CCRG announces inaugural Lead, Clinical Informatics and Integration
The Critical Care Research Group (CCRG) has announced A/Professor Siven Seevanayagam as its inaugural Lead, Clinical Informatics & Integration, a new role designed to accelerate artificial intelligence (AI) research in clinical settings and the implementation of research findings.
A/Prof Seevanayagam is a Senior Consultant, Cardiac and Thoracic Surgery based at The Prince Charles Hospital (TPCH), Brisbane – one of Australia’s largest cardiothoracic hospitals. He joins CCRG having served as the Director of the Brian F. Buxton Department of Cardiac and Thoracic Aortic Surgery at Austin Health for close to a decade. Over the last 3 years, he was also the Chief Medical Informatics Officer at Austin Health. He is a Fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons, of which he also serves as the Senior Examiner in Cardiothoracic Surgery.
In his role with CCRG, A/Prof Seevanayagam will lead the group’s efforts to integrate clinical data, informatics and AI into our research programme and help accelerate research translation into clinical practice.
"After a long and fulfilling career in Melbourne, I felt it was the right time to step away from departmental leadership and allow a new generation of clinicians to take those roles forward.
“Visiting CCRG was a turning point. I saw an organisation where clinicians, engineers, scientists and researchers work side-by-side with a singular focus on improving outcomes for patients. The opportunity to help harness clinical data and AI within such a collaborative, patient-centred environment was incredibly compelling, and I'm excited to contribute to the next chapter of innovation in critical care,” said A/Prof Seevanayagam.
A/Prof Seevanayagam will work with Luke Churchill, CCRG’s Senior Physiotherapist, Research who has been announced as one of four recipients of a Queensland Health Clinical Research Fellowship.
Together Mr Churchill, A/Prof Seevanayam and CCRG’s Lead, Clinical Research, Dr Oystein Tronstad will introduce AI into the TPCH Intensive Care Unit to predict atrial fibrillation, a potentially dangerous heart disturbance.
Also joining CCRG is TPCH’s Director, Cardiac and Thoracic Surgery Dr Trevor Fayers.
Dr Fayers is a respected cardiothoracic surgeon with extensive experience in adult cardiac surgery, minimally invasive procedures, mitral valve repair and radiofrequency ablation. He is the immediate past President of the Australian and New Zealand Society of Cardiac and Thoracic Surgeons and continues to play an active role in advancing cardiothoracic surgery across Australia and New Zealand.
He joins CCRG as a Senior Research Fellow, working closely with the group’s biomedical engineers to support innovations in heart transplantation.
Professor John Fraser AO, Founder and Director of CCRG, said the new positions epitomise the group’s commitment to world-class research collaboration that improve global healthcare outcomes.
"CCRG is a magnet for many of the world's leading critical care researchers and emerging talent united by a common ambition – to improve outcomes for critically ill patients. A/Prof Seevanayagam and Dr Fayers’ positions bring together exceptional clinical expertise and innovation leadership that will help us accelerate the next generation of discoveries and translate them into meaningful improvements in patient care.
“The appointment of A/Professor Seevanayagam and Dr Fayers builds on CCRG’s globally connected, multidisciplinary research environment where clinicians, scientists and innovators work together to solve the most pressing challenges in critical care,” said Prof Fraser.
Upon joining CCRG, Dr Fayers has also been named as a recipient of a Collaborative Research Grant from The Prince Charles Hospital Foundation. He will work in partnership with Dr Haveena Anbananthan from CCRG’s Innovative Cardiovascular Engineering and Technology Lab (ICETLab) to develop new methods to evaluate the health of donor hearts following hypothermic oxygenated perfusion (HOPE).
“Working with Dr Fayers ensures our engineering approaches are guided by clinical priorities and remain relevant to clinical settings. This enables us to generate the evidence needed to support future advances in donor heart assessment and preservation,” said Dr Anbananthan.
Based at The Prince Charles Hospital, CCRG brings together clinicians, engineers and scientists to address some of the most complex challenges facing critically ill patients. With an internationally recognised research programme spanning extracorporeal life support (ECMO), mechanical circulatory support, organ preservation, critical care innovation and translational medicine, CCRG is committed to rapidly transforming discoveries into better outcomes for patients globally.
A/Professor Siven Seevanayagam has been announced as CCRG’s inaugural Lead, Clinical Informatics & Integration
The Prince Charles Hospital’s Director, Cardiac and Thoracic Surgery Dr Trevor Fayers joins CCRG as Senior Research Fellow