Thanks to all who participated in this year's Symposium

The 2025 Barwon Health Deakin University Research Symposium brought together more than 140 researchers, clinicians and students for a vibrant celebration of science and community impact on 25 November.

After a shared lunch and virtual research poster exhibition, the Symposium began with a Welcome to Country by Wadawurrung Traditional Owner Corrina Eccles — a powerful reminder of tens of thousands of years of Wadawurrung custodianship of the lands on which we gathered and the communities our research serves.

Symposium presentations commenced with Best Paper of the Year Award and Senior Medical Staff Research Prize finalists. Over the afternoon, attendees learned about 25 years of cardiology research at Barwon Health and enjoyed presentations from emerging and established researchers across allied health, nursing, mental health, medicine, public health and clinical trial research, underscoring the breadth and promise of our local research talent.

The final Symposium session highlighted future directions for cancer trials at Barwon Health, and why commencing early phase trials will help us address inequities in trial access for communities in our region. Deputy Director of the Burnet Institute Margaret Hellard AM delivered an inspiring plenary address on ‘HIV, hepatitis C and hepatitis B – a local and global elimination journey.’

The Symposium wrapped up with announcement of BH DU Business of Health research seeding grant recipients for 2026, Best Paper and Research Poster Award presentations. An exciting new opportunity for research collaboration was launched, with the Barwon Health Foundation Research Seeding Grant Program commencing in 2026.

Our sincere thanks to all presenters, judges, organisers, sponsors and attendees, as well as event sponsors Barwon Health, Deakin University, Western Alliance and the Barwon Health Senior Medical Staff Group who contributed to the success of the event. See you next year!

BH DU Business of Health Seeding Grant recipients

  • Dr Michael Muleme & Dr Bridgette McNamara, Epidemiologists, Barwon South West Public Health Unit. Show Me the Data: Strengthening Equity and Evidence-Based Public Health for Sexual and Reproductive Health and Violence Prevention in Barwon South West.
  • Dr Sajal Saha, Research Fellow, Centre for Innovation in Infectious Diseases and Immunology Research (CIIDIR), Visiting Researcher, Barwon Health. Transforming Diagnosis and Antibiotic Stewardship for Acute Respiratory Tract Infections using a Novel Spotfire Respiratory Panel Point-of-Care Testing: a feasibility study.
  • A/Prof Anna Dunn, Head of Respiratory Unit, Barwon Health. Evaluating the impact of the Barwon Health Pulmonary Response Team and Mechanical Thrombectomy (PERT) Service.

Best Paper of the Year Award recipient

  • Dr Bridgette McNamara, Epidemiologist, Barwon South West Public Health Unit. Mycobacterium ulcerans in Possum Feces before Emergence in Humans, Australia

Research Poster Award recipients

  • Dr Susan Perlen, Research Fellow, Centre for Quality and Patient Safety Research. The Victorian public sector residential aged care workforce: qualitative findings from a multiple methods evaluation
  • Dr Jessica Costa-Pinto, Paediatrician & PhD Candidate ARROW Trial. A novel methodology to enable cost-effective, multi-center, randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled trials
  • Yves Charlesworth, Medical Student, Deakin University. Preoperative Anaemia in Hysterectomy: Quantifying the Burden and Uncovering the Roadblocks for Optimisation
  • Rachel Morgan, PhD Candidate Barwon Infant Study. Current Asthma Prevalence and Paediatric Guideline Concordance in the Barwon Region: A Cohort Study

 

Please enjoy some photos of the day:

Thanks to all who joined us for a day of celebration and discovery, as we showcased the people working to improve the health of our community through research.

Throughout the day, guests enjoyed the invaluable opportunity to catch up with colleagues and friends, develop new collaborations, and view the outstanding research posters submitted for a 2024 prize.

Session One Highlights

  • Keynote presentation: ‘Why clinician researchers activate the health system’ by Professor Russell Gruen, former Dean of Health and Medicine, ANU; specialist trauma surgeon; researcher; Director of Research Australia
  • Announcement of the inaugural recipients of the BH DU Business of Health Seed Grants by Erica Grundell, Co-Director, Research, Barwon Health
  • Presentations by Finalists in the Best Paper of the Year Award
  • Launch of the 2023 – 2024 Barwon Health Research Report by Professor Peter Vuillermin, Clinical Director, Research, Barwon Health

Session Two Highlights

  • An around the grounds short sharp look at some of the excellent work undertaken throughout 2024 by our emerging and established clinician researchers

Session Three Highlights

  • Lessons for success from Barwon Health research leaders to inform and inspire current and potential clinician researchers
  • Presentation of 2024 Research Prizes by Frances Diver, Chief Executive, Barwon Health
  • Presentation of the inaugural Barwon Health Research Career Achievement Award to Professor Mark Kotowicz

 

The 2023 Barwon Health Research Symposium was a great success! A crowd of over 90 – in person and online – were treated to an impressive line-up of presentations and posters that highlighted the important work being conducted throughout Barwon Health and across the healthcare spectrum. The Symposium celebrated our year in research and reinforced the strong sense that we’re all part of something important. It also demonstrated how our shared endeavours can contribute to better health and wellbeing outcomes – here in the Barwon South West region, nationally and internationally.

Research Prizes

Frances Diver, Chief Executive, Barwon Health, presented the 2023 Research Prizes to the following winners:

Best Paper of the Year Award (Clinician researcher):

  • Dr Bridgette McNamara, Barwon South West Public Health Unit: Comprehensive case-control study of protective and risk factors for Buruli Ulcer, southeastern Australia

Best Paper of the Year Award (Scientist):

  • Dr Luba Sominsky, IMPACT and CHeRUB: Pre-pregnancy obesity is associated with greater systemic inflammation and increased risk of antenatal depression

Research Poster Awards:

  • Basic Science: Trang Truong, IMPACT, Deakin University: Network-based drug repurposing for schizophrenia (accepted by Dr Bruna Pannizutti Parry)
  • Clinical Registry/ Data Analysis: Dr Tia Smith, Aged Care, Barwon Health: Evaluation of the utilisation and clinical outcomes of an afterhours emergency telehealth service to residential aged care facilities
  • Clinical Trials: Allison Bone, ICU Research, Barwon Health: A pilot feasibility randomised controlled trial of bone anti-resorptive agents on bone turnover markers in critically ill women (accepted by A/Prof Neil Orford)
  • Cohort/ Population Studies: Jacob Harland, IMPACT, Deakin University: Bone mineral density and trabecular bone score values in novel subgroups of adult-onset Diabetes
  • Qualitative Research: Erin Parker, Social Work, Barwon Health & Maryam Esghaei: Healthcare gaps and barriers to service utilisation within Geelong refugee communities: a co-designed research and service improvement project.
  • Translational Research: Dr Samantha Dawson, Food and Mood Centre, Deakin University: The Pregnancy Research and Translation Ecosystem: Improving the proportion of women meeting the dietary guidelines in pregnancy

Page last updated: November 27, 2025