infective endocarditis Queensland (ieQ)

Why?

Infective Endocarditis [IE] is a relatively uncommon condition in general practice, but is more common in cardiothoracic referral hospitals such as The Prince Charles Hospital. This condition affects dozens of Queenslanders per year, many requiring open-heart surgery. At least 1 in 10 Queenslanders with this disease will die from it and many more will suffer serious consequences affecting their quality of life. At TPCH, we admit and treat an estimated 60-80 patients with infective endocarditis every year.

Because of the relative rarity of this condition, little is actually known about it. All current guidelines are international, and none specific to Australia. Our leads, representing TPCH, are part of a global effort to expand knowledge about this condition.

How?

• Under a clinical and research framework, ieQ aims to improve understanding, in an Australian context, of this disease.
• By having an established expert working group across multiple disciplines, with an affiliated patient/consumer representative, we’ll optimise education, research and translational opportunities.
• With a focus on parallel clinical engagement and provision of an Expert Advisory Team [initially localised to TPCH but planned to expand state-wide], we can support front-line, evidenced-based, patient care.
• The enabling of the IE Registry and Biobank [HREC/15/QPCH/60] is the first of its kind in Australia, and is anticipated to provide a strong repository for a broad spectrum of future research endeavours, from biomarkers through to genetics, and epidemiology through to health service utilisation.

ieQ's Mission and the Four Pillars

IeQ’s mission is to improve outcomes of endocarditis by advances in diagnosis, management and prevention, via the 4 pillars of education, management, research and collaboration.

Education

• Website
• Information sheets
• Symposia/tutorials
• Feedback

Management

• EAT
• QFEG

Research

• Database
• Biobank
• Projects
• Project presentations at meetings/ publications

Collaborations

• Multiple disciples
• Multiple Centres
• Multiple Hospitals
• Multiple states

Download the ieQ flyer

Structure

Chair:

Dr Robert Horvath MBBS FRACP FRCPA   

Infectious Diseases Physician and Clinical Microbiologist;

Infection Management services; The Prince Charles Hospital

Co-chair: (academic)

Dr John F Sedgwick MBBS  PhD (UQ)  FRACP FCSANZ FASE

Co-chair (August 2024 -)

Dr Mbakise (Pula) Matebele FCICM
Staff Specialist Intensivist  
ECMO Retrieval Specialist
The Prince Charles Hospital

Management and Governance Committee

• Dr Robert Horvath                                                                   
• Dr John F Sedgwick 
• Dr Mbakise (Pula) Matebele

Former Co-chair (2019 - August 2024)

 Dr Yong S Wee MBBS FRACP

 Cardiologist, The Prince Charles Hospital

 

 

Dr Joseph C Lee  FRACP
Clinical Director and Specialist Consultant Physician; Nuclear Medicine; Department of Medical Imaging; The Prince Charles Hospital
 

 Dr David B Godbolt MBBS B.Med Sci FRCPA. Consultant Anatomical Pathologist

Director of Pathology, The Prince Charles Hospital Group.

Dr Peter Pohlner MBBS FRACS.(Committee member 2019- 2024)

Cardiac Surgeon. The Prince Charles Hospital.

Dr Alaa Alghamry MB BCh FRACP
General Medicine and Stroke Physician. Internal Medicine.
The Prince Charles Hospital

Dr Isuru Ranasinghe MBChB, MMed (Clin. Epi.), PhD, FRACP FCSANZ
Senior Staff Specialist Cardiologist. A/Prof in Cardiology.
The Prince Charles Hospital

Dr Rishendran Naidoo FRACS (Committee Member 2022-2023)
Cardiothoracic Surgeon
The Prince Charles Hospital

Dr Kanthi Vemuri.
Infectious Diseases Physician.
The Prince Charles Hospital.

Dr Livia Williams MBBS (hons), BMedSci (hons), EMBA, FRACS (Cardiothoracic Surgery)
Cardiothoracic Surgeon/Senior Staff Specialist 
The Prince Charles Hospital.

Dr Lachlan Marshall MBBS (Hons1) FRACS
Cardio-thoracic surgeon. The Prince Charles Hospital.

Project Manager

Maricel Roxas DipCritCare, RN, BSN, MAN

 Nurse Manager, Cardiology Clinical Research Centre, The Prince Charles Hospital.

