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October 2014 - January 2016
Publications
Publications (59)
Introduction: Unfortunately, before SARS-CoV-2, a global workforce crisis in health care had already been flagged internationally and is only expected to grow. Health care workers are the critical driving force underpinning all health systems. A skilled workforce takes years to develop, and staff shortages have enduring negative impacts on patients...
Introduction: Disasters occur globally and can impact emergency department (ED) services. Chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear (CBRN) events have different characteristics in terms of onset and duration when compared to other disasters, such as wildfires, floods, and hurricanes. It is important to have an understanding of the impact of C...
Vast quantities of open-source data from news reports, social media and other sources can be harnessed using artificial intelligence and machine learning, and utilised to generate valid early warning signals of emerging epidemics. Early warning signals from open-source data are not a replacement for traditional, validated disease surveillance, but...
Voxels have been used in various application domains successfully for the last several decades. Their main advantage is the underlying discrete data structure allowing to reliably work with surrounding voxels all the time. In this paper, capabilities of the Unity game engine for voxels management and geometry voxelisation are assessed, where 4 nati...
Background/Aim
Influenza vaccination is strongly recommended every year for aged care staff to protect themselves and minimise risk of transmission to residents. This study aimed to determine the factors associated with repeated annual influenza vaccine uptake among Australian aged care staff from 2017 to 2019.
Methods
Demographic, medical and vac...
An influenza outbreak occurred during summer (February 2019) in an aged-care facility in Sydney, Australia. Residents had not received the annual 2019 influenza vaccine while 76.7% had received 2018 influenza vaccines about 9 months prior. Overall, 2018 influenza vaccine effectiveness during this outbreak was high (93.6%). The effectiveness of the...
The unprecedented threat of COVID‐19 and the likelihood of other emerging infectious diseases have accentuated the need for sustainable and effective masks and respirators (MAR). MAR assists in minimizing the risk of infection and controlling the spread of pathogens. However, during the COVID‐19 pandemic, there was a worldwide scarcity of MAR due t...
Background:
Influenza outbreaks in aged care facilities are a major public health concern. In response to the severe 2017 influenza season in Australia, enhanced influenza vaccines were introduced from 2018 onwards for those over 65 and more emphasis was placed on improving vaccination rates among aged care staff. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the...
UNSTRUCTURED
On February 25th, 2022, Russian forces took control of the Chernobyl power plant after continuous fighting within the Chernobyl exclusion zone. Continual events occurred within the month of March which raised the risk of a potential contamination of previously uncontaminated areas, and the potential for impacts on human and environment...
Background
There is an increased risk of SARS-CoV-2 transmission during mass gatherings and a risk of asymptomatic infection. We aimed to estimate the use of masks during Black Lives Matter (BLM) protests and whether these protests increased the risk of COVID-19. Two reviewers screened 496 protest images for mask use, with high inter-rater reliabil...
Background
The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in significant morbidity and mortality in aged care facilities worldwide. The attention of infection control in aged care needs to shift towards the built environment, especially with relation to using the existing space to allow social distancing and isolation. Physical infrastructure of aged care faci...
Voxel-based data structures, algorithms, frameworks, and interfaces have been used in computer graphics and many other applications for decades. There is a general necessity to seek adequate digital representations, such as voxels, that would secure unified data structures, multi-resolution options, robust validation procedures and flexible algorit...
Background
In December 2019, we ran Pacific Eclipse, a pandemic tabletop exercise using smallpox originating in Fiji as a case study. Pacific Eclipse brought together international stakeholders from health, defence, law enforcement, emergency management and a range of other organisations.
Aim
To review potential gaps in preparedness and identify m...
Background
We sought to explore undergraduate nurses experience as they participated in the role of a casualty actor in a mass casualty simulation exercise.
Method
A casualty actor participation framework, developed by the authors, was used to prepare undergraduate nurses for their casualty actor role. A hard copy survey was disseminated to underg...
This paper presents an approach for the automatic abstraction of built environments needed for pedestrian dynamics from any building configuration. The approach assesses the usability of navigation mesh to perform realistically pedestrian simulation considering the physical structure and pedestrian abilities for it. Several steps are examined inclu...
Cloth masks can be an alternative to medical masks during pandemics. Recent studies have examined the performance of fabrics under various conditions; however, the performance against violent respiratory events such as human sneezes is yet to be explored. Accordingly, we present a comprehensive experimental study using sneezes by a healthy adult an...
