Scalpels to Statistics: A Surgical Registrar’s Path to a PhD

By Beth Studley, AusHSI PhD Scholar

I graduated medical school in 2013 and have been a surgical registrar for about 7 years now, working in both adult and paediatric general surgery. I have been the trauma registrar in multiple centres across Australia, ranging from big trauma centres to rural hospitals, as the first port of call. I have attended trauma situations as a bystander, been the first person in the resuscitation bay when a trauma patient arrives, operated on major trauma injuries, and seen the patients in an outpatient clinic setting for follow up.

Having experienced these different trauma systems from the health care provider perspective, I have learned to appreciate that every system is unique. This has led to the research idea of comparing the different trauma systems we have across our nation. This is the focus of my PhD research.

My pathway to research has not been linear. In medical school, I was scared of anything to do with statistics and could not really appreciate the importance of data and data collection, or how this affects patient care and the services we provide patients. As I continue my clinical journey, I have learnt to appreciate that you cannot exact change in a system without more research and more data!

I completed a Master of Clinical Leadership in 2021, which introduced me to epidemiology. I discovered that I really enjoyed this field of research and went on to complete my Master of Medicine (Child & Adolescent Health) for my paediatric surgery work. As part of this work, I became more involved with trauma and my clinical experience as a trauma registrar made me think of the wider trauma systems we have in Australia and how that compares to the rest of the world. This little idea then expanded through a collaboration with the Jamieson Trauma Institute, where I met amazing trauma researchers, and the rest is history!

The topic of my PhD is comparisons of trauma systems across Australia. I am currently focussing on the states of Queensland, Victoria and Tasmania. The Victorian State Trauma System, for example, has been up and running for over 20 years, and encompasses a trauma registry that is renowned internationally. I am interested in researching the differences between existing trauma systems in our country, as individual systems have been developed independently of each other. My interest in trauma systems also delves into patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) related to post-trauma injuries. Part of my research will also determine the feasibility of implementing PROMs into standard trauma registry data collection.

Supervised by Professor Kirsten Vallmuur, who is affiliated with both AusHSI and JTI, this research endeavour has introduced me to amazing collaborators and trauma researchers and clinicians all over Australia. My supervisory team also includes Professor Belinda Gabbe from Monash University (with which I am affiliated), Professor Michael Schuetz from JTI and Dr Adam Mahoney, Director of Trauma at the Royal Hobart Hospital, Tasmania. I am also very grateful for the support from our PhD candidates at AusHSI and how remarkable the collegiality in academia has been!