BLISTER MANAGEMENT AND IMPACT ON FIREFIGHTERS
David Burns,
Senior Paramedic & Paramedic Practitioner
LifeAid, Victoria, Australia
RESEARCHER PROFILE
Filmed in Sydney, Australia | January 2025
David Burns, a Senior Paramedic with LifeAid, a private paramedicine company in Victoria and, has a diverse background in healthcare. He began his career as a registered nurse, progressing to critical care nursing specialising in liver transplants and cardiovascular surgery.
After serving on a rescue helicopter crew, he developed a passion for out-of-hospital healthcare, leading him to pursue paramedic training. Subsequently, he specialised in critical care and flight paramedicine, working in several regions in Australia including Victoria, Queensland, Western Australia, and in the United Kingdom.
David’s journey in private paramedicine led him to reconnect with Alan Close, the Managing Director of LifeAid. After contributing during the devastating 16-week bushfire period known as “Black Saturday”, David became passionate about community and primary care aspects of paramedicine and joined LifeAid in 2023.
At the Australasian College of Paramedicine International Conference, David presented research focused on the foot care of firefighters during prolonged bushfire campaigns. During the 2019-2020 bushfires, over 10,000 firefighters sought care, with nearly 50% requiring attention for foot-related issues. David emphasised that inadequate foot care could bench firefighters for up to 10 days, diminishing their ability to protect communities and critical infrastructure. Recognising the economic benefits of prioritising firefighter health, David advocates that ensuring their well-being allows communities to recover effectively and enhances safety for all involved in firefighting efforts.
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Lymphoma, Myeloma and Genomics
Professor Dipti Talaulikar is a clinical and laboratory haematologist with expertise in genomics, working at Canberra Health Services, and Professor at ANU. She has a clinical and research interest in lymphoma, myeloma and genomics, and has authored close to 100 peer reviewed papers, including several clinical guidelines that have had a significant impact on clinical practice.
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Inner ear organoids for the study of human hearing and balance
Dr Jackie Ogier is an auditory neuroscientist, with a research focus on the molecular biology of hair cells, the specialised sensory receptors in the ear that detect sound and balance. She is a postdoctoral research fellow in the laboratory of A/Prof Bryony Nayagam, supported by a prestigious Passe and Williams foundation fellowship.
Dr Ogier’s experience broadly spans the genetics of hearing loss, disease modelling, micro dissection, primary cell culture, stem cell culture, organoids, and proteomics. Overall, she aims to generate knowledge of hearing and vestibular sensory biology.
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Clinical pathways for acute care in Tasmanian Emergency Departments
Assoc Prof Viet Tran has built Emergency Medicine Research in Tasmania from the ground up, which has culminated in the success of a AUD$3 million Australian Government Medical Research Futures Fund grant looking into the Implementation of Clinical Pathways for Acute Care in Tasmania project. Dr Tran is also the Emergency Medicine Discipline lead within the Tasmanian School of Medicine and has key roles to play within Emergency Medicine training. He feels privileged to be able to teach and mentor across the whole spectrum of becoming a doctor, from watching students grow into junior doctors, senior registrar and as fellow medical specialists.
