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Children's Health Queensland Hospital and Health Service clinicians, in collaboration with Griffith University and the University of Michigan, have created the world’s first paediatric appropriateness guidelines for intravenous catheters.

New QIMR Berghofer research has identified how an early genetic change in blood and bone marrow cells paves the way for the development of some blood cancers. The discovery provides a new target for treatment of the blood cancers myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) and acute myeloid leukaemia (AML). MDS is often a precursor cancer to AML, a highly aggressive form of leukaemia.

Rigorous follow-up of Indigenous patients recovering from critical illness, particularly those who have discharged themselves from hospital, is essential, a new Medical Journal of Australia paper says.

The rate of potentially fatal preterm births in Western Australian hospitals can be safely reduced by up to 20% when a coordinated series of interventions is applied to pregnant women, according to researchers at The University of Western Australia.

An Australian-first antenatal vaccine communication model for midwives showed promise for increasing uptake of maternal and childhood vaccines, according to a pilot study. The research, led by the Murdoch Children's Research Institute (MCRI) and published in Vaccine, found the intervention was feasible, acceptable and improved midwives' vaccine discussions with expectant mothers.

Australia's first possible case of locally transmitted Candida auris – an emergent, multidrug-resistant yeast – was identified with two cases in one Melbourne hospital ward in 2018, and may be the first instance of transmission of C. auris in Australia, prompting warnings of the importance of greater awareness and research investment into this pathogen.

Almost 55,000 Australians develop sepsis each year, and around 8,700 people will die from it. Sepsis affects people of all ages and patients across a broad range of clinical specialties but particularly the very young, the very old and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. The condition, which happens when the body has an extreme response to a bacterial or viral infection, causing a chain reaction that can lead to organ failure and death, has had few strategies for treatment. Researchers have now developed a personalised method that can accurately predict which patients with sepsis would recover quickly, recover later, or ultimately succumb to the condition.

This month a special issue of Australian Critical Care journal, published in Clinical Key for Nursing, focusses on research by allied health professionals (AHPs) and the benefits of multidisciplinary, collaborative research in intensive care. Professions under the banner of allied health include physiotherapy, speech pathology, occupational therapy, dietetics, psychology, and pharmacy and represent around 20% of health professionals in Australia. However, there is a lack of high-quality evidence to guide clinical care in most allied health professions, leading to an expansion in allied health research.

A simple saliva test developed by QUT biomedical scientists has detected early throat cancer in a person who had no symptoms and no clinical signs of cancer. In what is believed to be a world-first, the non-invasive test picked up HPV-DNA in a saliva sample from an infected but otherwise apparently healthy person. 

University of Queensland researchers have developed a set of recommendations to manage the mental health of frontline medical workers during viral outbreaks, such as COVID-19.