Leonie Short is a Dental Practitioner and Dental Therapist. She started working as a dental therapist in Rural NSW and then moved into being an academic and researcher. Through her career, Leonie has worked at 6 universities across New South Wales and Queensland, and remaining community focused.
Prior to starting her business, Leonie, was a consumer advocate in the fields of breast cancer, colorectal cancer, substance abuse before concentrating on oral health. Her passion led her to start her business.
Seniors Dental Care Australia focuses on oral health care training and education for workers in the aged home care and disability sectors. These are the whole range of health workers from carers, enrolled nurses, registered nurses, allied health practitioners and general practitioners recognising the need to improve oral health care. Leonie talks about the passion and attention to delivering oral health care teachings.
As a hands on practitioner, Leonie typically delivers training in person and through a shift pattern at seniors or disability support facilities, and also via online. She feels in person and on site delivery is more engaging and raises confidence levels in carers.
Over the past 8 years Leonie has encountered smelly mouths, rotted teeth, infected gums and dirty dentures. Her aims are for people to have nice healthy clean mouths, to be able to smile, to talk, to taste and to eat.
Without a clean mouth, cases of aspiration pneumonia and infected endocarditis increase leading to hospitalisation and death. Leonie talks about a case in the UK of ill-fitting dentures being untreated, compounded by COVID precautions to oral examination leading to the patient choking on her dentures and dying.
Leonie’s mission is to have improved oral health experiences and outcomes, however she recognises, the health system really needs to work hard to make it happen and for people to understand why it needs to be a priority.
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Mission to raise awareness of sarcoma and need for clinical trial funding
Sarcoma, a rare and aggressive cancer, remains the deadliest cancer for children and young adults, accounting for nearly one third (30%) of cancer-related deaths among those aged 15–24 and one tenth (10%) of those aged 0–14. Further, still severely under-diagnosed, sarcoma only accounts for one sixth (15%) of all cancer diagnoses in the 15 – 24 age group, and less than a tenth (8%) among children under 10.
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Surgical Site Infection (SSI) Synopsis, including modifiable and non-modifiable risk factors
Talking to the Australian Health Journal, Professor Russo states there is a particular concern in joint operations, such as hip or knee replacements, as infections in these areas can have severe consequences, including the removal of the infected joint, prolonged treatment, and significant costs for both hospitals and patients. Despite the substantial impact of surgical site infections, Australia lacks a national surveillance program for these infections, making it challenging to obtain accurate data. However, an estimate suggests that around 45,000 surgical site infections occur annually in Australia, resulting in approximately 900 deaths.
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Tasmanian researchers and clinicians working together
Tasmanian medical research charity funds projects that have a global impact and improve community health and well-being.
Australian Health Journal spoke to Stephanie Furler the Chief Executive Officer of The Royal Hobart Hospital Research Foundation about the impact of this research locally and in global health.