 Adjunct Fellow, PCH Nortyhside Clinical UNit, The University of Queensland

Project Management Team

The Cardiology Clinical Research Centre (CCRC) has the breadth of expertise in cardiovascular therapeutic and interventional clinical trials. The research centre is one of the largest and leading sites in Australia in the coordination and conduct of international multi-centre clinical trials and investigator- initiated research focusing on structural heart transcatheter procedures as an alternative to open heart surgery and treatments to heart failure when no other treatment options are no longer available. The collaborative team of cardiac research experts contribute to the worldwide knowledge bank and rapid evolution of technology that is leading the way to improvements in longevity and quality of life for cardiac patients. Despite the challenges faced during the pandemic particularly the slowing down of clinical trials other than COVID 19 research, the centre has seen an unprecedented increase in the number of clinical trials being commenced. The team coordinates an average of 40 to 45 research projects every year.  In 2021, there were 25 device trials, 13 drug trials, the Infective Endocarditis Biobank, local and other international investigator-led research projects investigating diagnostics and clinical remote monitoring devices.  Various Cardiovascular, COVID, Echo, Impella and Mitral Clip registries were also maintained by the research team. Additionally, the team provides clinical trials leadership, supervision and direction to investigators and higher degree research students.  CCRC Investigators are known to be national and world leaders in clinical trials.   

CCRC is the lead Australian site with Dr. Robert Horvath as the Coordinating Principal Investigator in the POET 2 Trial - Shortened antibiotic treatment duration in left-sided endocarditis: Rationale and Design of a Randomized Controlled Trial. This is an international multi-centre clinical trial designed to examine the safety and efficacy of a shortened antibiotic regimen for the treatment of left-sided IE caused by streptococci spp, S. aureus, or E. faecalis compared with full-length therapy.

The Infective Endocarditis Registry and Biobank is the first of its kind in Australia, and is anticipated to provide a strong repository for a broad spectrum of future research endeavours, from biomarkers through to genetics, and epidemiology through to health service utilisation.
 

Infective Endocarditis Working Group

International Society of Cardiovascular Infectious Diseases (ISCVID)

ISCVID was founded in the late 1980s to bring scientific awareness to endocarditis, a disease of high morbidity and mortality but with very little organized multinational collaboration. In the early 1990s this society began holding biennial scientific sessions to bring together the community of endocarditis investigators.

Australasian Society for Infectious Diseases  (ASID)

The Australasian Society for Infectious Diseases is the peak professional body for infectious diseases and microbiology in the region and a key stakeholder for government departments, medical colleges and other societies, including international organisations. Membership encompasses Infectious Diseases Physicians, Clinical Microbiologists, Scientists, Infection Control Practitioners, Public Health Physicians, Sexual Health Physicians, Veterinarians and others eminent in the field of infectious diseases. The aims of the society are to:

• Advance postgraduate education in infectious diseases in Australasia and internationally;
• Promote research in all aspects of infectious diseases; and
• Advocate for sound and evidence-based public health policy in matters related to infectious diseases.

Cardiac Society of Australia and New Zealand (CSANZ)

CSANZ was constituted with the objective of promoting the highest standards of education, training, research and practice in cardiovascular medicine and surgery through:

a. contributing to the advancement of knowledge of the cardiovascular system and treatment of diseases

b. establishing and supporting the maintenance of professional and ethical standards of practice 

c. facilitation of the education of trainees in cardiovascular medicine 

d. facilitation of continuing professional development in cardiovascular medicine 

e. promotion and defence of equitable access of all Australians and New Zealanders to high quality cardiovascular healthcare; and 

f. promotion of good fellowship among those whose primary interest is the practice of cardiovascular medicine or surgery or allied subjects.

American Heart Association (AHA)

The American Heart Association is the nation’s oldest and largest voluntary organization dedicated to fighting heart disease and stroke. Founded by six cardiologists in 1924, the AHA now includes more than 22.5 million volunteers and supporters. The AHA funds innovative research, fights for stronger public health policies, and provides critical tools and information to save and improve lives.

Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)    

The CDC works 24/7 to protect America from health, safety and security threats, both foreign and in the U.S. Whether diseases start at home or abroad, are chronic or acute, curable or preventable, human error or deliberate attack, CDC fights disease and supports communities and citizens to do the same.

