Inaugural South Australian Defence and Veterans Health Research Paper Day

Overview

Pictured left to right: Professor Alexander McFarlane (CMVH), MAJGEN Rosenfeld (SGADF-Res),
His Excellency the Governor of South Australia RADM Kevin Scarce Patron of Foundation Daw Park and
PTE Liam Haven who was the invited guest. PTE Haven was injured as a result of a blast injury in the Middle
East and has significant blindness.

Foundation Daw Park hosts Inaugural South Australian Defence and Veterans Health Research Paper Day. Foundation Daw Park, established in the 1990’s by Veterans, conducted its Inaugural South Australian Defence and Veterans Health Research Paper Day on Saturday 18 July 2009 at Repatriation General Hospital, Daw Park, South Australia

The event represented a unique collaboration between the Foundation, Repatriation General Hospital, the three South Australian universities, the Centre Military and Veterans Health (CMVH), the Defence Science and Technology Organisation, the Aviation Medicine Institute and the Veterans’ Health Advisory Council.

His Excellency Rear Admiral Kevin Scarce AC CSC RANR, Governor of South Australia and Patron of the Foundation attended and formally opened the event. Major General Jeffrey Rosenfeld, Surgeon General-Defence Health Reserves, and Private Liam Haven, a young Middle East Veteran injured by an improvised explosive device in Iraq, also attended and participated.

The Scientific Committee contributing to the structure of the program and the evaluation of the papers
presented on the day comprised:
• Chair: A/Prof Susan Neuhaus CSC, Clinical Associate Professor, University of Adelaide, Colonel
RAAMC
• Dr John Costi, Chair Research Management Committee, Repatriation General Hospital
• Professor Alexander McFarlane, Head, Centre for Military and Veteran Health, Adelaide University Node, Group Captain, RAAF

Some of South Australia’s leading researchers presented on their research projects. The two presenters delivering the Best Scientific Paper and the Best Defence and Veteran Health Paper, were each awarded $1,000. The awards were sponsored by Veterans SA.

Endocrinologist Dr Morton Burt presented diabetes screening research which was judged as the Best Scientific Paper, and research presented by Dr Dan Billing from the Defence Science and Technology Organisation (DSTO) was awarded the Best Defence and Veteran Health Paper.

Next year’s event will be held Saturday, 17th July 2010. Advance Notice and details of the event will be distributed early February 2010.

For further information about Foundation Daw Park visit their website: www.foundationdawpark.org.au.

Patrons:
His Excellency Rear Admiral
Kevin Scarce AC CSC RANR
Governor of South Australia
Sir Donald Dunstan AC KBE CB
Mr Graham Cornes

Foundation Daw Park Inc.
C/- Repatriation General Hospital
Daws Road, Daw Park, SA 5041
T: (08) 8275 1039
F: (08) 8277 9401
www.foundationdawpark.org.au
ABN: 48 079 836 837

Abstracts

Click Here to View the Full Abstracts

1. Prof Alexander MacFarlane – Health Surveillance in the 21st Century: An Integrated Approach to the Assessment of Health and the Maintenance of Performance in the ADF
2. S Chopra, C Pinnock, D Tamblyn, T Kopsaftis, A Stapleton – Management of Prostate Cancer – A Major Health
   Care Dilemma!
3. Andrew Vakulin, S Baulk, P Catcheside, N Antic, C vanden Heuvel, J Dorrian, R McEvoy – Investigation of Driving Performance in Obstructive Sleep Apnoea Patients
4. Adrian Smith – The Impact of Sea State on Functional Survival Time of Military Aircrew Immersed in Cold Water
5. Bhupinder Singh – Aircraft and Aircrew Anthropometry using Laser Scanning & Computer Modelling
6. Eugene Aidman, R Crameri – Effort Perception and Aerobic Capacity in Specialised Military Fitness Assessment

