PhD opportunity in project involved in ACADI on predicting healing of DFU

Supervisors
Primary: Prof Dinesh Kumar
Secondary: Dr Rajna Ogrin, Bolton Clarke

Each year in Australia diabetes related foot disease causes an estimated 27,600 public hospital admissions, 4,400 lower extremity amputations, 1,700 deaths, and costs the Australian health system $1.6 billion annually (https://www.diabetesaustralia.com.au/facts-and-figures).

Despite best practice, over 30% of diabetes related foot ulcers (DRFU) do not heal in the expected trajectory leading to high healthcare cost and morbidity. There is therefore a strong unmet clinical need for devices to monitor chronic wounds in order to improve wound management and reduce the debilitating sequelae of these wounds. Predictive knowledge regarding whether an ulcer is healing at the expected trajectory is crucial for timely clinical decisions and can prevent limb loss. Implementing adjuvant therapies at an early stage in wounds predisposed to delayed progression leads to improved outcomes. There are no existing effective and feasible methods of predicting wound healing in DFRU.

Our earlier studies using thermal imaging used area of the thermal image, which however was highly sensitive to ambient conditions. Subsequently, we have developed an improved version of the thermal image method for venous leg ulcers. It is essential to further this work such that it is suitable for diabetic foot ulcers which is suitable for a PhD project.

The successful candidate will have the opportunity to work with a multidisciplinary team of research and clinical experts across multiple universities and partner organisations who form the Australian Centre for Accelerating Diabetes Innovations (ACADI). ACADI was launched in 2022, with the purpose of delivering novel interventions for timely diagnosis, prevention and treatment of diabetes and its complications. ACADI (established through the Medical Research Future Fund from the Australian Government’s Targeted Translation Research Accelerator program, delivered by MTPConnect) is a virtual, multidisciplinary, collaborative diabetes centre.

This scholarship opportunity is provided by RMIT University and the successful candidate will be enrolled at RMIT University. The candidate may have the background in science, engineering or healthcare disciplines and will be situated within the Australian Centre for Behavioural Research in Diabetes (ACBRD) (a partner between Diabetes Victoria and RMIT University) and will work closely together with researchers and clinicians at multiple Hospitals in Victoria. We invite expressions of interest from eligible applicants to complete a full-time PhD in diabetes research with focus on recording and analysis of images of the diabetic foot ulcers. Time will also be spent at the office of the Australian Centre for Behavioural Research in Diabetes (Melbourne CBD).

For all enquiries please contact:
Professor Dinesh Kumar: dinesh.kumar@rmit.edu.au or
Dr Rajna Ogrin: rogrin@boltonclarke.com.au