As America's health protection agency, the CDC saves lives and protects people from health threats. To accomplish their  mission, the CDC conducts critical science and provides health information that protects against expensive and dangerous health threats, and responds when these arise.

Alternate ESC Guidelines via European Heart Journal

Duke and other predictive criteria 

The below document for clinicians detailing medical advice for possible endocarditis is a draft/interim document only.

A finalised version will be available here in the near future.

Draft Clinician Information Leaflet

Ethically approved and current status

• HREC/16/QPCH/315: "Invasive Candidiasis – Experience over the Last Decade". Completed

• HREC/15/QPCH/182: "A 15 year review of Coxiella burnetiid infective endocardititis in a tertiary cardiac centre in Queensland, Australia.". Completed

• HREC/16/QPCH/351: "The Queensland Staphylococcus Lugdunensis Bacteraemia Audit". Finalising with publications in development.

• HREC/15/QPCH/60: "Host Pathogen Relationships and improved diagnosis in Infective Endocarditis (IE)". Commencing soon.

• HREC/17/QPCH/469: "The Queensland Staphylococcus Lugdunensis statewide molecular study".  On hold protem: scheduled to commence 2019.

Under ethics review

HREC#tbc: "A multidisciplinary review of patients with Candidaemia and their outcomes; opportunities to improve health outcomes and service delivery".

Planned submissions (2019)

HREC#tbc: Draft title "Q-Fever: a statewide review of patients with affilliated endocarditis".

HREC#tbc: Draft title "The Queensland HACEK bacteraemia audit". 

2018

18th International Symposium on Staphylococci and Staphylococcal Infections: 23 - 26 August 2018, Copenhagen, Denmark.  

• Not as pathogenic as we thought? The Queensland Staphylococcus lugdunensis Bacteraemia audit update. Kanthi Vemuri, Madan Panda, Robert Horvath, Karen Hay, Graeme Nimmo, and on behalf of the ieQ Collaborative.   

Cardiac Society of Australia and New Zealand: 66th ASM 2-5 Aug, Brisbane

• Infective Endocarditis Queensland [ieQ]; Establishment of an Australian IE Registry and Bio.Bank. Yong S Wee, John F Sedgwick, Joseph C Lee, David B Godbolt, Anne Cameron and Robert Horvath, on behalf of the ieQ Collaborative.

15th International Society for CardioVascular Infectious Diseases (ISCVID) : 2-4 June 2019, Lausanne, Switzerland.

• A multidisciplinary review of patients with Candida endocarditis: Echocardiography and outcomes. Sean Goh, Jonathan Szeto, Chaw Aye, Kayla Tran, David Godbolt, Aaron Lin, Peter Pohlner, Robert Horvath,
• Candidaemia at a single Cardiothoiracic centre over 20 years - a retrospective audit Jonathan Szeto, Sean Goh, Chaw Aye, Karen Hay, Kim Phuong Tran, Daniel Yew, Ruth Yi Fei Heng, Alison Huynh, Timothy Chalk, Christina Mew, Robert Horvath.
• Epidemiology, risk factors, clinical features and outcomes of infective endocarditis in children in Queensland, Australia. D Lean, L Pham, C Ward, R Horvath, C Nourse
• Infective Endocarditis in a Semi-Rural Health Service in Australia B Nelson, JL Lam, N David, K Greaves, D Sowden, S Subedi.
• Retrospective analysis of cardiac device related infective endocarditis needing device extraction John Sedgwick, Manan Vaishav, Robert Horvath, Russell Denman
• Echocardiographic assessment of infective endocarditis and management: Experience at The Prince Charlers Hospital Sean Goh, Susan Smith, Sumudu Rajapakse, Aaron LIn, Robert Horvath, Yong Wee.
• Infective Endocarditis in Indigenous Australian Patients: Experience at a Single Cardiothoracic Centre Sean Goh, Susan Smith, Kayla Tran, David Godbolt, Aaron Lin, Su Hlaing, Gregory Scalia, Robert Horvath, Peter Pohlner.
• A Very Unusual case of Q fever Jonathan Szeto, Robert Horvath, Robert Gibb
• Utilisation of Hospital in the Home Services in Management of Infective Endocarditis Sumudu Rajapakse, Sean Goh, Susan Smith, Robert Horvath, Yong Wee.
• ieQ- The Establishment of Queensland's first dedicated Endocarditis Biobank, Registry and multidisciplinary management team. Robert Horvath, John Sedgwick, Yong Wee, Joseph Lee, David Godbolt, Peter Pohlner, Alaa Alghamry, Anne Cameron.

