RESEARCHER PROFILE
Georgina Hughes,
Pharmacist & PhD Candidate
University of South Australia Clinical and Health Sciences
Registry of Senior Australians (ROSA)
South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute
Georgina Hughes is a pharmacist & PhD Candidate with the University of South Australia Clinical and Health Sciences and the Registry of Senior Australians (ROSA), undertaking research at South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute (SAHMRI).
Georgina’s PhD study and first published paper was on how to improve the safe and effective use of antidepressant medicines and optimise quality use of medicines in older people accessing residential aged care.
The study, published in the Journal of American Medical Directors Association (JAMDA), was led by Georgina, in collaboration with Professor Maria Inacio and Associate Professor Janet Sluggett. It’s Australia’s first national study investigating the use of antidepressants among older people living in residential aged care homes across the country, analysing the de-identified data of 779,659 residents from 3,371 aged care homes, between 2006 and 2019.
“We found antidepressants were used by 46.1% of residents in 2006 and this increased to 58.5% of residents in 2019,” Ms Hughes said.
“Nearly six in every ten residents of aged care homes are using an antidepressant, which is much higher than use in the general older population.”
The use of antidepressant medicines among older people in aged care homes in Australia is high, and there is a need for better mental health support and safer use of antidepressants to improve clinical care and health outcomes for older people.
Antidepressant medicines can have side effects, especially in older people, and Australia is one of the largest consumers globally.
Almost 60% of aged care home residents are using antidepressant medicines, prompting the need to investigate the reasons for such high usage.
Georgina talks to how big data is crucial in understanding and improving the use of antidepressant medicines in aged care, leading to better clinical care and health outcomes for older people in Australia.
Georgina is passionate about practice-informing, translational and innovative research to improve quality use of medicines and health outcomes.
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CASE STUDY Role of Exercise in Metabolic Associated Fatty Liver Disease
Dr. Shelley Keating AES AEP* is an Accredited Exercise Physiologist, a researcher, and a senior lecturer at the School of Human Movement and Nutrition Sciences at the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia. Dr. Keating’s research primarily focuses on the role of exercise in the management of metabolic dysfunction associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD), previously known as non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. MASLD affects a significant portion of the global adult population, with many individuals unaware of their condition.
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Stem cell therapies for enteric neuropathies
Dr Stamp is a Group Leader in the Department of Anatomy and Physiology at the University of Melbourne, Australia. Dr Stamp’s PhD research (with Prof Martin Pera, Monash University) focused on the derivation of hepatopancreatic progenitors from human embryonic stem cells. He then joined the lab of Dr Don Newgreen at the Murdoch Childrens Research Institute where he began working on development of the enteric nervous system (ENS), before joining Prof Heather Young’s lab at the University of Melbourne, where he focused on developing a stem cell therapy to treat gut motility disorders such as the paediatric enteric neuropathy Hirschprung disease.
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Oral administration of insulin for Type 1 Diabetes
Huiwen Pang is a 3rd year PhD candidate in the Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology, University of Queensland, focusing on biomedical health research. Prior to commencing his PhD, Huiwen studied animal genetics in his Masters degree at Huazhong Agriculture University in China.
People with diabetes, especially Type 1 diabetes, largely rely on the insulin injections or insulin pumps to control their high blood glucose levels, which is painful and has a high risk of infections.
Huiwen Pang is conducting research on nano-based drug formulations for Type 1 diabetes treatment, with a focus on using nanomaterials to load insulin for oral administration and employing anti-apoptotic and anti-inflammatory approaches to mitigate damage to beta cells.
