University of Melbourne researchers awarded NHMRC funding for disability and diabetes research

Dr Rachel Toovey and Professor Elif Ekinci have been awarded funding from the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) to support research to improve community participation for young people with disabilities, and develop a virtual specialist support service for people with diabetes.

Dr Toovey was awarded $1.44 million from the Partnership Project PRC1 scheme for her project ‘Linking young people with disability to participation through cycling: Implementation and evaluation of the co-designed CycLink program’.

Her project will implement and evaluate a co-designed cycling program for children and young people with disabilities together with their families and cross-sector practitioners, with the aim of improving their health and wellbeing and facilitating improved community engagement. It will incorporate a group program co-delivered by allied health professionals and cycling coaches, opportunities to trial adapted bikes, and an online resource for participants.

Professor Ekinci, Director of the Australian Centre for Accelerating Diabetes Innovations (ACADI) was awarded $915,823 from the Targeted Call for Research: Ensuring the Quality and Safety of Telehealth scheme for her project ‘Advancing quality and safe virtual diabetes care in emergency settings (VIRDI)’.

Her research aims to improve access to diabetes care for Indigenous Australians, those living in rural and remote areas, and people from culturally or linguistically diverse backgrounds through developing a roadmap towards a culturally safe virtual specialist support service to respond to diabetes-related emergencies, in collaboration with the Victorian Virtual Emergency Department.

Visit the NHMRC website to learn more about the outcomes for the Partnership Project PRC1 and Targeted Call for Research: Ensuring the Quality and Safety of Telehealth schemes.