Australasian Society for Infectious Diseases: 10-12 May, Gold Coast

• ieQ: Establishment of Australia's first infective endocarditis Registry and Bio.bank. Robert Horvath, John F Sedgwick, Yong S Wee, Joseph C Lee, David B Godbolt and Anne Cameron, on behalf of the ieQ Collaborative.                                                                                                  
• Not as pathogenic as we thought? The Queensland Staphylococcus lugdunensis Bacteraemia audit. Kanthi Vemuri, Madan Panda, Robert Horvath, Karen Hay, Graeme Nimmo, and on behalf of the ieQ Collaborative.                                                                             
• Orthotopic Cardiac Transplantation for Chagas Cardiomyopathy in Australia. Koitka K, Lau K, Habibian M, Ulett K, McKenzie, S, Chan, W, Javorsky G, Wong YW, Thompson B, Pauli J, Horvath R, and Platts D.

16th International Society for CardioVascular Infectious Diseases (ISCVID) : 18-20 June 2022, Barcelona, Spain.

• Left-Sided Valvular Dysfunction Preceding Infective Endocarditis. John F Sedgwick, Robert Horvath, Darryl J Burstow
• Establishment of an Infective Endocarditis Multidisciplinary Team at the Gold Coast University Hospital, Queensland, Australia. John F Sedgwick, Keiran Oldfield, Katherine Garnham, Rohan Jayasinghe, Carl De Wet, Sylvio Provenzano, Meng Tan, Kylie Alcorn, Robert Horvath, Laurie Howes
• Utility of Modern-era Transthoracic Echocardiography in Diagnostic Decision-Making for Complex Left-Sided
  Infective Endocarditis. John F Sedgwick, Peter Pohlner, Akhlaq Khan, Han Sen Gan, Robert Horvath, Karen Hay, Darryl J Burstow
• Coxiella burnetii endocarditis: a single-centre review
  from the surgical perspective. Michael Daley, Jason Varzaly, Rishendran Naidoo, Robert Horvath
• A proposal for establishment of an Australian Q Fever
  clinical registry. Candice Holland, Robert Horvath, Stephen R. Graves, Jenny Robson, Sarah Coghill, Katherine Garnham, Nicolas Smoll
• Ertapenem and Cefazolin Salvage Therapy for Endocarditis with Persistent Methicillin-Susceptible Staphylococcus Aureus Bacteraemia: A Single Centre Case Series. Matthew Eustace, Robert Horvath
• An Unusual Case of Staphylococcus lugdunensis Endocarditis. Nethmi Wijesekera, Nastaran Rafiei, Robert Horvath, Bruce Thomson, Darryl Burstow
• Causative Organisms in Cardiac Implantable Electronic Device Infections: A Single Quaternary Cardiac Centre’s Experience. Michael Fletcher, Nethmi Wijesekera, Xiang Wen Lee, Benjamin Aw-Yeong, Joseph Lee, Robert Horvath, Russel Denman, Yong Shen Wee

2018

Book chapter

John F. Sedgwick and Gregory M. Scalia (September 12th 2018). The Role of Modern-Era Echocardiography in Identification of Cardiac Risk Factors for Infective Endocarditis, Advanced Concepts in Endocarditis. Michael S. Firstenberg, IntechOpen, DOI: 10.5772/intechopen.75760. Available from: http://www.intechopen.com/embed/advanced-concepts-in-endocarditis/the-role-of-modern-era-echocardiography-in-identification-of-cardiac-risk-factors-for-infective-endo

Journal articles

Mark R. Armstrong, Kate L. McCarthy & Robert L. Horvath (2018): A contemporary 16-year review of Coxiella burnetii infective endocarditis in a tertiary cardiac center in Queensland, Australia, Infectious Diseases, DOI: 10.1080/23744235.2018.1445279

2016

Bookchapter

J.F. Sedgwick and G.M. Scalia (Nov 2016): Advanced Echocardiography for the Diagnosis and Management of Infective Endocarditis. In: Contemporary Challenges in Endocarditis (Open Access Online), INTECH, pp. 59-94.

