Dear Families and Collaborators,
The Year of 2020 has certainly been a paradigm shift adapting quickly to COVID-19! The pandemic has been concerning both for the clinical community and families we support, however QCPRRC has transformed our way of research to telemedicine/health modes of delivery, adapting to the ever changing pandemic/world, supporting consumer needs and adapting many of our interventions and assessments to be delivered using telehealth technologies via Zoom and The University of Queensland edX platform. We have been busier than ever assisting our clinical colleagues with online screening using the BabyMoves App, temporarily shifting the telehealth delivered home based interventions, validating delivery of telehealth delivered assessments and providing additional support to families impacted by quarantine measures. The QCPRRC team spent the 3 months of reduced contact repurposing ourselves with updating publications and preparing for further grant rounds.
Key highlights include:
- The QCPRRC team had a strong start to 2020 with major contributions to the AusACPDM conference in Perth in early March just prior to travel restrictions – bringing world class research experts in the field of child neurology research to Perth; despite COVID-19 pandemic (see full report page 17);
- Prof. Boyd has delighted to announce the first winner of the international Elsass Research Prize to Prof. Bernard Dan on behalf of the international jury;
- Taking the opportunity to progress our professional development as facilitated via our AusCP-CTN Education Program – conducting a General Movements Training Course at Townsville University Hospital for local clinicians and indigenous researchers and two basic and one advanced courses in Brisbane led by GM accredited trainers Professor Andrea Guzzetta (University of Pisa), Professor Alicia Spittle (The University of Melbourne), and Dr Cath Morgan from the Cerebral Palsy Alliance (page 2);
- Over nine weeks from May to June we conducted our comprehensive Systematic Review course to 56 colleagues from across Australia, North America, and South East Asia. Within the course a GRADE Analysis Workshop was delivered by Dr Sue Brennan from The Melbourne Cochrane group;
- Our Centre of Research Excellence AusCP-CTN led an intensive Online Grant Writing Workshop for early and mid-career researchers with guest speakers including Prof. Anne Kelso (CEO NHMRC), Prof. Ian Fraser AC, with 19 local mentors and 43 mentees;
- I was honoured to receive an NHMRC Investigator grant (Level 1) for 2021-2025 entitled “Early Detection and Early Intervention of Infants at risk of Cerebral Palsy” (see more on page16);
- Our European Union Horizon Grant success for the Born-to-get-there project was further supported with $0.5M funding from the NHMRC (page 15);
- The LEAP-CP trial received additional funding from Perpetual Trustees to expand the project by supporting two part-time Physiotherapists (based in Townsville and Cairns) to work with local families (page 15).
Our next focus has been taking our LEAP-CP success from working with LMIC to local communities through engagement with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander stakeholders, recruitment of Indigenous researchers who will lead the cultural adaptation of the LEAP-CP early detection and early intervention program.
We look forward to your involvement in our research centre and our national programs.
With warm regards,
Ros Boyd
Professor of Cerebral Palsy Research, Faculty of Medicine, The University of Queensland.
Scientific Director, Queensland Cerebral Palsy & Rehabilitation Research Centre
Email: r.boyd@uq.edu.au
