April 10, 2025 • 13 mins
On Good Friday, the Royal Hobart Hospital Research Foundation is holding its annual Easter Egg Hunt – which this year, will be held at the Government House Lawns. From 10 til 2, kids of all ages will solve clues to uncover their own bag of eggs – with other games and activities to keep them entertained – and there might even be a visit from a certain bunny...
The event is raising money to support life-saving medical research, like the Hobart Method – a treatment technique for premature babies that is now being introduced in hospital NICUs across the globe.
In this episode of iHeart Tassie, Britt Aylen speaks with Professor Peter Dargaville, the man behind the Hobart Method, and medical engineer Andrew Marshall, whose current research project is being supported by the RHH Research Foundation.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
My hearts.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
Our funding in our organization provides that's the initial seed
funding to get these research projects off the ground. And
then obviously Peter's research has gone on to have huge
implications around the world and it's been rolled out in
me made or intensive care units worldwide. So it's just
something that's happened really low but has made a huge
(00:26):
impact on babies around the world. I guess.
Speaker 3 (00:30):
On Good Friday, the Royal Hobart Hospital Research Foundation is
holding its annual Easter rec Hunt, which this year will
take place at the Government House Lawns from ten till two.
Kids of all ages will solve clues to uncover their
own bag of eggs, with other games and activities to
keep them entertained, and there might even be a visit
from a certain mister Bunny. The event is raising money
to support life saving medical research like the Hobart Method,
(00:53):
a treatment technique for premature babies that is now being
introduced in hospital Nike US across the globe. I'm Fritte
Ailen and this this episode of iHeart Tazzy, I'll chat
to Professor Peter Dargaville, the man behind the Hobite Method
and medical engineer Andrew Marshall, whose current research project is
being supported by the Research Foundation My Heart. When a
(01:14):
baby is born premature, what should be an exciting time
for new parents, can quickly turn into a period of
fear and panic. Premature infants can face many difficulties, including
the vital skill of breathing and taking in oxygen, the
treatment of which is something Professor Peter Dargaville has been
working to improve with the development of the Hobite method.
Many babies who need breathing support are hooked up to
(01:36):
a continuous positive airway pressure or SEAPAP machine, but for
some this isn't enough, and a medication called suffactant is
needed to be delivered into the lungs.
Speaker 4 (01:45):
And there have been a traditional way of giving surfactant,
which we have available as a drug that we can use,
whereby a breeding tube would be put into the lungs
of a baby and they'd be connected up to a
ventilator to give this fact And we envisioned that there
was surely a simpler way of doing it and developed
(02:08):
a technique and trialed that technique where we used a
little fine tube to give this medication called the fact
which was briefly passed into the wind type of a
pre term baby, the medication given, and then the baby
could continue on a less invasive form of breathing support
(02:31):
and hopefully never need their breathing tube and connection to
a ventilator. That's how the method started. And then with
the support of the Research Foundation, we conducted some studies
where we looked at the use of that method in
preterm babies and found it to be potentially defective. And
(02:53):
after that we are able to get large scale funding
to do a large clinical trial, in fact, dis clinical
trial ever done of this form of giving suffectant. That
was called the Optimist Trial and was conducted in thirty
three centers in eleven countries and had some great results
in showing the value of using this technique, the Hoobat
(03:15):
method for delivering suffactant into the lungs of pre turbabes.
Speaker 3 (03:19):
After the Optimist Trials follow up had been completed, Peter
was reacquainted with one of the many patients he'd treated, and.
Speaker 4 (03:25):
It was a lovely young lause who came along with
her family who and she showed all the good attributes
that you'd hoped for in an ex pre term baby
in terms of her capabilities, and she had avoided some
of the bat nasty respiratory infections that we now know
occur with a lesser incidence in babies who've had their
(03:49):
factant given via that method as an example.
Speaker 3 (03:52):
Having perfected the technique through years of research and medical trials,
Peter has succeeded in creating a mode of care that
is simpler and love for these tiny and vulnerable patients,
and the Hobote method has now been adopted in hospitals
around the world.
Speaker 4 (04:06):
Yeah, most certainly, it is funnily enough, I'd have to
say the North Americans are the last to adopt, but
are adopting. But this method and methods like it are
very widespread and used routinely in most centers in Europe
and pretty much everywhere around the world. And obviously I
(04:28):
have still had a lot of connection with people that
are involved in this research and also involved in the
clinical use of the method.
Speaker 3 (04:36):
Peter says it's important to have a global view.
