Australian Government commits $1.5m to address the burden of sepsis

The George Institute welcomes today’s announcement by Minister Hunt regarding the government’s commitment to addressing the burden of sepsis in Australia.

We look forward to working with the Government to develop and implement a national response to this issue.

Sepsis occurs when the body’s response to an infection damages its own organs. It is a time-critical medical emergency as organ failure, loss of limbs and death are more likely if it is not recognised early and treated promptly.

There are an estimated 100,000 episodes of sepsis in Australia each year and of those at least 13,000 will result in death. Half those who survive severe sepsis are left with long-term physical, psychological or cognitive disability.

Sepsis affects people of all ages and patients across a broad range of clinical specialties but particularly the very young, the very old and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. However, awareness is low with a 2016 survey finding 60 percent of Australians had not heard of sepsis and only 14 percent could name one of its symptoms.

The George Institute’s Professor Simon Finfer has been actively working in this area for decades and set up the Australian Sepsis Network (ASN), a national association working closely across jurisdictions, sepsis clinical champions and survivors.

In early 2018, the ASN, which is hosted at The George Institute, released the ‘Stopping Sepsis National Action Plan’, which was developed in collaboration with policy, clinical, academic, research and survivor stakeholders.

We strongly believe that a coordinated national approach is needed to reduce preventable deaths and disability from sepsis and look forward to working with Minister Hunt and his team to move this forward.

Download the full report ‘Stopping Sepsis National Action Plan’ PDF 3.9 MB

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Injury research in diverse settings: Two-dimensional strategies for multi-dimensional problems

George Talk

Global efforts to reverse the tide on road traffic crashes and deaths continue to think of the world as being divided into either high-income or low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). This has led to the commonly held belief that different interventions are required for high-income countries and LMICs. However, LMIC settings are very diverse and resistant to the homogenising effects of both motor travel and global discourse. How then should the road safety and road safety research sectors respond? Using examples mostly from Uganda and other East African countries, this talk will pose some questions, and aims to generate discussions on how to approach the above issue from a multi-dimensional perspective.

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    Speakers

    • Dr Olive Kobusingye

      Accident & Emergency Surgeon, Injury Epidemiologist, Senior Research Fellow at the Makerere University

      Dr Olive Kobusingye is an Accident & Emergency Surgeon with more than ten years of experience, an Injury Epidemiologist as well as being a Senior Research Fellow at the Makerere University School of Public Health heading the Trauma, Injury & Disability unit. In 2016, Dr Kobusingye was appointed Board Chair of the Road Traffic Injury Research Network, an international agency working to improve road safety through research globally. Due to these positions she brings over five years of experience at an international level as the African Regional Advisor on trauma, injury, and disability for the World Health Organisation. Here, she worked with and advised 46 African countries on violence, injuries, and disabilities. She was also the founding Executive Director of Injury Control Center–Uganda and used to train and supervise trauma care teams which comprised of health workers in different disciplines. She has authored many papers and book chapters on injury surveillance systems, improving emergency trauma care, injuries and violence, and road safety in low-income countries, especially in Africa. Dr Kobusingye has also participated in the production of several global documents including the World Report on Child Injury Prevention (2008), and Pedestrian Safety, A road safety manual for decision makers and practitioners (2013). Her current research interests include drowning and its prevention, road safety, and emergency medical services in under-resourced settings.

    2018 - 2019 Financial Statement

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