Objectives
This study evaluated multiple computed tomography (CT) workforce models to identify any implications on efficiency (length of stay, scan frequency and workforce cost) and scanning radiographer interruptions through substituting or supplementing with a trained CT assistant.Methods
The study was conducted in a CT unit of a tertiary Queensl...
The gradual emergence of the city and its influence on the behaviours and interactions of its inhabitants has resulted both risks and benefits to populations. A key risk related to cities is the potential for large outbreaks of infectious disease, driven by the unique features of life in cities. Innovations that have contributed to improving the pu...
Background:
It is well established that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander populations face considerable health inequities, exacerbated by poorer healthcare quality. Patient experience is recognised as a major contributing factor to healthcare quality and outcomes, therefore, enriched knowledge of the patient experiences of Aboriginal and Torre...
Background:
The pandemic of COVID-19 has occurred close on the heels of a global resurgence of measles. In 2019, an unprecedented epidemic of measles affected Samoa, requiring a state of emergency to be declared. Measles causes an immune amnesia which can persist for over 2 years after acute infection and increases the risk of a range of other inf...
Background
Anthrax is a potential biological weapon and can be used in an air-borne or mail attack, such as in the attack in the United States in 2001. Planning for such an event requires the best available science. Since large-scale experiments are not feasible, mathematical modelling is a crucial tool to inform planning. The aim of this study is...
Background:
Australia implemented a travel ban on China on February 1st 2020, while COVID-19 was largely localised to China. We modelled three scenarios to test the impact of travel bans on epidemic control. Scenario one was no ban, scenario two and three were the current ban followed by a full or partial lifting (allow over 100 000 university stu...
The potential use of ‘pharmaceuticals’ has been identified by civilian law enforcement agencies, and counter-terrorism responders, as a threat that fills the gap between physical restraint and lethal weapons. This rise in availability of synthetic opiates reassessment of the overall public health threat from pharmaceutical based agents. The large q...
Background: Australia implemented a travel ban on China on February 1st 2020. Partial lifting of the ban is being considered, given the decline in incidence of COVID-19 in China. We modelled three scenarios to test the impact of travel bans on epidemic control in Australia. Scenario one was no ban, scenario two and three were the current ban follow...
Australia implemented a travel ban on China on February 1st 2020. Partial lifting of the ban is being considered, given the decline in incidence of COVID-19 in China. We modelled three scenarios to test the impact of travel bans on epidemic control in Australia. Scenario one was no ban, scenario two was the current ban, scenario three was a partial...
Introduction
The Sydney City-2-Surf (Australia) fun run is the world’s largest annual run entered by around 80,000 people. First aid planning at mass-participation running events such as the City-2-Surf is an area in the medical literature that has received little attention. Consequently, first aid planning for these events is based on experience r...
Background:
Assessment of clinical variation has attracted increasing interest in health systems internationally due to growing awareness about better value and appropriate health care as a mechanism for enhancing efficient, effective and timely care. Feedback using administrative databases to provide benchmarking data has been utilised in several...
Exotic and emerging infectious diseases are emerging more frequently, and impacting more profoundly, all of humanity. Disasters risk reduction efforts over the preceding decades, culminating in the Hyogo and Sendai frameworks, have provided a roadmap for all countries to address emerging disaster related risks. Sudden onset or surprise epidemics of...
This article focuses on a specialist area of military medicine, following a series of recently published papers regarding occupational and environmental medicine in the ADF. They assert that high rates of preventable workplace illness and injury indicate the need to improve the management of occupational and environmental hazards associated with AD...
Bioterrorism and pandemics pose great risk to the health and safety of our modern world. Pandemic scenario exercises commonly use diseases that are most likely to cause moderate harm in an epidemic scenario such as influenza. Despite the generalisable nature of most pandemic responses, exercises often fail to take account of the broader impacts of...
Introduction
The Sydney City-2-Surf is the world’s largest annual run entered by around 80,000 people. First aid planning at mass participation running events such as the City-2-Surf is an area in the medical literature that has received little attention. Consequently, first aid planning for these events is based on experience rather than evidence....
Introduction
People are increasingly embarking on expeditions into remote wilderness environments and subjecting themselves to increased medical risk. Medical provisions for the management of anticipated injuries and illnesses must be selected carefully due to financial and size and weight constraints on expeditions. Literature suggests decisions s...
Current momentum in military research efforts has opened the possibility for both the enhancement but also augmentation of military personnel for the purpose of achieving advantage over rivals. Rapid technological advances, currently breaking ground well ahead of prudent commentary and consideration of impacts on human society, ethics, geopolitics...