Speaker 4 (04:39):
There are thirteen million pre term babies born in the
world each year, and a lot of them are born
in incentives where that we would call low resource centers,
lacking human resources and infrastructure, and some of our projects
now are concentrating on those areas where we feel we
can do lot of good and really help to improve
(05:03):
the outcomes for preterm babies in those setting.
Speaker 3 (05:06):
Coming up, we'll learn about Peter's current project and how
you can support the Royal Hobut Hospital Research Foundation at
next week's Easter egg Hunt fundraiser.
Speaker 2 (05:14):
My hearts as I hearts as.
Speaker 3 (05:21):
The Royal Hobout Hospital Research Foundation is currently supporting another
project centered around the treatment of premature babies. Biomedical engineer
Andrew Marshall is working with pioneer of the Hobot method,
Professor Peter Dargaville, to develop a series of senses that
can measure the breathing activity of the tiniest infants.
Speaker 1 (05:38):
Pre term infants, so babies that are born less than
thirty weeks gestations, so really really little babies. They might
be around a kilogram and one of the main problems
that affects them is that they have an underdeveloped breathing
system respiratory system, and one of the consequences of that
(05:59):
is that they regularly stop breathing for short periods and
even really really short pauses in breathing, like if we
hold our breath as adults for five seconds, it's not
a big deal. But if one of these kind little
babies stops breathing for five seconds, it can have some
(06:20):
significant consequences for their health. So we're trying to measure
those kind of events more effectively and give collisions more
information about what's going on with their breathing so that
they can take appropriate action.
Speaker 3 (06:34):
A lot of hospitals already use sensors to detect breathing patterns,
but their non invasive design means they're not accurate enough,
particularly when it comes to premature babies.
Speaker 1 (06:43):
What we're hoping our senses will be able to do
is give more nuanced information, so not just detect breathing,
but tell you what exactly is happening with the breathing,
why if they've stopped breathing, why that might have happened,
and do that more reliably so that the information is
(07:04):
more reliable that's presented to the clinical stuff. So the
main benefit that we're hoping to give through the valuable
of these sensors is basically better information, better decision making
tools for clinical stuff, so that they can better target
their therapies for what's actually going to give an improvement
(07:24):
for the baby.
Speaker 3 (07:26):
If the current trial at the Royal Hibard Hospital is successful,
andrews hoping to see his technology rolled out at other
facilities across Australia and eventually the world.
Speaker 1 (07:34):
Medical device commercializations is a tricky thing, a very slow thing.
But we have the three senses and one of those
is effectively in existing sensor that we've got a different
algorithm for, whereas the other two really brand new devices,
so those would be relatively slow to get the market.
(07:55):
We'd hope the five to ten year kind of timeframe
to get those to market. The third of those could
be something that could be rolled out really really quickly
to a lot of hospitals worldwide.
Speaker 3 (08:06):
Peter has been working with Andrew for nine years now,
since he was an honest student, and it's.
Speaker 4 (08:11):
Just great that he's a young engineer who has over
the last decade become an expert in preterm babies, which
is not a field of endeavor that you would expect
fro an engineer, but you know, he knows more about
preterm babies than most medics.
Speaker 3 (08:28):
And Andrew says none of his work would be possible
without the support of the Royal Hobert Hospital Research Foundation.
Speaker 1 (08:34):
I mean, the funding is amazing. It's basically it's allowed
me to pursue this full time, this line of research
along with our other areas of research in printerm infants
and option therapy, and so this study that we're going
to be doing at the road of a hospital testing
(08:55):
out these new sensors would be significantly more challenging without
the research foundations. I think I think we can say
that we'd probably find a way to make it happen regardless,
because that's how important we think work is. But it
would be a much slower drawn out process without the
(09:16):
research foundations, something.
Speaker 3 (09:18):
Peter grees saying the support is vital.
Speaker 4 (09:21):
Well, the perspective is that without that work, the studies
on suffactant would never have happened because they supported at
the outset the studies we have done on the automation
of oxygen control for preterm babies would not have happened,
and the device and the algorithm that we patented and
(09:43):
have now commercialized, that that wouldn't have come about because
the Research Foundation funded that, in fact funded three projects
in relation to that work. So you'd have to say
it's critical. It's that funding has been the thing that's
led to all of these projects happening and being successful.
Speaker 3 (10:05):
The annual Easter Red Hunt is a major fundraiser for
the Royal Hobart Hospital Research Foundation.
Speaker 2 (10:09):
It's now in its fourteenth year and it's a much
loved event in the Hobart community. We've got everybody comes
together on the day to seek out clues around the
gardens and then they're rewarded with a bag of chocolate
eggs at the end tweets. I guess what's not to
love about that?
