Category: <span>Bellberry Community</span>
2017 ARCS Annual Conference, 22 – 24 August, Sydney
This year Bellberry will again be exhibiting at the ARCS annual conference. Kylie Sproston (Bellberry CEO), Trina O’Donnell (Operations Manager) and Melanie Gentgall (Praxis Australia CEO) will all be in attendance to chat with you and answer and questions that you may have.
Melanie will also be chairing the session on Thurs 24 August entitled ‘Where does Research Fit in? A Panel Discussion of Emerging Issues’
Please come along and see us for what is expected to be another thought provoking and stimulating event!
27 July 2017, The Science Exchange Adelaide
The topic for the evening was Navigating the murky waters of data banks & registries and application of the National Statement. This topic was selected as Bellberry are receiving a growing number of data bank/registry submissions for review; some simple and some more complex.
The format of the evening were 2 presentations by a Senior Manager at a leading clinical research facility and Associate Professor Annette Braunack-Mayer, Professor of Health Ethics in the School of Public Health at University of Adelaide and Chair of Bellberry Committee F, followed by a Q&A session.
The event was extremely well received with over 50 people, many from interstate, in attendance. Many thanks to all our members for their invaluable input and to our guest speakers who made the sessions both interesting and thought provoking.
International Clinical Trials Day is held on 20 May each year to commemorate the day that James Lind began his trials into the causes of scurvy.
Each year on May 20 we pause to remember James Linds work and to acknowledge the major improvements in health outcomes that have come since thanks to clinicians who are dedicated to finding answers to important clinical questions and members of the community who participate in clinical trials.
In celebration of International Clinical Trials Day this year, Bellberry joined forces with PRAXIS to offer a number of $1000 scholarships to all students across the research workforce as part of our mission to support research and ethics in Australia.
The day was also celebrated in the Bellberry office with a ‘clinical trials’ themed morning tea.
Committee G’s inaugural meeting will take place tonight with Professor Ben Canny as the newly appointed Chair.
Ben is Head of Medicine at University of Tasmania where he is responsible for the Divisions of Medicine, Pharmacy, Psychology and Paramedicine. Prior to this he was Associate Dean in the Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences at Monash University and President of the Academic Board. Ben is an experienced researcher and we welcome the breadth of research and ethics experience he brings to Bellberry having Chaired the Monash University HREC for five years. Ben will commute to Adelaide for the monthly Committee G meetings.
Click here to read our exciting March newsletter with details of our new Committee’s, donation information, NHMRC adverse events reporting changes, staff changes and much more!
The Bellberry team bid a fond farewell to Executive Assistant Christine Weinert who retired this month. Chris is a long standing member of the team who started working at Bellberry in 2009 as a Committee Secretary. Since then, Chris has become an invaluable member of the team whose extensive knowledge and experience will be sorely missed. Bellberry wishes Chris all the best on her retirement and happy travelling!
Following the retirement of Chris, Bellberry are delighted to introduce Charmaine Symons as our new Executive Assistant. Charmaine has previously worked in various administrative roles within Medical Administration at both the Port Lincoln and Royal Adelaide hospital; as an extension of this experience Charmaine was appointed Executive Assistant/Chief of Staff to the Chief Executive Officer at BioSA for six years. Charmaine is excited at her recent appointment as Executive Assistant and to work with the Bellberry Board, Chief Executive Officer and the team at Bellberry. Welcome to the team Charmaine!
Bellberry are thrilled to launch their partnership with The South Australian Health and Medical Institute (SAHMRI) to establish the Bellberry Molecular Imaging Program; a project that will allow the development of a series of diagnostic agents that will enhance SAHMRI’s ability to deliver improved healthcare, clinical trial capacity and translational health outcomes.
This partnership will deliver world-class research, which will both attract the pharmaceutical industry and retain the brightest scientists in the field to South Australia.
The importance of Imaging
Imaging has become a powerful tool in SAHMRI’s research strategy. In particular, molecular imaging provides the ability to use radiopharmaceuticals to study the functionality and progression of disease.