RESEARCH GRANT CEREMONY June1 2018

Project Development Grant Recipient: infective endocarditis Queensland Collaborative

New

L to R : Dr Kayla Trahn, Dr John Sedgwick, Dr Peter Pohlner, Dr Robert Horvath, Dr Yong Wee, Ms Anne Cameron

November 2018

"Best of Grand Rounds"  winner Kanthi Vemuri.

Dr Kanthi Vemuri won "best of Grand Rounds" at The Prince Charles Hospital for her ieQ project "Staphylococcus.lugdunensis Bacteraemia in Queensland- a State-wide audit"

December 2018

Farewell Anne Cameron.

Sadly we farewell Anne who was our unaugural project manager initially funded from a Metro-North Seed-Link grant.

Her experience with prior research efforts was a huge benefit when organising the ethics submissions for our Biobank and audits.Amongst her many endeavours, Anne initiated our website and assisted with our Lugdunensis and Candidaemia projects. Her efforts assisted our innovation from being a "thought bubble" to being a real innovation.

Thank you Anne!

2019

April 2019

Welcome Dionne Essenstam.

Dionne joined us as our 2nd Project Manager, with prior experinces at Queensland Childrens Hospital and Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital (where she still works as a Nursing Director).

Welcome Dionne!

June 2019

ISCVID

ieQ was honoured at having 10 abstracts (from 3 ieQ sites) selected for presentation at the bi-annual ISCVID conference at Lausanne, Switzerland. ieQ  also presented two orals.

ieQ attendees at ISCVID, Sean Goh, Brent Nelson, Shradha Subedi.

In addition, the overall Australasian contingent was the largest since ISCVID Cairns, (in other words,the largest for an ISCVID conference not held in Australasia) demonstrating an increased interest in this condition in Australasia.

Abstracts now available

October 2019

Pre-Symposium Lecture at TPCH by Professor David Durack.

Friday October 25th 0730.

Prof David Durack delivered a speech on "the Past Present and Future of Endocarditis Prophylaxis" at the Cardiology Grand Rounds at TPCH.

On the biggining of a momentous week, the TPCH Endocarditis Database and Biobank received SSA approval this same day!

Saturday October  26th

Endocarditis Symposium.

For details see symposium page.

A hugely successful day, hopefully fostering new collaborations in endocarditis research in Australia, and future meetings.

We wish to take this opportunity to thank all those who made this day a sucess: in no particular order, the sponsors, MSD, TPCH and The Common Good Foundation, the various societies who helped advertise it , ASID (special thanks to he ozbug group email system) , CSANZ, ANZSiCS, RCPA, RACP, TPCH for providing the venue, the organising committee for all their pain-taking work, the speakers (especially the invited speakers who helped plan the program) and all who attended!

L to R: Eugene Athan, Joseph Lee, John Sedgwick, Darryl Burstow, Dionne Essenstam, Yong Wee, Nathan Dwyer, Robert Horvath, David Durack, Stephen Graves, Jason Roberts, Peter Pohlner, David Godbolt, Michael Williams.

Tuesday October 29th

1st patient enrolled in database/biobank.

Wednesday October 30th

1st specimens biobanked!

Picture: Rebecca Watkin of Pathology Queensland processing first biobanking specimens.

2nd patient enrolled in biobank/database.

Thursday October 31

2nd specimens biobanked.

In recognition of these momentous events during October, ieQ will dedicate October of each year to national collaborative functions.

Friday November 1st 2019

Unique Patron system inaugurated.

ieQ is commencing a system of International (based outside of Australasia) and Australasian (based outside of Queensland) patrons to help guide ieQ from non-Queensland perspectives. Over several years of recruitment we hope to have several patrons in each tier, one of each specialty to reflect the multidisciplinary structure of ieQ.

We welcome our 1st patrons (and are hounoured by their quick acceptance of our invitations!)

1st International Patron Professor David Durack.

1st Australasian patrons Professor Eugene Athan and Doctor Nathan Dwyer.

Welcome!

Thursday Nov 21

1st expansion of biobank announced.

