Some of the Centre's PhD Candidates:

Damian Morgan

Investigation of Recreational Beach Drowning

This study investigates recreational drowning on Australian surf beaches. The study includes: the development of an epidemiological profile of surf beach drowning, an estimation of exposure rates for beach user groups, an analysis of surf beach choice and swimming location, and an assessment of swimming decision making and hazard identification. The overall research aim is to facilitate and improve beach drowning prevention strategies and countermeasures.

Lyndal Bugeja

The role of coroners’ recommendations in injury prevention and control in Victoria’

In Australia, deaths resulting from injury are required to be reported to the coroner for investigation. In addition to their investigatory role to establish identity, cause of death and circumstances surrounding injury deaths, coroners are empowered to make recommendations or comments on issues of public health and safety in order to minimise the potential for future deaths in similar circumstances. The coroner is therefore ideally placed to contribute significantly to the development and implementation of injury countermeasures.

Evidence suggests that while coroners have contributed to the identification of injury trends and development of countermeasures in a number of areas of injury, the role of coroners’ recommendations in injury prevention and control has not been examined. This research developed from an observation that many recommendations generated by coroners following a death investigation are rarely considered or implemented, despite the sense that similar types of deaths occur over time and location.

The purpose of this study is to examine the role of coroners’ recommendations in injury prevention and control. In particular the study aims to identify the factors that assist or impede the formulation and implementation of public health and safety interventions formulated in coroners’ recommendations in Victoria.

Adam McKinnon

Optimising the utility of injury surveillance systems for injury control in active populations

Promotion of physical activity is a key Australian health priority and a major focus for the Australian Defence Force to achieve and maintain operational fitness. Unfortunately, these goals are associated with the negative effects of increased injury occurrence and substantial related costs.

In recognition of the growing importance of injury and the subsequent burden injury places on society, numerous nations and organisations have, or are establishing, injury surveillance systems to monitor injury, identify injury trends and utilise data to work toward the reduction of injury within their populations. The majority of research on these systems to date has focused on the technical understanding of injury surveillance systems. However, many operational systems continue to operate at sub-optimal levels due to a variety of issues, many of which relate to the human interaction with such systems.

As injury surveillance systems are dependent on human input and operation, it is essential that research examine the human factors of injury surveillance systems and their outputs from a user perspective. Only after a thorough understanding of the issues limiting the efficiency of injury surveillance systems is established can methods be developed to increase the utility of such systems for injury control. The aim of this thesis is to identify methods to optimise the utility of injury surveillance systems for injury control in active populations.