Update on AFRM Queensland Branch and The Hopkins Centre Research Capacity Building Project

Dr Teresa Boyle and the Queensland Branch of AFRM, in collaboration with Prof. Tim Geraghty and Dr. Letitia Burridge from The Hopkins Centre, are leading a project called “Developing a sustainable approach to research capacity building for the Queensland Branch, Australasian Faculty Rehabilitation Medicine (AFRM)” to strengthen the research capacity of AFRM physicians and trainees. The 12-month project is funded by an Education Development Grant from the Royal Australian College of Physicians (RACP) and will be completed by 30 June 2025. A major component of the project is the development and implementation of a series of 3 research capacity building workshops.

The first 2 workshops were recently held at the RACP Queensland Regional Office, at Herston. Both used a hybrid format and were facilitated by experienced academic and clinical researchers from the Hopkins Centre.   

• Workshop 1, “Getting Started in Research”, was held on Tuesday 15 October 2024;
• Workshop 2, “How to do a Scoping or Systematic review” was held on Tuesday 5 November 2024.

Each workshop followed a similar format. The first half comprised interactive presentations on the workshop topic by Prof. Geraghty and Dr. Burridge, then “Stories from the clinical research front line” provided by AFRM trainees and early career Rehabilitation Medicine clinician researchers about their own experiences of getting started in research. The second half of  each workshop comprised 1:1 or small group mentoring which enabled participants to discuss their individual research topic, question or project with multiple experienced clinical or academic researchers, in 10-15 minute rotations using a “speed-dating” approach.

14 participants attending Workshop 1 and 8 attended Workshop 2. The workshops were very well-received with excellent feedback.

The final workshop in the series, “How to do a chart audit”, is planned for March 2025.

Thanks to all the participants, mentors and staff from the RACP Offices who made the workshops a great success.