Western Health Foundation 2020 Grant Winners Announced
The breadth of projects funded incorporates a wide cross-section of disciplines including general medicine, surgery, paediatrics, maternity and allied health.
The winners were announced at this year's Western Health Research and Best Care Conference which was held between 26-30 October.
Traditionally, the Research and Best Care Conference provides an opportunity for employees to present their project submissions through oral presentations and poster displays, with awards presented at the closing session of the conference.
Due to COVID-19 restrictions, this year's conference was held virtually and the traditional awards program was replaced by a small grants program.
Grants of up to $5000 were available, with applicants required to demonstrate how their proposal contributes to Western Health's Best Care principles. Grants could be used to fund professional development, further research work or other project-specific activity.
"The assessment panel were really impressed at the range and sophistication of some of the projects being put forth" says Julia White, Director of Western Health Foundation. "It was incredibly difficult making the choice of which projects to support, which is why we ended up providing almost $15,000 more than we had planned! It's a terrific position to be in."
Each of the successful applicants will be asked to provide a project update as the year progresses, and to share outcomes with the Foundation and its Grants Program sponsors.
Sponsors for 2020 included major sponsor Maxxia, allied health sponsor BankVic, as well as Hesta and Medtronic.
2020 Western Health Foundation Grant Recipients
| Name | Discipline | Project | Awarded |
| Alesha Sayner | Allied Health | Physiotherapy management in prostate cancer: A qualitative study of enablers, barriers and unmet needs | $4,923 |
| Anastasia Costelloe | Nursing / Midwifery |
The green maternity project: Introducing a range of sustainability practices at JKWC | $5,000 |
| Erin Shaw | Allied Health | Virtual home assessment in occupational therapy | $4,000 |
| Fika Tamiru | Nursing / Midwifery | Lactation consultant training program enriched | $975 |
| Hayley Scott | Allied Health | Experiences of telehealth in community rehabilitation: An action research project | $4,000 |
| Justin Yeung | Medical | Implementation of an organ space prevention bundle reduces the rate of organ space infection in elective colorectal surgery | $2,500 |
| Linda Sweet | Nursing / Midwifery | Bariatric surgery before or after pregnancy? The experiences and information needs of Australian women | $5,000 |
| Matthew Guest | Medical | Reusable N95/P2 mask prototype testing and secondary development | $5,000 |
| Rebecca Pile | Allied Health | Improving care for paediatric patients with simple orthopaedic fractures via a virtual clinic | $4,957 |
| Rebecca Woltsche | Nursing / Midwifery | Preventing patient falls overnight using live and portable video monitoring | $4,438 |
| Sophie Gore | Allied Health | Effectiveness of conservative management for stable Weber B ankle fractures: A systematic review | $3,500 |