This program offers the opportunity to study how diseases may behave differently in individual patients, with important implications in the development of a more personalised approach to disease diagnosis and treatment.
Thanks to this support from Bellberry, South Australians will be able to benefit even more from the state’s only cyclotron that is housed at SAHMRI.
Over the next seven years, tracers will be developed for diseases ranging from bone, breast and prostate cancers, through to Parkinson’s Disease, Epilepsy, and Alzheimer’s Disease.
Molecular imaging permits the ability to locate disease, reveal its individual components, and could potentially also help examine disease mechanisms, and markedly advance the personalisation of disease prevention and treatment.
A partnership to benefit all South Australians
SAHMRI’s Executive Director, Professor Steve Wesselingh, said that the benefits of this partnership with Bellberry are countless.
“The Bellberry Molecular Imaging Program will advance South Australia as a leader in translational biomedical research by improving health outcomes, growing the knowledge economy and attracting industry partners as Australia looks to rapidly expand the health and medical sector as a major economic priority,” he said.
“We are incredibly grateful to Bellberry for their support and belief in this program.”
Director of SAHMRI’s cyclotron, Prab Takhar, said that this funding allows the cyclotron to develop a platform that will transform clinical care and research in the state in a very short time frame.
“This funding has already enabled us to begin developing agents, which are being used clinically in the state.”
Bellberry Limited’s Chief Executive, Ms Kylie Sproston, said “Bellberry exists to support research and ethics, to protect the welfare of research participants and to improve research. We are delighted to support the availability of these capabilities at SAHMRI, for the use of researchers throughout the State”.
Following an exceptionally busy year in 2016 with a total of 78 HREC meetings held, Bellberry has registered our seventh and eighth HRECs with the NHMRC. Going forward in 2017 Bellberry will be holding 2 Committee meetings every week. Due to our continued growth, we would like to expand our pool of HREC members and we particularly seek suitably qualified individuals with current human research experience. Knowledge and experience favourably considered includes:- Knowledge and understanding of scientific and methodological requirements of research protocols
- Recent or current involvement in conducting research, particularly clinical trials relating to drugs or devices, epidemiology or behavioural/social science research
- Knowledge and understanding of the National Statement
- Knowledge and understanding of relevant national and international documents/guidelines relating to clinical research, eg TGA, GMP, EMA, FDA (medical members)
- Understanding of the TGA and how it relates to clinical research (medical members)
- Relevant clinical experience and formal qualification/s to practice in Australia (medical members)
- The ability to communicate well, including the capacity to listen to and appreciate the views of others, to formulate and express a considered opinion
- Sound ICT skills
Following an exceptionally busy year in 2016 with a total of 78 HREC meetings held, Bellberry have registered our seventh and eighth HRECs with the NHMRC.
We are now delighted to announce that Professor Ben Canny has been appointed as our Committee G Chair. Prof Canny is already familiar with Bellberry after joining as a member of our HRECs in June 2016.
Ben is Head of Medicine at University of Tasmania where he is responsible for the Divisions of Medicine, Pharmacy, Psychology and Paramedicine. Prior to this he was Associate Dean in the Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences at Monash University and President of the Academic Board. Ben is an experienced researcher and we welcome the breadth of research and ethics experience he brings to Bellberry having Chaired the Monash University HREC for five years. More information can be seen at: http://www.utas.edu.au/profiles/staff/health/ben-canny. Ben will commute to Adelaide for the monthly Committee G meetings.
We are also pleased to announce Dr Michael James has been appointed as our Committee H Chair in addition to his ongoing long-term role as Chair of Committee C. Michael is Chief Medical Scientist within the Rheumatology Unit at Royal Adelaide Hospital and Professor within the Discipline of Medicine at University of Adelaide.
Bellberry CEO Kylie Sproston, PRAXIS CEO Melanie Gentgall and Bellberry Operations Manager Trina O’Donnell all attended this annual event held in Melbourne this week.
Bellberry and PRAXIS hosted a joint exhibition and were delighted to meet new contacts along with existing colleagues and friends. Alongside the 3 day program this year the event also hosted International BioFest which aimed at providing a variety of functions to enable participants wider networking opportunities as well as strengthening existing relationships.
