A successful Centre of Research Excellence (CRE) Launch was held on Tuesday 12th of July 2022 at the Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital Education Centre. Reducing the burden of antimicrobial resistance using optimised personalised dosing is an important initiative that will have a lasting impact on the health outcomes of patients and their families.
Attendance was notable despite the hospital being under Tier 3 pandemic restrictions. Professor Geoff McColl, Executive Dean of the Faculty of Medicine officially launched the Centre. Patience Kawodza, Senior Director of the Strategic Priorities Unit at the Metro North Hospital and Health Service; Mr David Bunker Executive Director of Health Translation Queensland and Professor Jason Roberts presented on the importance of the health service - institute and academia partnerships to combat ineffectual use of antimicrobial drugs to reduce the prevalence of antimicrobial-resistant pathogens. Consumer representatives Drs Andrew Burke and Zara Weedon gave an account of how medical research has helped their family.
A symposium followed with Associate Professor Connie Landersdorfer from Monash University presenting on optimisation of antibiotic dosing regiments through invitro studies and mathematical modelling. Emeritus Professor Jeffrey Lipman AM presented on the implications of disease processes on antibiotic dosing and Dr Suzanne Parker, Deputy Director of the CRE, presented on microsampling for critically ill neonates, infants, and children. The Launch ended with networking and refreshments.
A recruitment campaign to fill available PhD opportunities with the CRE was undertaken which resulted in the appointment of Mikaela Walker, Yixuan Li and Yalew Molla.
