A positive impact
ACRONYMS. They’re everywhere, rolling off our tongues with abandon. Most of the time we are not aware of using them but our contemporary language and everyday communications could not survive easily without them.
There are old favourites — FYI, DIY and BYO to name a few. Qantas is another, actually an acronym but entrenched in our vernacular as a name.
Most fields of endeavour and organisations have their internal acronym-infiltrated language. Often, it takes months for a newbie to get their head around the acronym-speak, let alone use such terms intelligently.
Then there’s a whole new generation. Try this one: FUTAB – “Feet Up, Take A Break”. Or DFTBA – “Don’t Forget To Be Awesome!” Just don’t try to pronounce that one!
In fact, DFTBA is technically an “initialism”, a phrase that abbreviates the first letter of each word but is unpronounceable as a word.
Fortuitously, such unpronounceability does not apply to IMPACT, the pronounceable acronym for Geelong’s own Institute for Mental and Physical Health and Clinical Translation. In fact, the IMPACT acronym describes very succinctly what this organisation in fact does — making an impact on our health.
IMPACT’s weighty 2019 report arrived on my desk the other day. Despite the temptation to give it only a cursory glance, then shelve it with “every good intention to read it at another time”, I drew breath and delved in. I was not disappointed but quite overwhelmed by the extraordinary research revealed in those 155 pages.
This gem of an organisation, with internationally recognised directors Professor Michael Berk and Professor Ken Walder, is well worth getting to know.
At its core, IMPACT brings together hundreds of researchers from many health-related disciplines, each striving to “make a meaningful difference to the health and wellbeing of the community”.
Barwon Health is a key partner with Deakin but IMPACT also collaborates widely. Geelong’s CSIRO and GEICD are among over 60 Australian research, medical and related collaborating organisations listed in the annual report, together with 106 international bodies. Such engagement and cross-fertilisation of ideas, research practice and findings is so important in building the world’s collective knowledge.
Under the umbrella of IMPACT, there are 10 theme areas of research, each led by a Deakin University professor.
At the risk of only naming a few
— and apologies to those I don’t — the Food and Mood Centre led by Professor Felice Jacka is unique globally as it focuses specifically on nutritional psychiatry research, investigating “new and effective approaches to the prevention and treatment of mental and brain disorders using nutritional approaches”. Groundbreaking work in a world facing ubiquitous mental health challenges.
Other theme areas include the
Heart Mind Research group, led by Associate Professor Adrienne O’Neil and supported by the Heart Foundation. This group looks at the role of lifestyle on depression and cardiovascular disease. Again, so important giving contemporary living and our currently constrained lives due to COVID.
Another theme area is the EpiCentre of Healthy Ageing, led by Professor Julie Pasco, but the list of diseases and chronic conditions they’re researching made depressing reading for my 65-year-old eyes!
In Prof Pasco’s words, “an important component of this program … is to facilitate knowledge transfer from research into clinical practice and into the community”, which surely is the underlying ultimate aim of all research.
IMPACT currently has 112 PhD students among its cohort. And in 2019, IMPACT researchers had no fewer than 353 articles published in medical and academic journals and books, indicating the reach of IMPACT in widely recognised circles.
For my non-scientifically minded self, I sit in awe of what the people of IMPACT are doing.
Often the concept of research is something that causes eyes to glaze over, but right now the imperatives and urgency for such research have never been greater.
The work and findings of IMPACT’s researchers may very well have a direct impact on your life and on mine. They therefore could humbly DFTBA but we definitely do not want them to FUTAB!