Simon Craig

Such a wonderful person to work with

Can you all please stop asking santa for the perfect man.

I nearly got kidnapped 3 times today

What is going on in Brisbane?

Australia 6/60

Finally, some recognition!

a woman stands in front of a white board with the words " there 's very little chance of success " below her ALT: a woman stands in front of a white board with the words " there 's very little chance of success " below her

Happy NHMRC “Not For Further Consideration” Day for all those who celebrate.

More than 80% of submitted grants will not be funded. If you missed out, you’re in the majority!

Teenager:

"I think these pants need a wash. I sat down on the couch in the common room and now there's a brown stain."

"I'm pretty sure there was some chocolate where I sat..... it tasted like chocolate anyway."

If you are an author, a publisher, or a “literary agent” and you are FOR banning books, may I humbly suggest you FIND A NEW JOB? 🙃

It's a pretty big problem

2022 data:

1,742 deaths from alcohol (mostly chronic)
1,693 from drugs; 455 due to heroin

Alcohol induced deaths have an age-standardised rate of 6 per 100,000

Drug-induced deaths have an age-standardised rate of 6.5 per 100,000

www.aihw.gov.au/reports/alco...

I think it's a good thing.

Heroin has been around for decades.
Naloxone works, and will save lives.
Making it more accessible is useful.

Scientists, academics, researchers: We’re excited to share that @altmetric.com is now tracking mentions of your research on Bluesky! 🧪

Dodgy science in crosshairs as fraud audit censures Australia’s top research agency The National Health and Medical Research Council has been criticised over its lax approach to scientific misconduct in an audit that lays the groundwork for changes in the way bad science is policed.

This is a worry...

www.theage.com.au/national/dod...

Not the Illawarra?

Read to the end Aussie researchers, and don’t eat room temperature chicken

a woman is covering her mouth with her hand while holding a bow and arrow in her hand . ALT: a woman is covering her mouth with her hand while holding a bow and arrow in her hand .

So - if you missed out on a grant, you're certainly not alone. You're also NOT particularly unlucky.

If you didn't get a grant, AND got food poisoning, you're unlucky (but, food poisoning is pretty common)

If you got a grant (with or without food poisoning in the last 12 months), congratulations!!

Australia’s Food Safety Report Card released for the UN World Food Safety Day 7 June 2021 The Food Safety Information Council, together with their partner Environmental Health Australia, today released a report card on Australia’s food safety record in the lead up to the Third UN World Foo...

Australia's population is around 26 million

There are around 4.1 million cases of food poisoning each year.
www.foodsafety.asn.au/topic/austra...

Therefore, you are MORE likely to get food poisoning, than to get a major research grant

Recent figures

**Investigator grants
2024 - 13.7% (1,437 applicants missed out)
2023 - 14.3% (1,293 applicants missed out)

**Clinical trials & cohort studies
2023 - 11.1% (201 projects missed out)
2022 - 11.6% (213 projects missed out)

**Ideas grants
2023 - 11.1% (1,865 projects missed out)

a man is standing next to a robot that says never tell me the odds ALT: a man is standing next to a robot that says never tell me the odds

It's that time of year when most of the NHMRC / MRFF grants are submitted, and time for a period of reflection before trying again next year.

Let's take a quick look at the odds of success...

Remember - most applicants are serious researchers, many have PhDs and impressive track records.

www.smh.com.au/national/the...

a person is reaching for a bag of m & m 's in a store ALT: a person is reaching for a bag of m & m 's in a store

For those who regularly write large grant applications, what is your "secret ingredient"?

- chocolate?
- coffee?
- good clean living?

Mine varies between dark chocolate bullets and peanut M&Ms

#SEGMHOP @dennisrenmd.bsky.social
www.saem.org/publications...

I couldn't find the age cut-off used anywhere in the paper. It would be useful to have an analysis which included just 0-12 months (where the benefit is likely to be tiny), as well as the older children.

(It'd be great if everyone agreed on "straightforward" terms like "bronchiolitis" and "sepsis")

It's an interesting paper... but it is unclear how old the patients included in the study are

They included "infants and children" with a diagnosis of bronchiolitis.

Depending on where you are in the world, bronchiolitis is an "under one year" diagnosis, or a "up to two years old" diagnosis.

Dr Erin Mills with an excellent presentation on the role of caregiver concern for clinical deterioration - listen to the parents!

#ACEM2024

#Thanksgiving2024 is coming up. Is that bellyache from too much turkey 🦃or maybe it's...appendicitis! How do you know? #MedSky #PedSky #EMedSky #EMSky #SurgSky #FOAMed #EBM #SGEMHOP thesgem.com/2024/11/sgem...
@thesgem.bsky.social @drsimoncraig.bsky.social @ffolliet.bsky.social

It takes a system to save a life in cardiac arrest. I’m proud to have played a small part in this paper in The MJA which shows how survival has incrementally improved in Victoria over 25 years and highlights the value of a registry. If you don’t measure, you can’t improve 🤓 🚑

Agree - hard to change practice based on a bunch of observational studies... but really important to get the right answer!

Why NOT do a trial? (Apart from the obvious issues of expense, hassle, difficulties getting funding, etc)

The meta-analysis suggests rapid correction has a 30-day mortality of 7.5% and slow correction has mortality of 13.7%

For a superiority trial, this works out to be 386 per group.

… and if there was such a trial I would be happy to be a participant