Speaker 3 (10:28):
This is Stephanie Furler, the Research Foundation CEO.
Speaker 2 (10:31):
And then we also have a range of activities on
the day until we've got through beds and entertainment and
activities for the kids. So it's a really exciting and
fun day out for families. But more importantly, it's a
fundraiser for the work that we're doing here at the Foundation,
raising money for essential medical research to support premature babies
(10:54):
at the Royal Hobart Hospital and also around around the world.
Speaker 3 (10:58):
She says they're expecting around two thousand people to take
part in next Friday's event, which means they'll need a
lot of eggs.
Speaker 2 (11:04):
So we have about seven hundred kilograms of chocolate eggs
for people on the day, which is a huge amount,
so we're actually just talking about how we're going to
be moving. They are eggs around the gardens and the
lawns on the day, so it's pretty exciting and it's
definitely a lot of chocolate. So the money from this
(11:25):
event is going to be supporting Andrew's research into the
monitoring of breathing of premature babies. But more broadly, the
research Foundation looks at supporting medical research for clinicians and
researchers in Tasmania. I guess our primary aim is to
help improve the health outcomes of Tasmanians, so we look
(11:47):
at supporting research across a broad range of areas, so
things from cancer care to heart diseases to pancreatitus. We're
really committed to just really boost seeing the health and
wellbeing of Tasmanians through a range of projects.
Speaker 3 (12:04):
Around ninety percent of the Royal Hbot Hospital Research Foundation's
funding comes from the community, so.
Speaker 2 (12:09):
It's really essential that you know, the community support us
and donate where they can, and that allows us to
give more money to the researchers to help improve people's
health and wellbeing.
Speaker 3 (12:22):
Really and if you want to contribute and join the
Easter egg hunt on Good Friday. Steph recommends getting your
tickets as soon as possible.
Speaker 2 (12:28):
Tickets are really selling fast and this year there won't
be any ticket sales on the day, so we're encouraging
everyone to jump online at Rhresearch Foundation dot org so
buy their tickets and obviously make a donation while they're there.
That would be really appreciated and will actually make a
huge difference into the work that we're able to do
(12:49):
and to improve the lives of people around the world.
Speaker 3 (12:53):
And that's it for this week's episode of iHeart Tazi.
We'll be taking a little break for a step before
returning to your ears at the start of May. Until then,
you can find our entire back catalog in the iHeart
Tazzy podcast feed. I'm fritt Ailen. Thanks for listening
Speaker 4 (13:07):
My Heart Tazzy.
My hearts.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
Our funding in our organization provides that's the initial seed
funding to get these research projects off the ground. And
then obviously Peter's research has gone on to have huge
implications around the world and it's been rolled out in
me made or intensive care units worldwide. So it's just
something that's happened really low but has made a huge
(00:26):
impact on babies around the world. I guess.
Speaker 3 (00:30):
On Good Friday, the Royal Hobart Hospital Research Foundation is
holding its annual Easter rec Hunt, which this year will
take place at the Government House Lawns from ten till two.
Kids of all ages will solve clues to uncover their
own bag of eggs, with other games and activities to
keep them entertained, and there might even be a visit
from a certain mister Bunny. The event is raising money
to support life saving medical research like the Hobart Method,
(00:53):
a treatment technique for premature babies that is now being
introduced in hospital Nike US across the globe. I'm Fritte
Ailen and this this episode of iHeart Tazzy, I'll chat
to Professor Peter Dargaville, the man behind the Hobite Method
and medical engineer Andrew Marshall, whose current research project is
being supported by the Research Foundation My Heart. When a
(01:14):
baby is born premature, what should be an exciting time
for new parents, can quickly turn into a period of
fear and panic. Premature infants can face many difficulties, including
the vital skill of breathing and taking in oxygen, the
treatment of which is something Professor Peter Dargaville has been
working to improve with the development of the Hobite method.
Many babies who need breathing support are hooked up to
(01:36):
a continuous positive airway pressure or SEAPAP machine, but for
some this isn't enough, and a medication called suffactant is
needed to be delivered into the lungs.
