Post by University of Canberra

Congratulations to the UC researchers who took home awards from the Canberra Health Annual Research Meeting (CHARM), held last week on campus 👏 Dr Vicki Evans won the Canberra Hospitals Foundation Award for the Best Consumer Engagement Research Poster. Her poster explored the use of a Community Partnership Group (CPG) to embed meaningful consumer involvement in research by health disciplines within the Clinical Research Rehabilitation and Translation research group. The study found the CPG model provides an effective, scalable mechanism for integrating consumer perspectives into healthcare research. Michaela McGrath, a PhD candidate at the UC Research Institute for Sport and Exercise (UCRISE) won the University of Canberra Award for the Best Allied Health Oral Presentation. She spoke about research on the use of interactive balance board technologies to improve balance impairment in individuals with Long COVID in a home-based rehabilitation context. Dr Joanna Wall Tweedie , also from UCRISE, won the CHARM Award for the Best Population Health Oral Presentation. She has studied Running For Resilience and participants’ motives and perceived benefits of the regular physical activity event, which aims to promote mental health and suicide prevention. Her presentation encouraged consideration of how community-led initiatives can enhance clinical practice and contribute to more connected, preventive models of healthcare in the ACT. Anton Julius Fichtenmaier, a PhD candidate in clinical psychology, won the CHARM Award for the Best 3 Minute Pitch Presentation – on atypical presentation of social anxiety and why it is relevant to problematic alcohol use, which he noted was a topic pertinent for ACT health practitioners as rates of anxiety disorders increase. Dr Juliana de Mendonca, from the UC Health Clinics, won the Australian Association of Gerontology Award for Best Poster Related to Ageing. Her research explored the feasibility of home-based inspiratory muscle training for people with Parkinson’s disease. Well done to all our award recipients and their research collaborators! 📸: Vicki Evans (centre) with other poster award recipients. Photo by Ari's Pixels Photography #UniCBR