Pain is one of the most serious health issues of our time. More than one in five Australians live with chronic pain, affecting everyday functions such as work, sleep and relationships.
To help bring hope for our loved ones battling pain, The Hospital Research Foundation Group is proud to announce three grants totaling $590,000 to advance innovations in pain management.
The three grants have been awarded after a competitive grant round which called for innovative approaches to better understand and manage sub-acute, recurrent or chronic pain.
The successful grant recipients include:
Associate Professor Tasha Stanton – osteoarthritis
University of South Australia
Exercising when your joints hurt can be difficult but is important to keep joints healthy and prevent osteoarthritis from worsening. New virtual reality technology exists that makes exercise less painful, but it is not yet available for clinical use. This project will work with physiotherapy clinics to adapt this technology into ready-to-use, clinician and patient-friendly devices for use across Australia to improve osteoarthritis pain.
Dr Dusan Matusica – post surgical pain
Flinders University | Flinders Medical Centre
Persistent post-surgical pain is a challenging form of chronic pain that affects patients after their surgical procedure. This project will determine whether newly developed biosensor technology, capable of discriminating between nerve and bone pain, can measure and predict the development of persistent post-surgical pain.
Dr Hannah Wardill – pain after cancer treatment
University of Adelaide | SAHMRI
One in five people with myeloma (a type of blood cancer) treated with the highly-effective drug bortezomib are forced to stop treatment due to chronic pain. This project aims to understand how changes in gut bacteria caused by bortezomib contribute to pain, and identify new ways to control pain and improve outcomes for people with myeloma.
Thank you to our donors, fundraisers, partners and ticket buyers in The Hospital Research Foundation Home Lottery for helping us support this huge area of need.
We look forward to updating you on these important projects.