Speaker 4 (01:45):
And there have been a traditional way of giving surfactant,
which we have available as a drug that we can use,
whereby a breeding tube would be put into the lungs
of a baby and they'd be connected up to a
ventilator to give this fact And we envisioned that there
was surely a simpler way of doing it and developed
(02:08):
a technique and trialed that technique where we used a
little fine tube to give this medication called the fact
which was briefly passed into the wind type of a
pre term baby, the medication given, and then the baby
could continue on a less invasive form of breathing support
(02:31):
and hopefully never need their breathing tube and connection to
a ventilator. That's how the method started. And then with
the support of the Research Foundation, we conducted some studies
where we looked at the use of that method in
preterm babies and found it to be potentially defective. And
(02:53):
after that we are able to get large scale funding
to do a large clinical trial, in fact, dis clinical
trial ever done of this form of giving suffectant. That
was called the Optimist Trial and was conducted in thirty
three centers in eleven countries and had some great results
in showing the value of using this technique, the Hoobat
(03:15):
method for delivering suffactant into the lungs of pre turbabes.
Speaker 3 (03:19):
After the Optimist Trials follow up had been completed, Peter
was reacquainted with one of the many patients he'd treated, and.
Speaker 4 (03:25):
It was a lovely young lause who came along with
her family who and she showed all the good attributes
that you'd hoped for in an ex pre term baby
in terms of her capabilities, and she had avoided some
of the bat nasty respiratory infections that we now know
occur with a lesser incidence in babies who've had their
(03:49):
factant given via that method as an example.
Speaker 3 (03:52):
Having perfected the technique through years of research and medical trials,
Peter has succeeded in creating a mode of care that
is simpler and love for these tiny and vulnerable patients,
and the Hobote method has now been adopted in hospitals
around the world.
Speaker 4 (04:06):
Yeah, most certainly, it is funnily enough, I'd have to
say the North Americans are the last to adopt, but
are adopting. But this method and methods like it are
very widespread and used routinely in most centers in Europe
and pretty much everywhere around the world. And obviously I
(04:28):
have still had a lot of connection with people that
are involved in this research and also involved in the
clinical use of the method.
Speaker 3 (04:36):
Peter says it's important to have a global view.
Speaker 4 (04:39):
There are thirteen million pre term babies born in the
world each year, and a lot of them are born
in incentives where that we would call low resource centers,
lacking human resources and infrastructure, and some of our projects
now are concentrating on those areas where we feel we
can do lot of good and really help to improve
(05:03):
the outcomes for preterm babies in those setting.
Speaker 3 (05:06):
Coming up, we'll learn about Peter's current project and how
you can support the Royal Hobut Hospital Research Foundation at
next week's Easter egg Hunt fundraiser.
Speaker 2 (05:14):
My hearts as I hearts as.
Speaker 3 (05:21):
The Royal Hobout Hospital Research Foundation is currently supporting another
project centered around the treatment of premature babies. Biomedical engineer
Andrew Marshall is working with pioneer of the Hobot method,
Professor Peter Dargaville, to develop a series of senses that
can measure the breathing activity of the tiniest infants.
Speaker 1 (05:38):
Pre term infants, so babies that are born less than
thirty weeks gestations, so really really little babies. They might
be around a kilogram and one of the main problems
that affects them is that they have an underdeveloped breathing
system respiratory system, and one of the consequences of that
(05:59):
is that they regularly stop breathing for short periods and
even really really short pauses in breathing, like if we
hold our breath as adults for five seconds, it's not
a big deal. But if one of these kind little
babies stops breathing for five seconds, it can have some
(06:20):
significant consequences for their health. So we're trying to measure
those kind of events more effectively and give collisions more
information about what's going on with their breathing so that
they can take appropriate action.
Speaker 3 (06:34):
A lot of hospitals already use sensors to detect breathing patterns,
but their non invasive design means they're not accurate enough,
particularly when it comes to premature babies.
Speaker 1 (06:43):
What we're hoping our senses will be able to do
is give more nuanced information, so not just detect breathing,
but tell you what exactly is happening with the breathing,
why if they've stopped breathing, why that might have happened,
and do that more reliably so that the information is
(07:04):
more reliable that's presented to the clinical stuff. So the
main benefit that we're hoping to give through the valuable
of these sensors is basically better information, better decision making
tools for clinical stuff, so that they can better target
their therapies for what's actually going to give an improvement
(07:24):
for the baby.
Speaker 3 (07:26):
If the current trial at the Royal Hibard Hospital is successful,
andrews hoping to see his technology rolled out at other
facilities across Australia and eventually the world.
Speaker 1 (07:34):
Medical device commercializations is a tricky thing, a very slow thing.
But we have the three senses and one of those
is effectively in existing sensor that we've got a different
algorithm for, whereas the other two really brand new devices,
so those would be relatively slow to get the market.