Sunshine Coast University Hospital, Rockhampton Hospital and Townsville Hospital have volunteered to be the test-sites for for 1st biobank expansion (which seques into next news item).  Thank you Shradha, Rudyard, Kim and Chris!

Thursday November 28

1st IE data-field synchronisation meeting announced (for Dec 12th)

To help with future IE collaborations, ieQ is hosting discussions on synchronisation of data-fields.

See collaborations subsection of networking page for details

Thursday December 12

1st IE data-field synchronisation meeting.

Thank you to all who participated! Participation from every state exceeded expectations! (especially with the IT glitches preceeding which will hopefully be rectified next time)

Summary was to proceed with a single basic tier, which will likely consist of ICE data field plus follow-up to 1 year, plus whether had formal ID consult or MDT discussion. Discussions still on-going, correspondence by email in interim with date for 2nd meeting to be advertised soon.

2020

Thursday January 2nd, 2020.

Inaugural newsletter published

To view newsletters, click on "newsletter archieve" tab on bottom right of main page where blue page buttons are located.

Tuesday 7th January

1st PDFs of Symposium talks uploaded

To view these, click on "2019 Symposium" tab on bottom right of main page (where blue page buttons are located), then scroll to section 5 "post symposium"

Monday 13th January

Affiliation with QUT formalised

More announcements about this soon.

Saturday January 25th.

Q fever page commenced

Over several months the Q fever page will be populated.

Links to guidelines and interesting articles have been uploaded.

Also links to ESC and AHA IE guidelines on main-page have been updated, and a new CTS page will be commenced.

Thursday January 30th

October 23rd confirmed for 1st ieQ Research Day.

(see it's page for further information).

ISCVID 2021 1st notice.

ISCVID 2021, the world endocarditius meeting, will next be held at Barcelona, Spain, June 19-21.

See ISCVID website for further information.

Zoonoses 2020 1st notice.

Zoonoses 2020, the prime Australasian gathering to discuss these diseases, will be held at the Gold Coast, September 11, 12.

See The Qfever pages on this website for further details.

Zoonoses has been postponed to September 2021 due to COVID-19.

Updates as they occur.

March 23rd 2020.

Inaugural Statewide EAT meeting.

1st case presented by Tony Allworth from St. Vincent's. Yes private facilities most welcome to participate!

Meetings will run weekly - (Mondays at 12 Noon)  if no cases by 0900 on meeting day, the meeting will be cancelled.

Zoom meeting only with instructions via Blue EAT tab on left of main page.

Due to COVID-19 we request social distancing please!

March 31st 2020.

Two major developments today

COVID-19 Emergency and ieQ's response.

IeQ's response to this unprecedented crisis is available via the blue tab above on the left-side of the main page.

POET-2

HREC has approved TPCH to be 1st Australian site to participate in POET-2

We invite other sites to join this initiative, and can aid with documents.

Funding however, may be an issue for sites. There is currently no funding for this trial for Australian sites.

Further details soon, but the major details are available on clinicaltrials.gov website.

Sadly this news has been overshadowed by the above item.

Due to COVID-19 we cannot enrol patients in POET-2 until the crisis is resolved and health services are returning to normalacy.

April 6th 2020

Discussion on TOE and COVID-19

A robust MDT discussion with participants from across Australia was held as a special EAT session to discuss this emerging issue.

Decision was made to prepare a document with input from across Australia, which will be displayed on this website when complete

From us to the many participants (29 dial-ins recorded!) THANK YOU!

April 22nd 2020

ieQ COVID-19 Echocardiography recommendations document finalised!

Thank you to all involved, a mutidisiplinary multi-state (QLD, Victoria and Tasmania) collaboration  !

Special thanks to the editing team (in alphabetical order) Alaa Alghamry (Internal medicine/stroke medicine), Alan Appelbe (cardiology) Eugene Athan (ID), Andrew Burke (ID/respiratory) Darryl Burstow (cardiology), Nathan Dwyer (cardiology), Dionne Essenstam (ieQ project manager), Janice Geary (infection control CNC), Robert Horvath (ID/micro), Joseph Lee (medical imaging), Rishen Naidoo (Cardio-thoracic surgery), Kim Oman (ID), Ivan Rapchuk (Anaesthetics), John Sedgwick (cardiology), Lauren Shearer (cardiology).

This document and other related COVID-19 documents/guidelines viewable/downloadable from our dedicated COVID-19 page (see button on left-side of main page).

