More accurately measuring the difficulty of an operation in advance with NASA technology

The NASA TLX is a multi-item questionnaire which is used in a
variety of fields. TLX stands for Task Load Index, and is a measure
of perceived workload. Image: MeasuringU

Surgery is not an exact science. No surgeon truly knows the complexity of an individual operation until after it is over, and this is difficult to accurately measure.

A group of Melbourne surgeons, led by Dr Stephen Bell, in Monash University’s Department of Surgery and also a surgeon at The Alfred, has adapted an index used by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) as a way to measure an operation’s difficulty. 

The research found that the NASA TLX Index accurately measured the technical difficulty of an operation, and therefore may be useful to gauge a trainee’s proficiency over time, which currently relies on self reporting. It can also be used to assess changes in surgical techniques and new technologies.

Hormone-blocking breakthrough helps combat skin cancer recurrence

Dr Miles Andrews, from the Central Clinical School, has helped discover how to reduce the recurrence of skin cancer tumours by blocking a naturally-occurring hormone that causes drug resistance in melanoma cells. Dr Andrews spoke to Nine News about the breakthrough.

See the faculty story and the research published in Nature.

Congratulations to our recently completed graduate research students!

Congratulations to our recently completed graduate research students Mahima Kapoor, Michelle Wong, Jason Palazzolo, Katrina Woodford, Hayley Barnes and Elliot Anderson - Well done! See below for detail of thesis topics, departments and supervisors.

Teasing out motivations for vegan and vegetarian diets and their relationship to disordered eating

In her 2022 3MT presentation, Ms Courtney McLean explains

her research into measures of eating disorder for the dietary
choice of veganism and vegetarianism. See video (2:49 mins)

It has long been thought that vegetarianism and veganism are related to an increased risk of disordered eating due to overlapping similarities in dietary rules. But previous research does not necessarily support this idea. 

Furthermore, previous literature has suggested eating disorder tools may be picking up on normal vegetarian and vegan-motivating food behaviours. This could result in inaccurate estimates of eating disorder prevalence in these populations.

Ms Courtney McLean is a PhD student in Central Clinical School’s Department of Psychiatry, whose research is on whether measures of eating disorder psychopathology are appropriate for vegans.

14-20 June 2022 Central Clinical School recent publications

Opioids are frequently overused, particularly after
hospital discharge from surgery: Paul Myles and
Thuy Bui have published a comment in The Lancet

Recent publications featuring research as notified by PubMed during 14-20 June 2022 from Central Clinical School affiliated researchers in the following departments.

The most recent validated publications for the school and departments can be seen on their publications pages, linked to from the headings below. Otherwise, read down the entry for recent notifications. The below is not a comprehensive list.

World first midlife twin study reveals simple eye test could predict dementia

L-R: Dr Chris Karayiannis, Prof Velandai Srikanth and A/Prof
 Chris Moran from the National Centre for Healthy Ageing with
study participants Paul Carton and Gerry Carton.

A world first study mapping the thickness of the layers of the retina in 18 pairs of twins at midlife has found that it could be a marker of future dementia risk.

The paper, led by Associate Professor Christopher Moran and Professor Velandai Srikanth, from the National Centre for Healthy Ageing in Australia, and published in the journal, Scientific Reports, tested 18 pairs of twins recruited from Twins Research Australia, average age of 64 years and two thirds female.

See Faculty story

Mental health impacts of COVID-19 widespread within rural health care workforce – despite fewer COVID cases

Image: Shutterstock

A national survey of more than 7800 health care workers during the second wave of the COVID pandemic has found that, compared to their metropolitan based colleagues, rural allied and healthcare workers experienced a high prevalence of mental health symptoms, despite treating very few COVID-19 patients. The survey was led by Associate Professor Natasha Smallwood.

See Faculty story