The George Institute for Global Health is pleased to announce that Amanda Henry has been appointed to the role of Program Head, Women’s Health (Australia). Currently Associate Professor, Women’s and Children’s Health at UNSW Medicine and Clinical Academic at St George Hospital Sydney, she will be taking up her new Professorial role on May 20.

“I’m delighted to be taking on this opportunity at such an exciting time, with our recent launch of the Centre for Sex and Gender Equity in Health and Medicine, and a growing body of research into unmet needs in women’s health,” she said.

Prof Henry has been a women’s health clinician for over 20 years, specialist obstetrician since 2011, gained a Masters in Public Health in 2012, and completed her PhD in Obstetrics and Gynaecology in 2016. She also finds time to supervise five HDR candidates, one of them at The George, and is Director of the Master of Women’s Health Medicine course at UNSW, Sydney.

Prof Henry is no stranger to The George, having been seconded in a part time capacity to assist with the initial establishment of the Women’s Health Program. This allowed her to make connections and collaborate with a number of the Institute’s researchers both in Australia and globally and she has also been an Honorary Senior Research Fellow at The George since 2020.

An obstetrician and gynaecologist by training, Prof Henry’s own research program focuses on pregnancy and non-communicable diseases, but during her career she has been involved in many other areas of women’s health including sex differences in pain, and domestic and family violence. Prof Henry is also a strong advocate for women’s health and translating research into practice through her leadership roles with professional societies, including as Councillor for the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists and the Society of Obstetric Medicine of Australia and New Zealand.

The George Institute’s Women’s Health Program was established in 2018 with a bold vision consistent with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals: namely, to improve the health of women worldwide, as well as achieve gender equality and empower all women, by 2030.

Prof Henry also has her own big vision for the future of the women’s healthcare, “I want to break down the silos of care so that women’s health is addressed across the life course, rather than fragmented care delivered in isolation.”

Professor Jane Hirst, Program Director, Women's Health (Global), said:

“With her breadth of experience, her academic connections and her history with The George, Prof Henry is an excellent addition to the Women’s Health Program team and I’m looking forward to working with her to continue to build on the already substantial program of work in Australia.”

Two George Institute research projects have been successful in the National Health and Medical Research Council’s Clinical Trials and Cohort Studies funding round.

Professor Craig Anderson, Director, Global Brain Health at The George Institute and Conjoint Professor, Faculty of Medicine, UNSW and his team will analyse the effectiveness of a particular ‘clot-busting’ drug in 4,000 patients with presumed acute ischaemic stroke. 

Stroke is a critical illness, the second leading cause of death, and the third leading cause of disability, with its prevalence increasing in ageing populations, worldwide. Most strokes are ‘ischaemic’ resulting from the blockage of a blood vessel in the brain. Opening up blocked blood vessels with intravenous thrombolysis is a proven treatment for this type of stroke, but there are still knowledge gaps over the balance of benefits and risks of this treatment in certain types of patients. 

“Our study will solve important outstanding questions to define which patients have the most to gain with the lowest risk of bleeding from using modern ‘clot-busting’ thrombolysis treatment for acute ischaemic stroke due to a blocked blood vessel in the brain.”

While speed of treatment reduces risks and increases the chance of good outcome, it requires organised systems of care, an experienced team, and ultimately confidence in treatment for the attending clinician.

“This is the first adaptive platform trial in acute stroke that will allow important clinical questions to be addressed for patients in different regions of the world, both low- and middle-income as well as high-income, to improve their chances of recovery from this common and serious illness,” Prof Anderson added.

Associate Professor Anthony Delaney, Professorial Fellow in the Critical Care Program at The George Institute, A/Prof Faculty of Medicine, UNSW, and Senior Intensive Care Specialist at Royal North Shore Hospital, and his team will conduct a clinical trial to assess whether giving antibiotics to people with severe brain injury who require assistance with their breathing in intensive care will improve outcomes.

Patients with severe acute brain injury who require treatments to support their breathing in an intensive care unit are at high risk of developing a lung infection. Those that do develop lung infections have a higher risk of dying and may not recover as well as they could from the brain injury. 

“Our trial will determine if giving antibiotics early in the course of the ICU treatment can prevent these infections and increase the chance of surviving and improve the recovery of brain function’” he said.

The team will use a new tool to measure how well people with severe brain injury recover that was developed specifically by patients to measure a variety of brain functions that are not normally measured by the tools that have been used traditionally.

“For patients who survive a severe acute brain injury, limiting further brain damage by preventing infection may avoid the need for decades of care, improve quality of life and allow people to return to the workforce, as well as reducing healthcare costs,” he added.