A valuable series of user guides to boost kids’ vegetable intake, a new abdominal surgery book, and a new short film produced at Flinders’ The Void are among this week’s notable successes.
New abdominal surgery management book
A new book edited by Dr Savio Barreto covers a spectrum of difficult abdominal surgery scenarios, providing insights into how such situations can be best managed.
Dilemmas in Abdominal Surgery: A Case-Based Approach, edited by Savio George Alberto da Piedade Barreto and Shailesh Vinayak Shrikhande, has been published by CRC Press (currently available for pre-orders online, being shipped after 3 December). It is the second book that Dr Barreto has edited on surgery.
This new book covers the management of surgical diseases, related “through the eyes” of a clinician by providing an evidence-based approach to specific clinical dilemmas, with a step-by-step “decision-making” approach to commonly encountered but difficult to manage situations. Emphasis is placed on the use of tables and algorithms to simplify understanding and management of complex abdominal surgery scenarios in a streamlined manner, thus improving the care and outcome of patients.
Dr Barreto says the book is especially useful for medical students, doctors in training and practicing surgeons, for the way it targets specific, difficult to manage scenarios; provides expert opinion and advice on how to tackle tricky situations; covers both benign and malignant cases; discusses an evidence-based approach, and examines surgical dilemmas through illustrations.
This comes on the back of a series of publications from Dr Barreto, including the review article Pancreatic cancer in the Australian population: identifying opportunities for intervention, published by ANZJSurg.com (DOI: 10.1111/ans.16272)
New VegKIT resources made available
VegKIT project partners CSIRO, Flinders University and Nutrition Australia are excited to share eight new best practice User Guides.
The VegKIT User Guides are evidence-based, easy-to-understand, practical guides that have been expertly developed for the many settings that can influence vegetable intake, including:
- Long day care centres
- Primary schools
- Out-of-school hours care (OSHC)
- Government
- Research institutes
- Industry
Tools and interventions for increasing children’s vegetable knowledge – VegKIT (VG16064) is a strategic levy investment under the Hort Innovation Vegetable Fund, and its aim is clear – to increase the vegetable intake of Australian children. The User Guides can be downloaded from the VegKIT website
VOID project goes live
External filmmaking group We Made A Thing Studios has completed the first full video production in The Void, Flinders University’s state-of-the-art motion capture and VR studio, and the results have now been posted online.
Coffee & Quasars is a simple story about coffee and spaceships. A commander tries to control a space fleet, eagerly waiting a morning caffeine hit, but a young ensign on their first day tries to make coffee for the first time – and things don’t go smoothly.
Shot on location in The Void – and with acknowledged help from The Void’s Business Development Manager Dan Thorsland and Flinders audio visual technician Cameron Mackness – this short movie was the first hands-on opportunity for the We Made A Thing team to use LED wall technology alongside Unreal Engine to create live virtual backgrounds, as seen in television productions such as The Mandalorian.
You can see the finished product on YouTube.
Invitation to join executive working group
Donna Quinn, Lecturer in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health with Flinders Rural Health, has been selected as a member of the Aboriginal Affairs executive working group – an initiative of the Department of Premier and Cabinet.
The 61-member group met in early November and formed four sub-groups that will focus over the next 12 months on finding solutions to closing the gap in the areas of incarceration, economic empowerment, vulnerable families and supporting growth in community controlled organisations. Each of these groups will identify ways to work together to prevent incarceration in prison, keep families together and economically safe, and identify how community controlled services can be better provided and supported to deliver streamlined access for community need.
Donna will bring her broad skillset to the group and in particular to her sub-group, ‘Supporting growth in community controlled organisations’.
Heart Foundation grant supports new research
Professor Joseph Selvanayagam has been awarded a 2020 Vanguard Grant by the Heart Foundation to investigate the role of Perhexiline in Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy. This comes on the back of a busy year for Professor Selvanayagam, who was central in a landmark study that showed invasive treatments are better able to reduce angina – a very important message for the number one health condition in Australia, with strong Flinders involvement in the trial. Professor Selvanayagam was the Australian lead for this NEJM paper, as well as the Flinders PI (together with Dr Majo Joseph), and Flinders Medical Centre was in the top 10% of recruiting sites for this trial.
International Fellowship honour
Professor Arduino Mangoni has been elected Fellow of the International Society of Hypertension (ISH) by the Society’s Council. The fellowship recognises and honours society members who have distinguished themselves through excellence in clinical practice or research in the field of hypertension. Professor Mangoni’s fellowship will be acknowledged at the ISH General Meeting and Awards Ceremony in Glasgow in 2021.