PERIPHERAL INTRAVENOUS CATHETER MANAGEMENT
With
Dr Grace Xu,
Nurse Practitioner
Emergency Department,
QEII Hospital, Brisbane &
Emergency & Trauma Centre,
Royal Brisbane Women’s Hospital,
Brisbane, Australia
RESEARCHER PROFILE
Filmed in Brisbane, Australia | May 2026
Dr Grace Xu is a clinician-researcher, senior nurse practitioner, and emerging implementation scientist with more than 16 years of emergency nursing experience. She is a Fellow of the College of Emergency Nurses Australasia and a Centaur Fellow. She also leads the Early Career Researcher/Clinician Researcher portfolio within the Alliance for Vascular Access Teaching and Research group.
As Chief Investigator, Dr Xu has secured over $3 million in competitive grant funding and co-authored more than 40 publications, including eight ranked among the top 10% most cited globally in her field. Her international research standing is reflected in Scopus rankings, placing her in the top 99th percentile for mindfulness research and the top 93rd percentile for catheter infection. During the COVID-19 pandemic, her wellness research informed local and state wellness activity planning and was featured by major media outlets such as 10 News (2020 & 2021).
Her achievements have been recognised through numerous awards, including the Early Career Researcher Award (2024), Early Career Academic of the Year (2024), Research Implementation Award (2024), Clinician Researcher Award (2023), Outstanding Achievement in Nursing/Midwifery Leader Award (2022), and multiple teaching excellence awards.
Source: Supplied
Thanks to: Emergency Medicine Foundation
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3421-4176
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Non-invasive tools for CVD screening and monitoring
Dr Hadi Afsharan is a Research Fellow Cardiovascular Science & Diabetes at the Harry Perkins Institute of Medical Research; is a translational research and innovation fellow in medical technologies at The University of Western Australia, holding dual titles as Translational Fellow and Innovation Fellow within UWA’s Medical School and the FHRI (Future Health Research and Innovation) program.
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Infections and other lung diseases using models of human lung tissue grown from stem cells
Dr Rhiannon Werder is a Team Leader at Murdoch Children’s Research Institute leading a multidisciplinary team, combining expertise in stem cell biology and immunology, to develop new therapies for lung diseases. Her research centres around induced pluripotent stem cells to investigate respiratory diseases, spanning acute respiratory infections to chronic lung diseases. Using stem cells, Dr Werder’s team creates models of human lung tissue. With these models, Dr Werder is investigating how human-specific pathogens infect different regions of the lung, the ensuing immune responses, and how the lung repairs itself after infections, especially in people with preexisting lung diseases.
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Pathogenicity, modelling & treatment of inherited retinal Stargardt disease
Dr Di Huang is a Research Associate at the Lions Eye Institute (LEI), working with A/Professor Fred Chen and Dr Sam McLenachan. Her research focuses on developing a robust platform of retinal pigment epithelium cells and retinal organoids derived from patient-specific induced pluripotent stem cells to model inherited retinal diseases, particularly Stargardt disease (STGD1).
