Tuesday, 25 June 2024 / Published in Walshs Blog

The winner of the 2024 $10,000 Walshs Medical Bursary is Dr Nicholas Croker!

Walshs are thrilled to announce the winner of the 2024 $10,000 Walshs Medical Bursary is Dr Nicholas Croker.

Nicholas Croker recently completed orthopaedic training in Queensland. Whilst on training he became involved in establishing the Queensland Orthopaedic Registrar Research Collaborative (QORRC).
The underlying motivation behind this venture was to create a platform for widespread engagement with orthopaedic registrars in high-level, large-scale research to optimise outcomes for orthopaedic patients – all the while turning perceived barriers to into benefits. The barriers include frequent rotation of registrars between hospitals spread across the vast geography of Queensland.The major benefit is for the registrar network to provide seamless handover of multi-centre studies by as they rotate between hospitals. With a focus on collegiality, success, and enjoyment, QORRC hope to entrench engagement with high-level research as a part of routine practice for the upcoming generation of orthopaedic surgeons.

The $10,000 in bursary funds will help to fund four upcoming research projects on ankle fracture related infection.Surgery for ankle fracture is common, with one in 1500 people undergoing ankle fracture fixation every year. The age and co-morbid status of these people is increasing and impacting surgical complication rates and infection is the most common reported complication associated with ankle fracture fixation. The trial will be managed and delivered by the Queensland Orthopaedic Registrar Research Collaborative (QORRC) in collaboration with JTI and the University of Queensland clinical trials unit and run for approximately 1 year.

Emeritus Professor Jeffrey Lipman AM, Head of the Academy of Anaesthesia and Critical Care at UQ (and bursary selection committee member), praised Nick Croker for his “Exceptional work across all Queensland orthopaedic departments.” He highlighted, “Nick Croker has been instrumental in helping set up the Queensland Orthopaedic Researching Registrars Collaborative. This is a unique initiative within Queensland for speciality doctors in training, and probably unique within Australia. The QORRC is already producing impressive results. As an academic myself, I am impressed with Nick’s CV as he is laying the foundations for a stellar academic career. This is all on top of his clinical commitments as an orthopaedic specialist in training. Queensland needs young doctors like this for its own future.”

Dr. Peter Steer, Mater Chief Executive Officer (and bursary selection committee member), concurred, stating, “Dr. Croker’s application provided good, thoughtful work and a well-constructed, staged approach.”

Professor Lipman further noted, “Nick proposes to use the Walsh Medical Bursary to increase the Collaborative’s outputs and to encourage young doctors to join in this Collaborative, thereby starting their own research careers. Nick himself is impressive, as is his proposal!”

Walshs CEO, Michael Walsh, remarked, “The quality and variety of the applications were extremely impressive for 2024. It’s inspiring to see the clinical experiences and research being undertaken by the clients at Walshs. We congratulate and commend Nick Croker for his broad-based research initiative that is certainly going to make a significant contribution to orthopaedic research in Queensland and perhaps further afield.”

“Walshs is pleased to be able to offer this medical bursary, and we thank all applicants for their effort in 2024.”