Achievements
Awards
Alicia Spittle received the prestigious Gayle Arnold Award for best paper at the American Academy of Cerebral Palsy and Developmental Medicine, Austin, USA 2015
Alicia Spittle and Joy Olsen Digital Health Innovation Award from Murdoch Children’s Research Institute, including $10,000 grant 2015
Alicia Spittle received an Advanced General Movements Scholarship from Cerebral Palsy Alliance Research Institute to attend training workshop in Sydney, NSW.
Joy Olsen received the Best Paper by an Early Career Researcher at the Perinatal Society of Australia and New Zealand Conference in 2015
Grants
PROJECT GRANT $668,386.50 Investigators: Alicia Spittle, Lex Doyle, Peter Anderson, Jenny McGinley, Ross Clark, Deanne Thompson, Kate Lee and Jeanie Cheong
Motor problems, ranging from clumsiness to cerebral palsy, are one of the most common adverse outcomes in children born early. This study, led by Dr Alicia Spittle, Physiotherapist at the Royal Women's Hospital and Research Fellow at the University of Melbourne and Murdoch Childrens Research Institute, will investigate the motor development of children born <30 weeks’ gestation compared with peers born at term from birth to 5 years. We will determine whether early clinical evaluations or neuroimaging in the newborn period can predict later motor impairment at 5 years to be able to identify those who will benefit most from early intervention.
CAREER DEVELOPMENT FELLOWSHIP $ 419,180.00
Associate Professor Alicia Spittle, has been awarded a career development fellowship for the next 4 years to conduct a research program involving several distinct yet related projects addressing i) early detection and ii) early intervention for infants at high risk of movement problems including cerebral palsy. This research will provide the highest quality evidence base that is needed to identify those children most at risk early in development and improve our understanding of which interventions are most effective, so that scarce health care resources can be targeted appropriately.