SIMS has approximately 30 research students undertaking Masters or Doctoral degrees. Here is some further information about selected projects.

Rebecca Bond DETERMINATION OF "PRESENCE" WITHIN VIRTUAL SPACE: IMPLICATIONS FOR INTERFACE DESIGN (Masters by Research) Rebecca is looking at issues of place, space and cyberspace from a socio-political context, and in particular the concept of "presence" within virtual space. The main focus of her research relates both to how virtual or cyber space is mapped and represented in an emotional context, and how this influences presence in human computer interaction (HCI). An attempt will be made to decipher the relatively new frontier of cyberspace and to explore new methods for representing this form of space. Findings may engender new and improved measures of user perceptions and extend the efficacy of HCI, especially in response to new computing technologies and global cultural changes. [Supervisors: S. Wright, K. Tanner]

Neha Padmanabhan EXPERIMENTAL EVALUATION OF MOBILE DECISION SUPPORT PROTOTYPE FOR EMERGENCY TRIAGE (Masters by Research) The raise in the use of mobile decision support systems in healthcare has increased the need for more rigorous evaluation of such systems due to the potential implications of their use in practice. This research involves assessing the ‘decision impact’ of the Mobile Decision Support Triage prototype, called “iTriage”, which is implemented on a handheld personal digital assistant (PDA) device. Triage is a process of assessing the medical urgency to determine the time to treatment. We intend to study the impact of iTriage on triage decision making by evaluating the prototype using laboratory experiment study design involving nursing students as subjects. The comparison of the findings from the data collected will interpret the use and applicability of the triage prototype for triage in healthcare. [Supervisors: F. Burstein, L. Churilov]

Margaret Whitstock CAN RECIPROCAL EXCHANGE OF MEDICAL INFORMATION BETWEEN PRACTISING CLINICIANS AND CLINICAL RESEARCHERS HAVE A BENEFICIAL IMPACT ON THE APPLICABILITY AND USABILITY OF EVIDENCE FROM CLINICAL RESEARCH? (Masters by Research) Evidence-based medicine (EBM) literature frequently refers to gaps between available clinical research evidence and its implementation in clinical practice. The prevailing EBM view is that the problem locus lies after the generation of research evidence, so efforts to reduce or remove the gaps have targeted a range of individual, organisational, resource and information issues that could contribute to improvement in implementation capability. However, others take the position that there is a need for the realities of clinical practice to inform clinical research, so that the outcomes of research are more readily applicable to the target populations. Margaret's study is exploring practising clinicians' and clinical researchers' views on whether reciprocal information exchanges before and during the clinical research process could have a beneficial impact on the applicability and usability of evidence from clinical research and contribute to improving the uptake of clinical research evidence in clinical practice. [Supervisors: G. Johanson, K. Williamson]