KEY TRANSLATIONAL
RESEARCH PRIORITIES

Many important health projects are shaped without appropriate representation from the diverse First Nations communities they aim to serve. 

This project aims to create a First Nations Consumer Advocacy Panel to ensure genuine and inclusive engagement with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities across the Darling Downs region. 

Currently, representation is limited and often falls to a small number of overstretched individuals, which makes it difficult to reflect the full diversity of voices across our region.

The proposed panel will form a “go-to” network of community representatives who can provide authentic input into health research, service delivery, and related projects. Guided by cultural and ethical principles, it is envisaged that the panel will ensure sustainability through mentorship and capacity-building. 

It will support First Nations-led co-design and co-management of initiatives, ensuring they are shaped by lived experience and community priorities. 

This project will engage with the community to inform the establishment of a culturally safe and sustainable First Nations Consumer Advocacy Panel for our region.

A collaboration between the University of Southern Queensland, Darling Downs Health, UQ Rural Clinical School and Darling Downs and West Moreton Primary Health Network

Funded by QRHIRC (2021)

Metabolic syndrome is a group of risk factors that increase a person’s chance of developing serious health conditions such as heart disease, diabetes, and stroke. 

With rates of overweight and obesity rising, more people are at risk of developing these chronic illnesses. In the Darling Downs region, around three in four adults are overweight or obese, highlighting the need for local data and solutions.

This research aims to find out how common metabolic syndrome is in the Darling Downs community. By identifying its prevalence, we can better understand the scale of the problem and the groups most at risk. 

The findings will help guide local health services and inform prevention programs focused on healthy lifestyles, early intervention, and long-term wellbeing. 

This project is an important first step toward reducing chronic disease and improving the health of people across the region.

A collaboration between the University of Southern Queensland and Darling Downs Health

Funded by QRHIRC (2021)

Obesity is a major health challenge in the Darling Downs, where rates are around 20% higher than the state and national averages. 

More than 71,000 people in our region are living with overweight or obesity, contributing to preventable hospitalisations and chronic conditions such as heart disease and diabetes. 

Despite many well-intentioned programs, most strategies developed for city areas don’t work as well in regional and rural communities like ours.

This project brings together community members, health services, and local organisations to better understand what drives obesity in the Darling Downs. 

Using a “systems mapping” approach, researchers will identify how different factors—such as access to healthy food, physical activity opportunities, and social influences—interconnect. 

The findings will help create a coordinated, community-led strategy to reduce obesity and improve health outcomes across our region, supporting healthier futures for all Darling Downs residents.

A collaboration between the University of Southern Queensland, Darling Downs Health, UQ Rural Clinical School, Southern Queensland Rural Health and the QLD Government

Funded by QRHIRC (2021)

Travelling from rural and remote locations to Toowoomba to receive non-surgical cancer therapies creates significant burden. This experienced hardship can lead to declined treatments and a poorer prognosis. 

Teleoncology provides suitable patients an alternative, more accessible treatment option, reducing emotional and financial burdens associated with travel for treatment access. 

This project will explore the feasibility of the Teleoncology model developed for our region and the experience of patients and health professionals involved in the service.

A collaboration between Darling Downs Health, University of Southern Queensland and South West Hospital and Health Service

Funded by QRHIRC (2022)

The true vulnerability of aged care residents has been clearly seen in COVID-19. Although hand hygiene is one of the most effective strategies to prevent the spread of infections, the Aged Care sector is not included in hand hygiene improvement programs, such as the National Hand Hygiene Initiative. 

This project will investigate current practices, then develop and evaluate hand hygiene improvement strategies in a regional aged care facility in the Darling Downs. We intend to inform best practice in hand hygiene within the Aged Care sector going forward.

A collaboration between Darling Downs Health, University of Southern Queensland and Southern Queensland Rural Health

Funded by QRHIRC (2022)

Vaccination reduces inequality and financial hardship as well as preventing suffering and saving lives. Vaccination rates in the South Burnett are declining. To provide effective immunisation services we must first understand the needs of this community. 

