Category: <span>Blog</span>
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.
This month we were delighted to welcome back Lauren Griswood (nee Guscott) to the Bellberry team. Lauren previously worked at Bellberry as a Committee secretary but has returned in a new role as administrator for the new NHMRC funded National Scientific Committee’s (NSC) that are being hosted by Bellberry.
The NSC’s were launched by the NHMRC in January and provide scientific review for the areas of Complex Genetic Research and Medical Devices. The Committee’s will provide advice to HRECs, sponsors and researchers on the scientific merit and integrity of a research protocol. Lauren was involved in the setup of the Committee’s and will be administrating then going forward.
Please feel free to contact Lauren for further information about the Committee’s and how to submit a proposal at nsc@bellberry.com.au
Further information can also be found at the NSC website
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.
REGISTRATION OPEN AND PROGRAM NOW AVAILABLE!
Join the discussion at Australia’s pivotal Research Ethics, Governance and Research Integrity meeting
CLICK HERE FOR PROGRAM DETAILS
WORKSHOP PLACES ARE FILLING FAST
Join us at the iconic SAHMRI building for opening night drinks, networking and an exciting guest panel discussion. The conference dinner will also be held in another of Adelaide’s most majestic locations.
More details coming soon!
Register now to ensure you don’t miss out, places are strictly limited
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
In October 2014 Bellberry hosted the Crossover conference, an international expert scientific meeting that addressed the challenges of early treatment switching in clinical trial design for oncology. A further scientific meeting in 2015 allowed for the development and launch of best practice guidelines for trial design and statistical methods from an international expert panel.
Bellberry are pleased to announce the publication of two papers arising from the scientific meetings, which have now been accepted by the International Journal of Technology Assessment in Health Care (Cambridge University Press.)
The first is entitled ‘Treatment Switching: Statistical and Decision Making Challenges and Approaches’ (N. Latimer, C.Henshall, U. Siebert and H. Bell)
The second is entitled ‘Treatment Switching in Cancer Trials: Issues and Proposals’ (N. Latimer, C. Henshall, L.Sansom and R. Ward)
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.
International Clinical Trials Day – 20 May
The Bellberry office team again commemorated this significant day with a ‘Clinical Trials’ themed afternoon tea.
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.
Lind’s experiments in 1747 were run under very different conditions to today. Serving on the HMS Salisbury, his trial consisted of just 12 men, grouped into pairs and given a variety of dietary supplements from cider to oranges and lemons. The trial only lasted six days but, within that time, there was a noticeable improvement in the group eating the fruit, providing Lind with evidence of the link between citrus fruits and scurvy.
Each year on May 20 we pause to remember his work and 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.
11 – 12 May, Sydney
Bellberry were again delighted to exhibit and present at this popular two day event. CEO, Kylie Sproston, Operations Manager Trina O’Donnell, National PICF Project Manager Simon Windsor and Committee Chair Annette Braunack-Mayer all attended this event along with Praxis CEO Melanie Gentgall.
Kylie Sproston chaired the day 1 session, ‘Emerging Issues in Ethics’ at which Simon spoke about the National PICF, and Annette about Registries. Kylie also presented at the day 2 session ‘Real Industry Mashup: Clinical trials, social media, digital marketing and beyond’
The Bellberry team found the event educational and informative and a great way to catch up with our clients and meet others in the industry.
The new National PICF website and associated documentation was launched yesterday at the annual May Vic Health Workshop entitled ‘Innovations in Clinical Trials and Research.’
Bellberry have sponsored this initiative and CEO Kylie Sproston along with PICF Project Manager Simon Windsor attended the event held in Melbourne with Simon presenting a session entitled ‘Talk Read and Write: a three tiered Participant Information and Consent Form’.
The session and information presented were extremely well received and both Kylie and Simon welcomed feedback from workshop delegates on the new PICF.
If you would like further information on the new National PICF please visit www.nationalpicf.com.au