August 10th, 2020.

Inaugural ieQ Research Day postponed.

Sadly, due to COVID-19, we have taken the decision to postpone this meeting until further notice.

October 22, 2021

Due to Covid, the research day has again been post-poned, but will hopefully  return in 2023

Farewell Dionne!

We farewelled Dionne during 2020, and thank her for helping us during pivotal moments such as the Symposium.

Ms Dionne Essenstam

Welcome Maricel and CCRG !

During 2020 we also welcomed the CCRG led by Maricel Roxas to manage ieQ projects.

POET-2 Progress

Part of TPCH/ieQ POET-2 team.

Even with Covid restricting our activities, we have other Australian sites joining this exciting endeavour, Geelong (Barwon) Hospital, Fiona Stanley Hospital, Queen Elizabeth and Royal Adelaide Hospitals.

QFIG.

Following on from an EOI  meeting on October 2021 and a further presentation at the ASID Zoonoses workshop, a collaborative to reserach and improve management of Qfever in Australia was formed- QFIG ( Q Fever interest group).

A dedicated page on this website will be developed to advertise this initiative.

June 18-20 2022

ISCVID

IeQ was privilidged to have 8 posters accepted for display at ISCVID.
See the abstracts section for these.
As well as the educational aspects, ISCVID was an excellent opportunity to network, after the delays due to Covid.
Expect announcements about datafields soon!

August 22nd, 2022

Stage 2 of (national) IE Data-field design launched.

Following delays due to COVID, the initiative of synchronising IE data-fields for future (national) multi-centre studies has recommenced.

Please go to the "big blue button" on this main page to access.

October 2022

ACE formed!

Following discussions at the September 2022 IE data-fields open forum, it was decided to form a national collaboration to further not only the registry design but also other research and management aspects of IE, that required a larger scale than single centres could provide.

This new body - the Australasian Collaboration in Endocarditis  (ACE) will endeavour not only to co-ordinate Australasian IE efforts, but also to attract interest that would not have been possible without a multi-state 

November 2022

Both ACE and QFIG committees were conveened!

ACE proceeding with preliminary stages of national IE registry

QFIG proceeding with 5 subcomitees:

registry, CRFs, lab study, guidelines, data linkage.

February 2023

Both ACE and QFIG promoted/advertised at RCPA Update, Melbourne.

First New Zealand members of ACE !

March 2023

QFIG advertised/discussed at Zoosig webinar

April 2023

Both ACE and QFIG promoted/advertised at ASID, Adelaide.

April 5th- ACE IE registry data-field planning has commenced.

Our aspirational target is October 2023 to finalise these data-fields, for next stage of ethics submissions.

For those who wish to be part of this, if you havn't already received an email with your modules/sections of data-fields to discuss with others in your specialty group, please contact us. Note we request anyone participating in this to apply for ACE membership (if not already a member).

ACE/QFIG gathering at ECCMID Copenhagen

(following IE session  Monday 17^th April 10.30am Hall O. )

August 2023

ACE lecture at CZANZ

ACE lecture on timing of surgery in endocarditis.

IE registry data-field planning in progress.

Revised Information leaflets on endocarditis for patients in preparation.

October 2023

ieQ IE biobank passes 100 enrolments!

New patient information leaflet uploaded to website.

QFIG activities on QFIG page.

March 2024

Both ACE and QFIG on show at RCPA Update Adelaide.

A huge thank you to RCPA for inviting both groups to present in wonderful Adelaide!

ACE members presented an MDT education session on endocarditis on Saturday March 2nd.

QFIG members presented "evolving laboratory diagnosis of Q fever"on Sunday March 3rd, which resulted in interest from mass media.

See QFIG and ACE pages more more detailed news.

Revamping of website.

ACE and QFIG now have dedicated news sections.

Articles in this section will be progressively migrated to  the relevant groups.

Although we welcome sharing of the information on this website for clinical and research purposes, as there is intellectual property involved with much of the data, no data from this website may be published without the permission of the authors or ieQ.

In addition, we request that if any of this data is presented at meetings that the source is clearly acknowledged.

The views expressed on this website are the views of ieQ members and are not necessarily the views of UQ ,Queensland Health ,The Queensland Government, or any other of our affiliated organisations.