THE Western Health Research Week was officially launched in Sunshine last Monday.
The Minister for Health and Ageing David Davis spoke at the event which was held in the Western Centre for Health Research and Education at Sunshine Hospital.
The research week highlighted the achievements of staff from across Western Health.
The keynote speaker for the official opening was Professor Jim Bishop, executive director of research at the Victorian Comprehensive Cancer Council.
“In August Western Health launched the latest Research Report, which showed tremendous growth in the organisation’s research efforts,” a Western Health spokesperson said.
“Each year the number of abstract submissions for Research Week continues to grow, and this year, including applications for the new Western Health research grant, we received 128 entries, up from 120 last year and 80 in 2011.
“This is great news and testament to the fact that research at Western Health is very inclusive, with medical and surgical registrars, along with allied health and nursing staff all featured prominently in the program.”
Last year, Western Health researchers and their collaborators were awarded or held more than $24 million in research funding, had eight book chapters published and had 180 research projects approved.
During the Research Week, seven prizes of $1500 were awarded in the areas including the best research poster prize, the Neville Yeomans prize for best medical research (registrars and advanced trainees) presentation, the Kendall Francis prize for best surgical registrar research presentation, the best allied health research presentation prize and the best nursing research presentation prize.
The best published research paper was sponsored by the Western Health Foundation and the Rotary Club of Footscray sponsored the category of best research on care for the elderly or ageing.
