Professor Belinda Gabbe who is based at Monash University, Melbourne but is also a Distinguished Research Professor at Swansea University has won a major NHMRC grant valued at $738,450 to fund a four year research project.  The project will examine the pattern of recovery following serious injury and the implications for service delivery by monitoring the experiences of more than 2500 seriously injured patients. Professor Ronan Lyons, Director of Swansea University’s Centre for Improvement of Population Health through E-records Research (CIPHER) will be one of the Chief Investigators on this study.

Professor Lyons, along with Professor Gabbe and Dr Tom Potokar, Consultant Plastic Surgeon and Interburns Director based at the Welsh Centre for Burns and Plastic Surgery, are also to be Associate Investigators in a study looking at burn injuries in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children.   They will join with Professor Rebecca Ivers from the George Institute, Sydney who has secured a $872,800 grant from the NHMRC to fund the project.

Professor Lyons said: “These are important studies that will shed light on the impact of injuries on individuals and society. Injury is the leading cause of death between ages 1 and 44 in many countries, including the UK. Whilst this research is being undertaken in Australia the findings will be relevant to planning prevention, treatment and rehabilitations services in Wales.”