27 October 2025
In Queensland’s busiest emergency department, a collaborative research team is gaining attention for its innovative efforts to integrate research seamlessly into clinical practice and education. Clinician researchers Professors Gerben Keijzers and Julia Crilly co-lead the group championing this quiet revolution in emergency medicine.
Professor Keijzers is a Senior Staff Specialist Emergency Physician at Gold Coast Hospital and an Honorary Professor of Emergency Medicine with Bond University and Griffith University. He explained that the research group’s success stems from a combination of serendipitous timing, an appetite for proactive collaborative research, and an emphasis on curiosity and critical thinking in teaching, research and clinical practice.
“In 2007-8, the first graduates from Bond University and Griffith University’s medical programs began to enter the Gold Coast Hospital, a time that coincided with me becoming a consultant in emergency medicine,” Professor Keijzers said.
“We recognised that we need to start doing simple, small or unfunded projects that encourage health service and academic collaboration.
“Around that time, the Emergency Medicine Foundation (then the Queensland Emergency Medicine Foundation) also had funding to support emergency department research.”
Since the mid-2000s, Professor Keijzers has led the Gold Coast Health Emergency Department Collaborative Research Group with Professor Julia Crilly.
Adjunct Professor Crilly OAM began her health career as a registered nurse at the old Gold Coast Hospital before pursuing further studies in emergency nursing, which culminated in her PhD.
“In 2007, I was 1 of 2 nurse researchers helping build research capacity across 10 EDs in South East Queensland,” Adjunct Professor Crilly said.
“In this role, I could see and understand some similarities and differences in emergency care delivery and recognised that there are great opportunities to learn from and support each other through research that ultimately leads to better patient outcomes.
“In one of the country’s busiest EDs, we are never short of ideas and research projects, many stemming from clinician experiences.
“What stands out is the support and encouragement we have had from our ED and hospital leaders for almost 20 years. They see and ultimately benefit from research being led out of this ED.”
In the past decade, the research group has built a strong track record. In terms of activity and output, they are in the top five ED research groups in the country. Currently, they are involved in more than 50 collaborative research projects and, in 2025, published close to 100 peer-reviewed papers.
Professor Keijzers explained that the pillars of the research group’s strategy are organic and prioritised.
“These pillars have evolved from hospital cases or clinician interest, but they are also driven by the priority-setting our team has done,” Professor Keijzers said.
“I lead the pillar related to appropriate emergency care and co-lead the critical care pillar with Dr Richard Pellatt. Appropriate care is about avoiding harm and unnecessary tests or treatments by reducing low-value care.
“For every pillar, we have various multi-site studies, some involving international sites. For example, we’re working with the University of Bristol on studies of traumatic pneumothorax (collapsed lung). This multicentre study will involve hospitals across most Australian states.
This project follows on from published research conducted in over 40 hospitals in Australia and New Zealand showing that not putting drains in patients with spontaneous pneumothorax was better for the patient and the system.[i] This evidence is already changing clinical practice
“We showed that we can treat a spontaneously collapsed lung safely and effectively without inserting a drain. While it can look impressive to inflate the lung quickly, managing it conservatively, without intervention, led to better outcomes.
“Now we hope to show that less invasive treatments are possible for patients who have a collapsed lung from trauma as well.”
Adjunct Professor Crilly leads the health service delivery pillar, which is focused on understanding and evaluating innovative care delivery models, especially for vulnerable populations, including people presenting with mental health problems and people in police custody who require emergency care.
“Almost all of our projects in this pillar are multidisciplinary and inter-agency,” Adjunct Professor Crilly said.
“For example, the research regarding detainees in short-term police custody (i.e. watch-houses) has been a collaboration bringing together experts from health, police, ambulance and several universities.
“This group has helped bring to light some of the complex challenges and opportunities in delivering care for this vulnerable population[ii] and evaluated innovative health care models that have been shown to be safe and effective.[iii]
From 2014 to 2024, Adjunct Professor Crilly held a joint appointment between Gold Coast Health and Griffith University. This role included leading emergency care research activities and teams, supervising many students and clinicians undertaking research.
“Helping build the next generation of research leaders who, through their work, will enhance emergency care is undoubtedly rewarding and vital work.
“I lead a research capacity-building project, supported by funding from the Emergency Medicine Foundation, the health service, and an HTQ microgrant for consumer and community involvement.
“Based at the Robina ED, the expected benefits of this project include active research engagement and partnerships with external collaborators through capacity-building mechanisms.”
Professor Keijzers completed a research degree in epidemiology in the Netherlands before his Fellowship in Emergency Medicine in Australia. He is adamant that health leaders must encourage curiosity and critical thinking in teaching, research and practice to challenge traditional dogma, paving the way for improved patient outcomes.
“My role is to ensure people – students, clinicians and researchers – are empowered to ask questions and have the resources to explore the answers,” Professor Keijzers said. “We want to challenge thinking like, ‘This is what we’ve always done.’
“A great example of this is the buddy study in Gold Coast EDs for ‘boxers’ fractures’ – a hand injury. During this randomised controlled trial, we buddy-taped the fingers rather than using plaster to immobilise them and showed less time of work without a change in function.[iv] We are now working on ‘less-is-more’ treatments in forearm fractures in children.”
Professor Keijzers acknowledges that challenging traditional dogma also requires communication and education to embed new evidence into clinical practice.
“Overcoming the intervention bias that we see in Western medicine is an ongoing challenge. Even when you demonstrate improved outcomes in trials, transferring this knowledge into practice can require changing health professionals’ and patients’ mindsets.
“With Gold Coast Health’s renewed engagement in HTQ, we see this collaborative network as a vehicle to help address this challenge,” Professor Keijzers said.
[i] https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa1910775
[ii] https://www.mja.com.au/journal...
[iii] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33038937/ and https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ienj.2019.100790
[iv] https://www.annemergmed.com/article/S0196-0644(19)30059-9/abstract
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