VISION IMPAIRMENT IN CHILDREN AND THE IMPACT ON CHILDREN AND THEIR FAMILIES
With
Dr Susan Silveira
Chief Investigator
Australian Childhood Vision Impairment Register, NextSense &
Program Director
Master of Disability Studies (Macquarie University),
NextSense, Sydney, Australia
RESEARCHER PROFILE
Filmed in Sydney | June 2025
Sue is a qualified paediatric orthoptist who has held both clinical and academic roles. She has a Master of Health Sciences (Education) from the University of Sydney, and a PhD from the University of Newcastle.
Sue holds a conjoint academic position with Macquarie University and is the Course Director for their Master of Disability Studies, which is administered and delivered by NextSense Institute in affiliation with the University. She teaches in the areas of vision impairment and disability, and aims to share her knowledge while learning from others, especially people who are blind or have low vision and their families.
A research fellow with NextSense Institute, Sue is the chief investigator on a collaborative partnership project that established the Australian Childhood Vision Impairment Register, which captures data to help improve services for children who are blind or have low vision. She is also a co-investigator on a project that aims to raise awareness about when and why braille should be introduced in a child’s life, and is working as part of a research team developing accessible playgrounds.
Sue has worked extensively in the NSW public hospital system and in vision screening programs, and has held an academic position with the University of Sydney’s School of Orthoptics, in addition to working at The Children’s Hospital at Westmead—the largest paediatric centre in NSW.
Through her research, Sue aims to give a voice to people who are blind or have low vision, and to broadly improve their quality of life.
Outside of work, she prioritises her family and tries to spend time on her loved pastime–drawing.
Source: Supplied
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Exercise therapy for metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease
Dr Shelley Keating is a Senior Lecturer in Clinical Exercise Physiology and Accredited Exercise Physiologist from the School of Human Movement and Nutrition Sciences at the University of Queensland. With a strong grounding in exercise metabolism and body composition, Dr Keating’s research centres on the utility of exercise as a therapy for obesity and related cardiometabolic conditions, notably metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD).
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Biostatistics in Clinical Trials
As a biostatistician working in research and clinical settings, Kate Francis plays a vital role in ensuring all projects adhere to best practice guidelines and are transparently reported. She has served as the lead statistician for the analysis of clinical trials across a broad range of subject areas, including neonatal resuscitation, BCG for allergy and infection, convulsive status epilepticus and her work has been published in the top journals such as The New England Journal of Medicine, JAMA, and The Lancet. Most recently she was awarded the 2025 Excellence in Trial Statistics Award for her work on the PLUSS trial.
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Biomarkers for early sepsis detection
Dr Gabrielle Briggs is a biomedical scientist dedicated to finding smarter, faster ways to diagnose and treat life threatening complications in critically ill patients. Dr Briggs established a research laboratory embedded within the John Hunter Hospital – one of the busiest major trauma centres in NSW. Dr Briggs works alongside surgeons, intensivists, and pathologists to turn complex clinical problems into practical research solutions. Her work spans two major programs: developing a rapid diagnostic test to detect bacterial infections in blood before sepsis takes hold, and exploring mitochondrial transplantation as a novel therapy to rescue injured tissues after trauma and ischaemia.