References
1 Aidman, E.V. (2005). Measuring Subjective Components of Fatigue: the Role of Effort Perception. In T.
Morris, P. Terry, S. Gordon, S. Hanrahan, L. Ievleva, G. Kolt, & P. Tremayne. (Eds.), Promoting Health and
Performance for Life: Proceedings of the ISSP 11th World Congress of Sport Psychology. Sydney: International
Society of Sport Psychology.
2 Aidman, E. V. (1995). Perception of Effort in the Prediction of Anaerobic Threshold and Health Risks of
Endurance Training. In: Hawkins, K. & Nastasi, R. (Eds.) Viewing the Year 2000. (pp. 390 -400). Wisconsin:
W. C. Brown & Benchmar.
3 Aidman, E.V., & Crameri, R. (2006). Effort Perception and Aerobic Capacity in Specialised Military Fitness
Assessment. Paper presented at 2006 SMA Conference, October 2006.
4 Borg, G. (1973). Perceived exertion. A note on history and methods. Medicine & Science in Sports, 5, 90-93.
5 Borg, G. (1982). Psychophysical basis of sports and exercise. Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise,
14, 371-381.
6 Ilyin E.P. (1980). Psychophysiology of sport and physical education. Moscow: Physical Culture & Sport.

7. Daniel Billing, A Laing, R Attwells, D Ham, M Jaffrey, A Fogarty – Development of All-Corps Soldier (ACS) Physical Employment Standards (PES) for the Australian Army

8. J F Scott – Should third molars be removed prior to deployment?

9.Dr Jill Beattie & Professor John Condon – Engaging stakeholders in systems design – The Flinders chroniccare self management program for Vietnam veterans with alcohol-related conditions & PTSD

10. Professor (MAJGEN) Jeffrey Rosenfeld – Minimal Brain Injury – The signature injury of current operations

11. C Barton, A McFarlane, S Treloar, C McClintock, P Nasveld M Devine, A Dobson – The application of consumer driven research methods to the development of research priorities for the Middle East Area of Operations
Health Study

12. Chris Alderman, L McCarthy, J Condon, A Marwood, J Fuller – Topiramate Treatment for Post Traumatic Stress
Disorder in Australian Veterans

13. Morton Burt – Comparison on Fasting Glucose with the Oral Glucose Tolerance Test to Screen For Diabetes
in Subjects Receiving Chronic Low Dose Glucocorticoid Therapy

14. Tammy LeBlanc, A Gilbert, M Harris – Medicines information – What Veterans Need and What is Provided by Doctors and Pharmacists

References
1 Dickson D & Raynor DK. Ask the patients-they may want to know more than you think. BMJ 2003; 327:861.
2 Woolf SH et al. Promoting Informed Choice: Transforming Health Care to Dispense Knowledge for Decision
Making. Annals of Internal Medicine 2005; 143(40):293-300.
3 Yancik R et al. Report of the National Institute on Aging Task Force on Comorbidity. Journal of Gerontology:
Medical Sciences 2007;62A(3):275-280
4 Grime J et al. The role and value of written information for patients about individual medicines: a systematic
review. Health expectations 2007; 10:286-298.

15. Kate Laver – The effect of a new therapy approach (prism glasses and visual scanning practice) on functional
tasks for patients with chronic stroke

References
1. Bowen, A, McKenna, K & Tallis, R 1999, ‘Reasons for variability in the reported rate of occurrence of
unilateral spatial neglect after stroke’, Stroke, vol. 30, pp. 1196-1202.
2. Kalra, L, Perez, I, Gupta, S & Wittink, M 1997, ‘The influence of visual neglect on stroke rehabilitation’,
Stroke, vol. 28, no. 7, pp. 1386-1391.
3. Cherney, L & Halper, A 2001, ‘Unilateral visual neglect in right hemisphere stroke: a longitudinal study’,
Brain injury, vol. 15, no. 7, pp. 585¬-592.
4. Bowen, A & Lincoln, N 2007, ‘Cognitive Rehabilitation for spatial neglect following stroke’, Cochrane Database
of Systematic Reviews, Issue 2, Art No. CD003586. DOI: 10.1002/14651858.CD003586.pub2.

16. L Kalisch, A Gilbert – The Veterans’ MATES Project -Delivering improved health outcomes for Veterans