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Health and Clinical Analytics
Improving health through innovation in clinical research
We aim to be at the forefront of learning health systems research by providing evidence for immediate application to healthcare. We work with hospitals, clinicians, and consumers across Australia who are jointly committed to achieving better outcomes through research.
About us
The Health and Clinical Analytics team in collaboration with the Sydney Children's Hospitals Network, has established a collaborative network of international researchers, clinicians, statisticians and community members to improve the delivery of healthcare through novel research methods and analytics.
Our aim is to improve healthcare by:
- conducting high quality observational comparative effectiveness research and safety monitoring,
- designing and implementing next generation pragmatic and adaptive clinical trials,
- using causal models to understand disease, to diagnose and provide prognosis, and to help clinicians and patients make better treatment decisions,
- designing digital infrastructure to support the integration of research within routine healthcare.
Our research
Our research programs are finding implementable solutions for a broad range of important clinical areas.
More Australian hospitals are using electronic medical record (eMR) systems than ever before, but implementing ways to seamlessly use electronic data to drive improvements in care is still a long way off.
We are working together with the Sydney Children’s Hospital Network and other children’s hospitals to design and implement a state-of-the-art digital infrastructure system to support a learning healthcare system. The infrastructure aims to transform eMR data into an analysable format, allowing researchers to safely and securely access data to perform analyses and report the results to clinicians in a timely manner.
Around 3 in 10 children will develop an allergy, including eczema or food allergy, by their first birthday.
We are implementing a multi-centre pragmatic adaptive clinical trial called OPTIMUM, to assess whether introducing an initial dose of “whole-cell” pertussis (whooping cough) vaccine can protect babies against the future development of allergy.
1 in 4 people with a cystic fibrosis (CF) lung exacerbation fail to fully regain their previous lung function.
We are designing and implementing BEAT CF, a world-first, healthcare-embedded adaptive platform which aims to optimise the management of exacerbations. The Australia-wide study is a partnership between researchers, clinicians, patients and their families. BEAT CF is currently enrolling children, teenagers and adults with CF into the BEAT CF Platform which systematically captures information about their treatment and outcomes. In time, BEAT CF will evolve into an adaptive platform trial which will directly compare the effectiveness of treatments across different domains including antibiotics, mucolytics, anti-inflammatories and physiotherapy.
Providing safe and effective early management for children who present to emergency departments with a possible serious infection is complex and requires accurate but rapid decision-making by clinicians.
We are developing a comprehensive network model to improve diagnosis and prognosis, including prediction of the likelihood of serious infections like bacteraemia, bone and joint infections, urine infections and pneumonia, based on information available shortly after presentation to hospital. The work is a collaboration with Telethon Kids Institute, Perth Children’s Hospital, Bayesian Intelligence, and Monash University and is informed by extensive consultation with clinical experts and involvement of consumers. The model will be carefully validated based on data extracted from hospital electronic medical records (eMR) before being deployed for use as a clinical tool.
Most people with hepatitis C can be cured with as little as 8 weeks of treatment. Despite this, many Australians with hepatitis C are yet to undertake the treatment and be cured.
The Motivate C project is studying whether the offer of a cash incentive will encourage people to take up hepatitis C treatment in primary care and is looking for people living with hepatitis C to take part.
Adults with hepatitis C and who haven’t been tested for hepatitis C in the past 4 weeks can take part. Participants self-register for this study and will be connected with a treatment navigator, to guide them through all study procedures. The project will provide all participants with a compensation payment for their time. Additionally, participants may be randomly assigned to receive a reward payment for commencing hepatitis C therapy.
The University of Sydney is leading this national project in collaboration with researchers, healthcare providers and GP experts within the hepatitis C field. Funding for the project is provided by the Australian Government’s Medical Research Future Fund. The Motivate C study is approved by the Sydney Local Health District Human Research Ethics Committee (2022/ETH01681) and is now recruiting participants from May 2023.
Research highlights
- 21 published papers in last 12 months
- Three team members won presentation awards at the 2019 ACTA International Clinical Trials Conference, Sydney
- New resources and video series for designing and implementing adaptive trials launched in October 2019
Get involved
Participate in a research project
We are searching for people with cystic fibrosis to be involved in the BEAT CF study. To read more about what’s involved, please visit beatcf.org.au
Do you have hepatitis C? A cure is simple, plus a payment reward could be yours. Motivate C is looking for people with hep C to participate in our study. For more information, please see https://motivatec-project.sydney.edu.au/
Collaborations
We are available for research collaborations involving novel trials and causal modelling for both clinical and public health research. Please reach out to our team to discuss how we can help your research.
Our people
Our Sydney team is closely integrated with the Adaptive Health Intelligence team based at the Telethon Kids Institute, Perth. Our team comprises researchers, clinicians, statisticians, informaticians, data managers and research coordinators.
- Professor Tom Snelling (Team Lead)