Next Month……..
Please look out for both Bellberry and PRAXIS next month at the Australasian Ethics Network Conference (23-25 November) held here in Adelaide.
Join the discussion at Australia’s pivotal Research Ethics, Governance and Research Integrity meeting
It is a pleasure to invite you to join us at the 2016 AEN Conference to be held in Adelaide’s rapidly growing research hub. The conference is brought to you as a result of the collaboration of Bellberry, PRAXIS Australia and the Australian Research Management Society (ARMS), in conjunction with our sponsor, the University of South Australia.Program release coming very soon!
The AEN 2016 Conference will seek to explore in detail how the research and research ethics communities in Australia can prepare for innovation by better understanding what kinds of challenges this era of innovation brings our way, how we can utilise innovation to improve processes, and importantly to identify and address the ethical implications of those innovations. Secure your place in one or more of the pre-conference workshops and learn from the various expert panel discussions and interactive sessions planned throughout the meeting on a diverse range of relevant topics.conference team contact Ms Lesley Woods AEN 2016 Conference Secretariat PO Box 764 MITCHAM SA 5062, Australia Telephone: +61 (02) 8177 2215 Email: reg@themeetingpeople.com.au
13 & 14 August 2016, The Science Exchange Adelaide
This year as a representation of the growing areas of clinical trial activity, the themes of the HREC Member Education Weekend were Genetics and Stem Cells. The event was extremely well received with nearly 70 people, many from interstate, in attendance. Excellent speakers presented extremely interesting sessions throughout the course of the weekend. Many thanks to all our members for their invaluable input and to our guest speakers who make the sessions both interesting and thought provoking.
Today Bellberry staff again donned their jeans in support of national Jeans for Genes day. Jeans for Genes (Australia) was born in 1994 to support research into genetic diseases, birth defects and cancers at Children’s Medical Research Institute (CMRI).
Jeans for Genes Day is held on the first Friday in August each year and continues to be a major fund-raiser of CMRI. On this day, people are asked to wear their jeans and donate money to support research at CMRI. All money raised by Jeans for Genes goes directly to CMRI to ensure valuable research into conditions like epilepsy, cancer and birth defects can continue.
Bellberry staff as always enjoyed a jeans inspired morning tea. Operations Manager Trina O’Donnell’s excelled herself this year with some wonderful jeans inspired cupcakes (below). Thanks everyone for your support!
AEN Conference Nov 2016
CALL FOR PAPERS INVITED FROM ACADEMIC AND HEALTH CARE RESEARCH ETHICS AND RESEARCH SECTORS
It is a pleasure to invite you to join us at the 2016 AEN Conference to be held in Adelaide’s rapidly growing research hub. The conference is brought to you as a result of the collaboration of Bellberry, PRAXIS Australia and the Australian Research Management Society (ARMS), in conjunction with our sponsor, the University of South Australia.
We encourage you to visit the conference website to find out how to submit your abstract and to learn more about the various conference themes.
http://themeetingpeople.com.au/aen2016/
The AEN 2016 Conference will seek to explore in detail how the research and research ethics communities in Australia can prepare for innovation by better understanding what kinds of challenges this era of innovation brings our way, how we can utilise innovation to improve processes, and importantly to identify and address the ethical implications of those innovations.
Registration and session information coming soon, including an announcement of exciting key note speakers.
conference team contact
Ms Lesley Woods
AEN 2016 Conference Secretariat
PO Box 764
MITCHAM SA 5062, Australia
Telephone: +61 (02) 8177 2215
Email: reg@themeetingpeople.com.au
Congratulations to Bellberry board member Malcolm Crompton who was awarded an AM in the Queen’s 2016 birthday honour’s list!
Malcolm received the award ‘For significant service to public administration, particularly to data protection, privacy and identity management, and to the community’ (details below).
The Bellberry team wishes Malcolm heartfelt congratulations for a well deserved recognition of many years of dedicated contribution.
