Southern Health Emergency Medicine Research Group (SHERG)

Research Themes

The SHERG group is committed to a number of research themes in emergency medicine and
clinical toxicology encompassing the diverse range of clinical problems that confront emergency
medicine as a clinical discipline.

The research group is coordinated by Professor Andis Graudins and comprises a number of
medical, allied health and nursing clinical researchers across the three Southern Health Hospital
Campuses.

For interest in any emergency medicine or clinical toxicology research, please contact Professor
Graudins in the first instance

Research themes include:

Theme 1) Evidenced-based analgesia in acute pain. A number of projects are available
investigating approaches to acute pain management in the ED. These include the assessment
of the efficacy of oral analgesics in moderate pain as well as efficacy of ketamine as a primary
analgesic in moderate to severe acute pain.

Theme 2) Public health and preventive medicine strategies in the ED. A visit to the emergency
department is a unique opportunity to investigate the potential to highlight healthy life-style
strategies as well as commence interventions that may reduce future risk of disease onset. Data
is lacking on the specific needs of patients presenting to the ED from the perspective of types of
risks and interventions that may be best implemented after an ED visit.

Theme 3) Epidemiology of undifferentiated chest pain and coronary artery disease presenting
to the emergency department. Chest pain is one of the most common symptom presentations to
the ED, with a large proportion of patients diagnosed with non-cardiac complaints. This research
theme examines various aspects of chest pain in the ED and the interface with clinical cardiology
as well as patient outcomes following diagnosis in the ED.

Theme 4) Clinical and applied toxicology. Clinical toxicology is an area of medicine that is
evolving as an evidence-based specialty. The clinical toxicology research unit has a focus on
applied toxicology, answering clinical questions in the laboratory, as well as clinical research
in poisoning. The main interest is currently in severe cardiovascular drug poisoning and the
development of novel antidotes to treat haemodynamic compromise both in animal models of
drug toxicity as well as in-vitro bench-top research.

Theme 5) Quality in healthcare and adverse event monitoring in the emergency department.