Kolling Institute News

Kolling Institute News

Windfall for spinal cord injury research Page 4

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Common medications could reduce severe COVID-19 symptoms

Research into link between osteoarthritis and heart disease

Discovery into reality

WWW.KOLLINGINSTITUTE.ORG.AU

MESSAGE FROM THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

COVID-19 continues to define this year, influencing our work, our research activity and our families. I have been tremendously encouraged by the efforts of our teams to progress their research endeavours despite the altered and at times, challenging arrangements. It has also been pleasing to see how quickly some of our Kolling researchers have responded to the global pandemic, and established COVID-19 related trials. Our researchers are driving national and international studies, broadening our understanding of this devastating virus and working to improve patient outcomes. The trials are focusing on early warning tools, the impact on patients with cardiovascular disease, and the use of blood pressure medications to reduce severe COVID symptoms. We are seeing important new collaborations, with researchers working with teams across the country and overseas. This is widening the scope of the research activity and strengthening results. Importantly, Kolling representatives are a key part of the District’s COVID-19 Clinical Research Group, looking at emerging treatments, the prevention of COVID in high risk groups, and biomarker research for diagnosis.

All these measures will help support our community through this pandemic. At the Kolling, we have also taken steps to support our researchers during this time, with a new professional development webinar series. These sessions are an important way to improve connectivity with our teams, and to help researchers through these altered arrangements. It’s been gratifying to see the numbers of researchers benefiting from this new initiative. COVID has led to changes within the Kolling building with the District’s executive team relocating to level 14. The move was required to meet the demands of a possible surge in COVID-19 patients. Levels five and six of the Douglas building have been refurbished to provide more than 50 additional beds. The Kolling was accommodating the teams managing the contact tracing and community care of COVID patients. These teams have now moved out of the building and are continuing to provide a crucial role supporting the community. Consultation around the Kolling Institute’s new research strategy stepped up recently, ahead of the finalisation of the strategic document. It will set the direction of the Kolling for

the years ahead, while strengthening our reputation as a world-leading institute driving research progress and improvements in healthcare. The new research strategy will help us develop new partnerships and attract additional investment. A key component of the strategy is the provision of the research enablers. These will be instrumental in delivering: • Collaborative opportunities • Operational efficiencies • Improved facilities and services to support Kolling Institute researchers • And, increased community awareness of our research activities Important new committees will be established to support the implementation of the research strategy, with a range of disciplines to be represented. As we celebrate the Kolling’s 100th anniversary this year, I’d like to thank Royal North Shore Hospital’s archivist Cate Storey for her special contribution to this newsletter and her wonderful insights into the history of the Kolling – the oldest research institute in New South Wales. We discover some of the personal experiences which inspired the establishment of this unique organisation.

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KOLLINGNEWS | ISSUE 6 | AUGUST 2020

Research to help reduce smoking in pregnancy

A large scale review has found the number of women smoking during pregnancy in NSW has halved, and yet there are still some concerning trends prompting calls for targeted campaigns. Researchers from the Kolling Institute and the University of Sydney, analysed smoking rates in all pregnancies in NSW over a 22 year period from 1994 to 2016. The Women and Babies Research team found the overall smoking rates during pregnancy have more than halved from 22.1 per cent in 1994 to 8.3per cent in 2016, with less than one in ten women smoking during pregnancy at the end of the study period. The numbers fell from 19,850 women to 7,820.

A/Professor Tanya Nippita and Professor Jonathan Morris

“These trends are concerning and contributing to poor but avoidable health outcomes, such as stillbirth, neonatal death, low birth weight and preterm birth.” Associate Professor Tanya Nippita said around 8000 pregnancies each year are exposed to maternal smoking, and researchers would like to see that figure drop substantially. “Armed with our research >Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Page 6 Page 7 Page 8 Page 9 Page 10 Page 11 Page 12 Page 13 Page 14 Page 15 Page 16

www.nslhd.health.nsw.gov.au

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