Determinants of Health Research Translation Centre launched

Running from 2025-2030, the new $8 million Commercial & Economic Determinants of Health Research Translation Centre, was successfully launched on Thursday 27 March 2025. Deakin University and VicHealth have joined forces to create a world-leading research centre to explore interactions between our economy, commercial entities and health outcomes. Led by Professor Gary Sacks, the Centre features a cross-faculty team including researchers from Faculty of Health, Faculty of Arts and Education, and Faculty of Business and Law.  

The aim of the new Centre is to change policy systems and incentivise investment and business models that support health, equity and planetary health. It will focus on impact and timely outputs, community informed prioritisation process and collaboration and mobilisation of partners.  

Prof Sacks said: “We know communities want change. We hear the same thing consistently, people don’t want corporate profits at the expense of their health.” 

Overall, creating meaningful impact and driving sustainable change will be at the heart of the new Centre. The focus on implementation will ensure knowledge translation is based on best-practice evidence, be community-led and informed, and create systems that support healthy, equitable and sustainable communities, and intergenerational wellbeing.  

The Centre will begin operations around July 2025. The first 12 months will be devoted to developing priority focus areas and a detailed work plan, in broad consultation with academics, policymakers, community groups and NGOs. Look out for opportunities to contribute in the second half of the year. 

Thursday’s launch was also an opportunity to celebrate the amazing research of the finishing Deakin VicHealth fellows, including the Institute’s Christina Zorbas, Florentine Martino and Hannah Pitt.  

 Congratulations to:  

• Congratulations to the professors conferred at the Feb 2025 graduation ceremonies their Deakin Distinguished Professor titles:
  – Deakin Distinguished Professors Julie Considine
  – Deakin Distinguished Professor Judy Currey
  – Deakin Distinguished Professor Steven Allender
• QPS Co-Director Deakin Distinguished Professor Tracey Bucknall was recently appointed to the NHMRC-MRFF Public Health and Health Systems Committee. A significant recognition of leadership. Congratulations Tracey! 

• DHE member, Mary Rose Angeles, in collaboration with Martin Hensher (lead) and Paul Crosland, has received well-deserved recognition. Their paper, “Challenges for Medicare and Universal Health Care in Australia Since 2000,” published in the Medical Journal of Australia, is among their top 10 most-cited papers of 2023! 

• Associate Professor Stephane Bouchoucha has just been awarded an externally led NHMRC 2024 Collaborations in Health Services Research worth $952,655 titled “SHIELD: Surveillance of Healthcare-associated Infections for Effective Local Data” a collaboration between Melbourne University, Monash University, Deakin University, VICNISS, Avondale and NCAS 

• Deakin Distinguished Professor Julie Considine was awarded a NHMRC partnership grant of $1,490,000 for a five-year study led by Professor Kate Curtis from USyd titled “HIRAID Inpatient: Improving the safety and quality of nursing care for hospital patients”. This study builds on the NHMRC funded HIRAID® ED SW-cRCT involving 29 EDs in NSW and Victoria, which is currently drawing to a close.For those not familiar with HIRAID®, it stands for History including Infection risk, Red flags, Assessment, Interventions, Diagnostics, reassessment and communication. HIRAID® is the only validated framework designed to support emergency nurses in assessing and managing emergency department patients after triage and we have been working on the HIRAID® program of research for over a decade. In addition to our 29 trial sites, HIRAID® ED has been / is being implemented in 86 emergency departments, urgent care centres and multi-purpose services in Victoria, NSW, South Australia and Tasmania including statewide implementation in South Australia and Tasmania, and regional implementation in Victoria’s Loddon Mallee Health Network.  We have also adapted HIRAID® for the Aged Care sector (MRFF funded and led by Professor Ramon Shaban from USyd) and we are currently in the implementation phase in 23 residential aged care facilities in Western Sydney.  
• GLOBE team members Victoria Hobbs for completing her Bachelor of Nutrition Science (with Distinction) and Dr Alessandro Crocetti for completing his PhD with thesis titled “The commercial determinants of Indigenous health and wellbeing”.
• Professor Kathryn Backholer was awarded two grants: Australian Government Department of Health and Aged Care $400,000 to build an AI monitoring system for digital marketing of infant formula and from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research in collaboration with University of Ottawa for $100,000 for successful NIH grant digital.

Visiting Scholars based with the Disability and Inclusion Team

Dr Emily Gaspar is a Fulbright Scholar visiting from the USA. Emily is based with the Disability and Inclusion team until end of May 2025. Emily is conducting research with people with lived experience of disability who are employed at universities to support students with disability. This builds on similar research conducted by Emily in the USA for her PhD. Emily is recruiting participants from universities across Australia. To contact Emily email: e.gaspar@deakin.edu.au 

Professor Tobias Bernasconi is the Chair of Pedagogy and Rehabilitation for People with Intellectual and Severe Disabilities at the University of Cologne, Germany. Tobias, his wife Bernadette (who is also an academic working in special education) and their three children are here until the end of August 2025. Tobias will be working with the Disability and Inclusion team on our shared interests of enhancing Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) for people with complex communication needs including those from refugee and asylum seeker backgrounds, older people with intellectual disability with dementia, and people with multiple and profound intellectual disability. Tobias is running a workshop on the Cologne AAC system on Friday 18th July at Deakin Downtown. Bernadette will be connecting with special education teachers and visiting schools. You can contact Tobias on tobias.bernasconi@uni-koeln.de and Bernadette on bernadette.bernasconi@uni-koeln.de 

Go back to the April 25 Newsletter