Research News and Events

Research updates

Bendigo Health newsletter:

February 2025 December 2024 November 2024

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Datathon 2024: Health Climate Data Drive

Bendigo Health’s Datathon 2024: “Health Climate Data Dive” was held Saturday 23 and Sunday 24 November at La Trobe University.

Building on the success of our previous datathons, this event had the most datasets yet, with 10 health/wellbeing data sets – linked by citizen SA2 location – to eight environmental datasets.

The Centre for Victorian Data Linkages (CVDL) linked the data that was secured in virtual machines accessible only to team data scientists.

Fifty eight participants formed eight teams to look at various aspects of climate change and the impacts on health.

Participants were from a diverse range of backgrounds and organisations including EPA, CSIRO, Universities, local and state government, Player Piano Data Analytics, PHU’s and Bendigo Health.

The teams used robust query techniques to interrogate the linked data to find preliminary answers to research questions including:

How does Extreme Heat Factor (EHF) affect mental health episodes? Does it vary across diagnoses?
Do people with autism experience higher levels of anxiety and depression during extreme weather events than their peers? How do metropolitan areas compare to rural and regional areas?
Examine the ‘at risk’ characteristics of those presenting to ED/admitted to hospital during/post EHF episodes.
Detailed complications (e.g. dehydration, heat stress, hypertensive disorders, and placental abruption) and their corresponding ICD/diagnosis codes associated with heatwaves among pregnant women in Victoria who visit the ED during and after heatwave periods.
How does EHF affect mental health episodes? Does it vary across diagnoses?
Is there an incremental impact of each additional extreme heat factor day on heat-related hospitalisations in the State of Victoria?
All ICD admissions and ED presentations – Patterns of admissions of people on EHF days and PM2.5 days (bushfire & smoke) and are there regional variations?
What is the association between hospital admissions and deaths on EHF days in Bendigo?

Each of the teams presented their findings in the last session of the weekend and outlined the next steps they can take for a deeper dive into their research question. Hopefully this is the start of an ongoing robust program of research that will enable a more climate conscious approach to healthcare in the future.

2024 Research Week

This year’s Bendigo Health Research Week “Improving Care, Changing Lives” was the biggest and best yet with 90+ attendees at the various sessions and positive feedback and many new connections formed.

The passion and enthusiasm for the strong research culture being built at Bendigo Health was palpable, and we thank all who attended the events.

International Rural Women’s Day was celebrated with a morning tea for our women in research; strategic thinkers collaborated on actions for impactful development of the future of research; and Dr Cameron Knott was the entertaining quiz-master extraordinaire for our research quiz.

We were privileged to have Dr Leigh Kinsman, the Professorial Chair of the Violet Vines Marshman Centre of Rural Health Research at La Trobe University Rural Health School, and Dr Rebecca Kippen, an Associate Professor of Demography in the School of Rural Health at Monash University, sharing their research experience, discussing the keys to successful research partnerships and collaborations, and exploring research career pathways.

The week culminated in the Research Showcase, where the 70+ attendees were treated to 18, 15-minute oral presentations. They were made by passionate clinician researchers and academic partners on the diverse range of research being undertaken to meet the needs and improve the health and wellbeing of our regional community. We also had an awesome display of posters for attendees to explore during their breaks while they networked with colleagues.

The Poster Prize was won by Shadow Toke, Ignacio Correa-Velez and Elisha Riggs for their poster entitled: "Karen Women of Refugee Background Perspectives on Trauma and Violence-Informed Maternity Care."

The winner of the inaugural “Evan Stanyer Innovative Health Research Award” for an exceptional innovative research idea that demonstrates originality, impact and potential to improve health outcomes was announced at the end of the day.

The winner of this prestigious award was Susie Ellis who will use the $5,000, proudly sponsored by the Bendigo Health Fundraising & Foundation, to fund the required technology and the trial of a generative AI platform in the hand clinic setting.

The award was presented to Susie’s manager, Wendy Millar, by two of Evan’s children, Brianna and Dylan. Congratulations Susie.

You can view the video recordings of the sessions and the Symposium here:

2024 Research Week (playlist)

2024 Research Week Showcase (playlist)