Saluting our champions
EMHS is made up of many amazing individuals and teams whose care, compassion and professional accomplishments shone on national and international stages during 2021-22.
EMHS Chief Executive Liz MacLeod was among those honoured, receiving one of the public sector’s highest accolades when named Leader of the Year Working within a Division, Team or Organisation at the annual Institute of Public Administration Australia (IPAA) WA Achievement Awards.
Commended for her compassion, dedication and professionalism, Liz was described as somebody who led by example in encouraging individuals within EMHS to uphold the organisation’s values.
She was also acknowledged for her role as Lead Chief Executive of COVID-19 Health Operations, where she worked collaboratively to ensure the preparedness of WA’s health services.
Other EMHS individuals or projects nominated at the IPAA awards were AHS clinician and researcher, Dr Sangeeta Malla-Bhat, EMHS Aggression and Prevention Clinical Lead Alex Knowles, Health in A Virtual Environment (HIVE) and the Inclusivity program, led by nurse Jane Armstrong.
Another significant accolade went to RPH nephrologist and hypertension specialist and Dobney Chair in Clinical Research, Professor Markus Schlaich, who was awarded the 2021 Arthur C. Corcoran Memorial Lecture Award by the American Heart Association, Council on Hypertension.
In winning this prestigious international award, Markus joins a long and illustrious list of past recipients.
EMHS’ Data and Digital Innovation (DDI) Team won the Innovation in Government award at the annual INCITE Awards, WA’s premier information and communications technology (ICT) awards. They were awarded the prize for developing the COVID-19 Digital Assessment App, which enabled demographic and clinical information to be collected rapidly across multiple settings, and was a vital part of the State’s COVID response. The team also received national recognition for the app at the national Digital Disruptor Awards, where they won the prize for Service Transformation for the Digital Consumer – Government.
Also highly feted during the reporting period was RPH geriatrician Dr Zarrin Allam. The Postgraduate Medical Council of Western Australia named Zarrin WA Clinical Educator of the Year in recognition of her outstanding work as an educator. Nominations for the honour are made by peers and supervisors. Zarrin also went on to win the Australasian Clinical Educator of the Year Award, which is presented by the Confederation of Postgraduate Medical Education Councils.
At the Australian Institute of Management WA’s 2021 Pinnacle Awards, the HIVE was awarded the Pawsey Innovation Excellence prize. The HIVE combines cutting-edge technology, artificial intelligence and highly-skilled healthcare staff to enable close and continuous monitoring of high-risk patients across multiple health sites from a command centre based at RPH.
Research led by RPH Intensive Care specialist Dr Steve Webb won the top accolade at the 2022 Australian Clinical Trials Alliance (ACTA) Awards, where it was named Clinical Trial of the Year.
Steve’s Randomised, Embedded, Multi-factorial, Adaptive Platform Trial for Community-Acquired Pneumonia (REMAP-CAP) study was recognised for its “incredible contributions” to understanding how to treat COVID.
REMAP-CAP’s investigation of 35 individual treatments since the pandemic was declared, is credited with having identified several treatments that are effective in treating critically ill COVID patients. Just as importantly, it identified two treatments that were widely used to treat these patients but were ineffective. Both treatments have now been withdrawn for use in those patients.
At the same awards, practice-changing research led by RPH’s Director of Research in the Department of Anaesthesia and Pain Medicine, Professor Tomás Corcoran, won the ACTA Award for Excellence in Trial Statistics.
His project, Perioperative Administration of Dexamethasone and Infection (PADDI) trial was described as having demonstrated “exemplary statistical aspects” from trial design and planning, through to analysis, reporting and interpretation.
The trial set out to determine whether dexamethasone — a steroid commonly given to prevent nausea and vomiting — if given to patients undergoing surgery would increase their risk of wound-site infection. PADDI found the steroid did not increase the risk of infection and could therefore be given safely to patients undergoing surgery.
