The Health Research Council of New Zealand has announced $33.9 million in funding for projects, with a growing focus on those that have the greatest potential to change the way health care is delivered – and in quick time.
"This year we’re excited to be able to fund a number of clinicians whose projects offer practical solutions that address particular clinical problems or unmet needs. Funding such research is a key way to ensure that research discoveries move from the bench top to the bedside in the shortest time," says HRC Chief Executive Dr Robin Olds.
Professor Mark Richards from the University of Otago, who is also a consultant cardiologist at the Canterbury District Health Board, has received $1,195,997 to test a new approach to a form of heart failure that accounts for over a third of heart failure cases presenting to New Zealand hospitals, and which currently has no proven treatment available to improve survival or reduce hospital admissions. A phase 2 randomised controlled trial will be undertaken using a renal denervation procedure. If proven to be effective, this would represent a simple, one time only approach that could be rapidly applied in New Zealand.
Also funded is a breakthrough video game-based treatment for ‘lazy eye’ or amblyopia that can be delivered by iPod Touch, and which preliminary results show is effective in improving the sharpness of vision and 3D vision of both children and adults. Along with collaborators in Australia and Canada, Dr Benjamin Thompson from The University of Auckland will conduct a large clinical trial of this new treatment, which could be used in the home or during school lunch breaks, and be effective in just six weeks.
This year the HRC is funding 33 projects worth a total of $33.9 million and five programmes worth more than $24.8 million.
Beta-lactam antibiotics are the type of antibiotics most commonly used to treat severe infection. With his $213,894 research grant, Dr Colin McArthur from the Auckland District Health Board and colleagues will study 400 patients in intensive care in Australia and New Zealand to determine if equal doses of antibiotics given by continuous infusion versus the traditional intermittent doses for severe infection can reduce the duration of intensive care support. This simple change to treatment delivery could minimise the severity of illness and increase rates of clinical cure, not only in intensive care patients, but in any hospitalised patient needing intravenous beta-lactam antibiotics.
Focusing on the translation of health research into practice is also a key feature of Dr Mark Marshall’s $254,016-funded project. As an extension of the nationwide SOLID (Sodium Lowering in Dialysis) Trial, Dr Marshall from the Centre for Clinical Research and effective practice (CCRep) in Auckland, is trialling a low sodium intervention to reduce the high number of kidney failure patients on home haemodialysis who die from cardiovascular disease (67 per cent).
For details of the 2013 HRC project recipients mentioned in this release, see below or go to our research repository to view the full list of project recipients. A pdf detailing 2013 funding round contracts - salary overheads and expenses - is also available here (PDF 224kb).
Dr Mark Marshall
Centre for Clinical Research and effective practice (CCRep), Auckland
Myocardial microinjury & arterial compliance in the SOLID trial (Mac-SOLID)
36 months, $254,016
Dr Colin McArthur
Auckland District Health Board
RCT of continuous versus intermittent beta-lactam antibiotics in the critically ill
24 months, $213,894
Professor Mark Richards
University of Otago
Renal denervation in heart failure with preserved ejection fraction
36 months, $1,195,997
Dr Benjamin Thompson
The University of Auckland
A randomized clinical trial of a new binocular treatment for amblyopia
36 months, $1,167,538