The promise of genetic engineering to reduce the burden of disease on the human population, alleviate suffering and provide new avenues for mastering disease has recently been overshadowed by the announcement by He Jiankui of successful germ line modification of two human embryos, and their subsequent successful birth. The use of gene editing techn...
Smallpox was declared eradicated in 1980, with known seed stock retained in two high security Biosafety Level 4 laboratories in the United States and Russia. Experts agree the likelihood of theft from these laboratories is low, and that synthetic creation of smallpox is a theoretical possibility. Until 2017 it was believed that synthetic smallpox w...
On August 16th, 2018, we held Exercise Mataika to test preparedness for a worst-case scenario of a smallpox attack which begins in the Pacific and is followed by a larger scale attack in a highly populous Asian country. The exercise was underpinned by mathematical modelling which aimed to determine the duration and magnitude of the epidemic under d...
Objectives
The Richter Scale measures the magnitude of a seismic occurrence, but it does not feasibly quantify the magnitude of the “disaster” at the point of impact in real humanitarian needs, based on United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (UNISDR; Geneva, Switzerland) 2009 Disaster Terminology. A Disaster Severity Index (DS...
Advances in biological sciences have outpaced regulatory and legal frameworks for biosecurity. Simultaneously, there has been a convergence of scientific disciplines such as synthetic biology, data science, advanced computing and many other technologies, which all have applications in health. For example, advances in cybercrime methods have created...
The threat of chemical, radiological and nuclear incidents from terrorist attacks or accidental incidents is pervasive. Hospital response to the decontamination of casualties requires specific expertise, knowledge, command and control, regular training and rehearsal. Evaluating decontamination training and rehearsal exercises is an important aspect...
Introduction
Unwarranted clinical variation (UCV) can be described as variation that can only be explained by differences in health system performance. There is a lack of clarity regarding how to define and identify UCV and, once identified, to determine whether it is sufficiently problematic to warrant action. As such, the implementation of system...
Infectious disease dynamic modeling can support outbreak emergency responses. We conducted a workshop to canvas the needs of stakeholders in Australia for practical, real-time modeling tools for infectious disease emergencies. The workshop was attended by 29 participants who represented government, defense, general practice, and academia stakeholde...
Epidemics and emerging infectious diseases are becoming an increasing threat to global populations − challenging public health practitioners, decision makers and researchers to plan, prepare, identify and respond to outbreaks in near real-timeframes. The aim of this research is to evaluate the range of public domain and freely available software ep...
Introduction
Zika virus has been documented since 1952, but been associated with mild, self-limiting disease. Zika virus is classified as an arbovirus from a family of Flaviviridae and primarily spread by Aedes Aegypti mosquitos. However, in a large outbreak in Brazil in 2015, Zika virus has been associated with microcephaly.
Methods
In this revie...
In the winter of 2009, the Australian Defence Force participated in a large scale exercise at Shoalwater Bay, Queensland and the 1st Health Support Battalion (1HSB) provided hospital level medical support. At the time of the exercise the H1N1 Influenza 09 had gained momentum within Australia resulting in a number of fatalities. Unsure how the pande...
The haemodynamic response to blood loss consists of three phases: (i) an initial compensatory phase during which resting arterial pressure is maintained; (ii) a decompensatory phase characterized by a sudden, life-threatening hypotension and bradycardia; and (iii) if blood loss ceases, a recompensatory phase during which arterial pressure returns t...
The haemodynamic response to a fixed volume haemorrhage passes through three distinct phases: a normotensive, compensatory phase; a hypotensive, decompensatory phase; and a post-haemorrhage, recompensatory phase. The role of the forebrain and midbrain in regulating the triphasic response to a 'fast' (1.5%/min) or 'slow' (0.75%/min) rate of blood wi...
The consequences of a severe traumatic injury--deep pain and haemorrhage--usually evoke a passive emotional coping reaction characterised by: quiescence and immobility, decreased vigilance, hypotension and bradycardia. Results of studies utilising microinjections of excitatory amino acids suggest that passive coping reactions are mediated, at least...
Previous research using microinjections of excitatory amino acids suggested that the caudal midline medulla (including nucleus raphe obscurus and nucleus raphe pallidus) contained a mixed population of sympathoexcitatory and sympathoinhibitory neurones. The results of this study indicate that different anaesthetic regimes (urethane versus halothane...
The ecophysiology of the hypotonic response was studied in the charophyte alga, Lamprothamnium papulosum, which was grown in a marine (SW; 1072 mosmol kg–1) and a brackish (1/2 SW; 536 mosmol kg–1) environment. The cells produced an extracellular mucilage identified by histochemical staining as a mixture of sulphated and carboxylated polysaccharide...
