This project is closed for international students.
Project summary
- Program
- PhD
- Location
- Princess Alexandra Hospital
- Research area
- Health sciences
Project description
This PhD project is part of a NHMRC-funded Partnership Project with Queensland Health that aims to develop and integrate a digital frailty index into hospital systems to enable frailty-informed decision-making about treatments and care options.
Frailty identifies patients at greatest risk of multiple adverse outcomes, including longer inpatient stay, hospital-acquired complications, and death. Health care systems are currently designed to meet the needs of patients with acute, single-system problems, and many frail patients of all ages receive invasive treatments from which they cannot recover. Specialists are basing their decision-making on their technical expertise rather than on an understanding of the frailty status of patients and how that impacts the risks and benefits of interventions
This PhD project may involve:
- Evaluating how the Digital Frailty Index is used in practice and how it changes treatment decisions and conversations;
- Exploring patient and caregiver perspectives about the Digital Frailty Index;
- Testing different strategies to improve the uptake and use of the Digital Frailty Index in practice; and/or
- Understanding barriers and enablers to implementing the Digital Frailty Index in practice to guide future state-wide/national implementation.
This PhD will directly impact on care of older people in hospital and will inform the future implementation of the Digital Frailty Index at a state and national level.
The PhD candidate will have the opportunity to develop skills in quantitative and qualitative research methods, statistics, health informatics, implementation science and health system improvement. The candidate will be supported by experts in implementation science, ageing and geriatric medicine, statistics, digital health, and health system development.
Please note that this PhD opportunity is only available to domestic applicants. You are a domestic applicant if you are currently:
- a citizen of Australia
- a permanent resident of Australia (including humanitarian visas), or
- a citizen of New Zealand.
Scholarship
This is an Earmarked scholarship project that aligns with a recently awarded Australian Government grant.
The scholarship includes:
- living stipend of $35,000 per annum tax free (2024 rate), indexed annually
- your tuition fees covered
- single overseas student health cover (OSHC).
Learn more about the Earmarked scholarship.
Supervisor
Principal supervisor
Preferred educational background
Your application will be assessed on a competitive basis.
We take into account your:
- previous academic record
- publication record
- honours and awards
- employment history.
A working knowledge of the Australian public health and hospital system would be of benefit to someone working on this project.
How to apply
This project requires candidates to commence no later than Research Quarter 4, 2025. To allow time for your application to be processed, we recommend applying no later than 30 June, 2025 30 March, 2024.
You can start in an earlier research quarter. See application dates.
Before you apply
- Check your eligibility for the Doctor of Philosophy (PhD).
- Prepare your documentation.
- Contact Dr Adrienne Young (a.m.young@uq.edu.au) to discuss your interest and suitability.
When you apply
You apply for this scholarship when you submit an application for a PhD. You don’t need to submit a separate scholarship application.
In your application ensure that under the ‘Scholarships and collaborative study’ section you select:
- My higher degree is not collaborative
- I am applying for, or have been awarded a scholarship or sponsorship
- UQ Earmarked Scholarship type.