UNNECESSARY TESTS AND TREATMENTS IN LOW VALUE CRITICAL CARE
Dr Gerben Keijzers
Senior Staff Specialist Emergency Physician,
Gold Coast Hospital at Department of Health, Queensland &
Adjunct Professor, Honorary Professor of Emergency Medicine
Griffith University & Bond University,
Queensland, Australia
RESEARCHER PROFILE
Filmed in Southport, Queensland | January 2025
Dr Gerben Keijzers is a Senior Staff Specialist Emergency Physician at the Gold Coast University Hospital Emergency Department. Dr Keijzers balances half of his time between clinical work and academic duties, including teaching medical students and conducting research. His role also include being an honorary professor of emergency medicine at Bond University and is an associate professor at Griffith University.
Dr Keijzers completed a master’s degree in epidemiology and medical degree in Nijmegen, The Netherlands. He came to Australia in 2002 and completed his Fellowship in Emergency Medicine in 2008. He has a PhD in the quality of trauma care.
He works clinically, conducts clinical research and is a clinical supervisor for medical students on emergency medicine rotation. Over the past 15 years, Dr Keijzers has helped create seven research pillars focused on critical care studies, such as sepsis and antimicrobial stewardship.
His research focus includes low-value care, which is in the area of unnecessary tests and treatments with minimal benefits. Dr Keijzers has contributed to over 100 publications and more than 20 grant applications. Through his involvement in multi-site collaborative research projects, he encourages critical thinking and curiosity among clinical staff, striving to enhance both patient care and the efficiency of healthcare resources.
He is the former chair of the Queensland Emergency Research Collaborative, a member of the Clinical Trials Group of the Australasian College for Emergency Medicine, a member of the Research Advisory Committee for the Emergency Care Institute and is section editor for the peer-reviewed journal Emergency Medicine Australasia.
Note: Narrative adapted from University of Queensland website and interview
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Health and economic burden of interstitial lung diseases
Dr Cox’s main research interests focus on respiratory diseases and primarily on the economic burden and economic evaluation of interventions and treatments for their management. She earned her PhD from the University of Tasmania where her doctoral research examined the health and economic burden of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) in Australia, one component of the NHMRC Centre for Research Excellence for Pulmonary Fibrosis, a national project implemented alongside the Australian IPF Registry and the Lung Foundation Australia. This research provided the first epidemiological profile and first costing estimates of the economic burden of the disease in Australia, providing essential evidence for health service reimbursement policies.
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Respiratory health and the microbiome in the lung environment
Dr Taylor leads the Respiratory Health Group within the Microbiome and Host Health Program. His research employs tailored techniques that allow the lung environment to be characterised to a high level of accuracy, including detailed measurements of airway microbiology (microbiome), mucus composition, and inflammation. This information is used to identify predictive markers of chronic lung disease severity as well as determine effective forms of therapy.
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Mechanisms of resistance to menin inhibitor therapy and Acute Myeloid Leukaemia
Dr Rithin Nedumannil (MBBS, MPH, FRACP, FRCPA) is a PhD candidate at the University of Melbourne, undertaking his doctoral studies in collaboration with the Cambridge Stem Cell Institute (Cambridge, UK) and the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre (Melbourne, Australia). He is a clinical haematologist and haematopathologist with current appointments at Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, the Royal Melbourne Hospital, Austin Health and Northern Health.
