Perioperative Care of Surgical Patients

Clinical Academic Group

About the Group

The Perioperative Care of Surgical Patients Clinical Academic Group (CAG) focuses on improved health service delivery for surgical patients by facilitating patient-focused, equitable, and value-based surgical care.

As a unique multispecialty collaboration, this Clinical Academic Group reflects the diverse and interprofessional nature of perioperative care. It benefits from the commitment of the partner Local Health Districts' Academic Surgery Centres and leverages a diverse perioperative network to translate research findings into practice.

Activities aim to develop multispecialty skills at all levels of clinical practice, fostering a collaborative and diverse perioperative workforce.

Objectives

The CAG prioritises research on preventative care and wellness. This includes implementing evidence-based models to prevent adverse surgical outcomes in at-risk patient populations, especially older people, those with disabilities or mental health issues, First Nations or Culturally and Linguistically Diverse people.

By incorporating innovative technological solutions and big data analytics, the research aims to improve care markers such as:

  • Hospital length of stay
  • Hospital-acquired complications
  • Patient-reported outcomes following major surgery

Projects

  • Developing an electronic perioperative dashboard prototype to assist clinical decision-making and risk stratification
  • Identifying digital solutions to improve perioperative care of patients with diabetes
  • Minimising preoperative fasting: What are the barriers and enablers of Guidelines?

Activities

  • Journal clubs
  • Webinars/Seminars to promote translation of perioperative research
  • Mentoring
  • Conferences
  • Establishment of an early-midcareer clinician researcher subcommittee
  • Consumer information sessions
  • Consumer education videos

Leadership Team

  • A/Prof. Sarah Aitken

    Chair

  • Dr Amy Lawrence

    Deputy Chair

  • Dr Janani Thillainadesan

    Deputy Chair

  • David Anderson

  • A/Prof. Anthony Glover

  • Anwar Hassan

  • A/Prof. Kerry Hitos

  • Christalla Houvardas

  • Dr Rajni Lal

  • Dr Andrew Marks

  • Lisa McCrohon

  • Dr Sue Monaro

  • Prof. Vasi Naganathan

  • Prof. Henry Pleass

  • Dr Puneet Ranote

  • Kristy-Lee Raso

  • Clin.A/Prof. Angus Ritchie

  • Prof. Rob Sanders

  • Dr Daniel Vagg

Disciplines represented in the leadership team

Surgery, Nursing, Anaesthetics, Geriatric Medicine, Medical Information and Administration, Epidemiology, Dietetics, Physiotherapy.

Get Involved

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