(07:55):
We'd hope the five to ten year kind of timeframe
to get those to market. The third of those could
be something that could be rolled out really really quickly
to a lot of hospitals worldwide.
Speaker 3 (08:06):
Peter has been working with Andrew for nine years now,
since he was an honest student, and it's.
Speaker 4 (08:11):
Just great that he's a young engineer who has over
the last decade become an expert in preterm babies, which
is not a field of endeavor that you would expect
fro an engineer, but you know, he knows more about
preterm babies than most medics.
Speaker 3 (08:28):
And Andrew says none of his work would be possible
without the support of the Royal Hobert Hospital Research Foundation.
Speaker 1 (08:34):
I mean, the funding is amazing. It's basically it's allowed
me to pursue this full time, this line of research
along with our other areas of research in printerm infants
and option therapy, and so this study that we're going
to be doing at the road of a hospital testing
(08:55):
out these new sensors would be significantly more challenging without
the research foundations. I think I think we can say
that we'd probably find a way to make it happen regardless,
because that's how important we think work is. But it
would be a much slower drawn out process without the
(09:16):
research foundations, something.
Speaker 3 (09:18):
Peter grees saying the support is vital.
Speaker 4 (09:21):
Well, the perspective is that without that work, the studies
on suffactant would never have happened because they supported at
the outset the studies we have done on the automation
of oxygen control for preterm babies would not have happened,
and the device and the algorithm that we patented and
(09:43):
have now commercialized, that that wouldn't have come about because
the Research Foundation funded that, in fact funded three projects
in relation to that work. So you'd have to say
it's critical. It's that funding has been the thing that's
led to all of these projects happening and being successful.
Speaker 3 (10:05):
The annual Easter Red Hunt is a major fundraiser for
the Royal Hobart Hospital Research Foundation.
Speaker 2 (10:09):
It's now in its fourteenth year and it's a much
loved event in the Hobart community. We've got everybody comes
together on the day to seek out clues around the
gardens and then they're rewarded with a bag of chocolate
eggs at the end tweets. I guess what's not to
love about that?
Speaker 3 (10:28):
This is Stephanie Furler, the Research Foundation CEO.
Speaker 2 (10:31):
And then we also have a range of activities on
the day until we've got through beds and entertainment and
activities for the kids. So it's a really exciting and
fun day out for families. But more importantly, it's a
fundraiser for the work that we're doing here at the Foundation,
raising money for essential medical research to support premature babies
(10:54):
at the Royal Hobart Hospital and also around around the world.
Speaker 3 (10:58):
She says they're expecting around two thousand people to take
part in next Friday's event, which means they'll need a
lot of eggs.
Speaker 2 (11:04):
So we have about seven hundred kilograms of chocolate eggs
for people on the day, which is a huge amount,
so we're actually just talking about how we're going to
be moving. They are eggs around the gardens and the
lawns on the day, so it's pretty exciting and it's
definitely a lot of chocolate. So the money from this
(11:25):
event is going to be supporting Andrew's research into the
monitoring of breathing of premature babies. But more broadly, the
research Foundation looks at supporting medical research for clinicians and
researchers in Tasmania. I guess our primary aim is to
help improve the health outcomes of Tasmanians, so we look
(11:47):
at supporting research across a broad range of areas, so
things from cancer care to heart diseases to pancreatitus. We're
really committed to just really boost seeing the health and
wellbeing of Tasmanians through a range of projects.
Speaker 3 (12:04):
Around ninety percent of the Royal Hbot Hospital Research Foundation's
funding comes from the community, so.
Speaker 2 (12:09):
It's really essential that you know, the community support us
and donate where they can, and that allows us to
give more money to the researchers to help improve people's
health and wellbeing.
Speaker 3 (12:22):
Really and if you want to contribute and join the
Easter egg hunt on Good Friday. Steph recommends getting your
tickets as soon as possible.
Speaker 2 (12:28):
Tickets are really selling fast and this year there won't
be any ticket sales on the day, so we're encouraging
everyone to jump online at Rhresearch Foundation dot org so
buy their tickets and obviously make a donation while they're there.
That would be really appreciated and will actually make a
huge difference into the work that we're able to do
(12:49):
and to improve the lives of people around the world.
Speaker 3 (12:53):
And that's it for this week's episode of iHeart Tazi.
We'll be taking a little break for a step before
returning to your ears at the start of May. Until then,
you can find our entire back catalog in the iHeart
Tazzy podcast feed. I'm fritt Ailen. Thanks for listening
Speaker 4 (13:07):
My Heart Tazzy.
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