Great year for NECTAR research team
NECTAR, Northern Health’s Collaborative Group for Thrombosis And Research, has had a very successful year.
The NECTAR research team presented at Northern Health Research Week (4 orals, 5 posters), the World Congress of International Union of Angiology in Beijing (5 orals) and Blood/THANZ 2018 Conference (3 orals, 10 posters) in Brisbane and had three publications this year.
Dr Prahlad Ho, Director of Haematology, said this work has showcased to Australia, and the world, the excellent research performed here through NECTAR at Northern Health, which has generated a significant amount of international interest.
“One of the biggest things we have done this year is we’ve been very well represented internationally. We’ve been to San Diego at a premier haematology conference, and had two posters there. For the size of our institution, that was very well represented,” he said.
When it comes to thrombosis, Dr Ho says that Northern Health has one of the premier thrombosis research institutes in the state and that we are producing more research than other organisations in the state.
“This is a testimony of the hard work the team does, particularly Dr Rowina Brook and Dr Yin Lim, as well as three medical students who are working with us and have already presented at international conferences,” he added.
“One of our students, Brintha Krishnamoorthi, won the Best Poster Award at Blood 2018 in Brisbane,” Dr Ho said.
It is the sheer volume of research that this team does which makes Dr Ho proud.
“We’ve come from a service that never had thrombosis research to now be one of the largest thrombosis research centres, at least when it comes to conferences. At the Australia and New Zealand thrombosis conference, more than 20% of all posters were from Northern Health,” he added.
Having a dedicated thrombosis research laboratory is unique to Northern Health.
“We are probably the only institution in the state, and maybe even in the county that has the full range of diagnosis and tests which measure the total amount of clot formation. This means that other researchers now come to us to perform the tests, as we recently had samples sent from Austin Hospital to the Northern”.
“That is a testimony of how good the service is and how respected NECTAR research is.”