This project will ask questions of clinicians and community members within a priority regional First Nations population with the aim to establish equitable, appropriate, and sustainable access to vaccination

A collaboration between Darling Downs Health, University of Southern Queensland, Southern Queensland Rural Health, Darling Downs and West Moreton Primary Health Network and Rural Medical Education Australia

Funded by QRHIRC (2022)

Aside from patient frustration, suboptimal patient flow in sub-acute wards (containing patients that are no longer severely ill) leads to delays and intensified pressure in acute and emergency wards. 

The result is additional pressure on and cost to the health service, which reduces equity in healthcare access and outcomes for our community. Initially, this study will establish the relationship between allied health workforce and patient flow, and the costs of delays in allied health service delivery within the context of the Darling Downs Health and Hospital Service.

The outcomes will inform possible cost-neutral solutions to improve patient health in our region.

A collaboration between Darling Downs Health, University of Southern Queensland

Funded by QRHIRC (2022) and Toowoomba Hospital Foundation (2023).

Culturally appropriate care for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander’s (ATSI) is critical across health services, beyond Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisations. 

Aboriginal Health Practitioners (AHPs) cultural and clinical competence improves communication, continuity of care, mental health outcomes and reduces discharge without medical advice. Within Western based non-Indigenous healthcare systems, incorporation of cultural and clinical competence by AHPs is poorly understood. 

This project will explore how AHPs provide culturally competent wholistic care within Darling Downs Health through community stories from patients’ perspectives. The findings will inform culturally safe and responsive care in the Darling Downs for ATSI patients.

A collaboration between Darling Downs Health, Rural Medical Education Australia, University of Southern Queensland, UQ Rural Clinical School and West Moreton Hospital and Health Service

Funded by QRHIRC (2023)

The Darling Downs is experiencing a critical shortage of pharmacists across the community, hospital, consultant, aged care and primary care. Current strategies to improve pharmacist workforce issues are insufficient. 

This project will use an evidence and interview based tool to explore rural and remote pharmacist recruitment and retention across health services and community pharmacies. 

The research will generate individualised community reports which describe targeted interventions and tailored support strategies for pharmacist recruitment and retention.

A collaboration between the University of Queensland, University of Southern Queensland and Southern Queensland Rural Health

Funded by QRHIRC (2023)

In rural Queensland, an ageing population combined with fewer nurses choosing aged care has created an urgent need to attract more gerontology nurses. 

Many students and early-career nurses overlook aged care due to limited recognition and societal attitudes that undervalue caring for older people. This project aims to change that by showcasing the importance and rewards of gerontology nursing through short films featuring the real-life experiences of current nurses. 

By sharing these stories on social media, we hope to inspire the next generation to consider aged care as a meaningful and fulfilling career, while also providing a practical pathway to addressing the nursing shortage in rural Queensland.

A collaboration between the University of Southern Queensland and Darling Downs Health

Funded by QRHIRC (2024)

In regional Australia, LGBT+ people face alarmingly high rates of depression, self-harm and suicide. In the Darling Downs, studies show that 80% of LGBT+ young people report poorer mental health compared to their peers, with trans and non-binary youth experiencing the highest levels of depression. 

Despite these challenges, gaps remain in the mental health supports available to LGBT+ communities. This project will work directly with young LGBT+ people and local clinicians to co-design a tailored mental health program, helping to bridge these gaps and improve wellbeing in the Darling Downs region.

A collaboration between the University of Southern Queensland and Darling Downs Health

Funded by QRHIRC (2025).

Since COVID-19, knee replacement surgeries in public hospitals have fallen by 35%, creating long waiting lists. 

While waiting, “prehabilitation” – exercise, education, and weight loss – can reduce pain, improve recovery, and shorten hospital stays post surgery. 

Darling Downs Health offers a prehabilitation program, but regular travel to Toowoomba makes it hard for many rural and remote patients to participate. 

This project is trialling a hybrid model of care, combining online and in-person sessions (telerehabilitation). 

By reducing travel, costs, and disruptions to work or caring responsibilities, it aims to help patients improve health and achieve weight loss before surgery, while increasing access and equity in healthcare for rural and regional communities.

A collaboration between the University of Southern Queensland and Darling Downs Health

Funded by QRHIRC (2025)