Research impact

Painu, a farmer from Java, Indonesia, speaks: I’ve been a farmer for 30 years. During Eid Al-Fitr holiday in 2016, I was taking my homecoming trip. When I was on the highway, I got into a single-vehicle accident and I was taken to hospital. The doctor asked if I wanted my leg amputated or treated. The pressure casting system that we have developed is a new system for creating an artificial leg for people with lower limb amputation. If treat, the chance of success was only 50%. Meanwhile, amputation allows me to return to work in a few months. In the end I decided to have it amputated. At the end of 2023, I heard about a prosthetic leg donation program from Pusat Rehabilitasi YAKKUM [supported by RMIT University]. Thankfully, a week later, their staff came and measured my leg for a new prosthetic.

Black screen with the following text: Over three years the RMIT program fitted 204 prosthetic legs and provided 4632 biomechanical therapy and counselling sessions in Indonesia, Timor-Leste and Cambodia.

Dr Noel Lythgo, Co-Director, Digital Health Hub Rehabilitation Project, RMIT University, speaks: A patient can come in and be fitted in about six hours. It's comfortable. They are satisfied. We can use it in rural and remote communities.

Dr Dein Vindigni, Co-Director, Digital Health Hub Rehabilitation Project, RMIT University, speaks: We see this as not just a body parts approach. So once people have been fitted with the pressure cast system, the biomechanical therapy, which is similar to our remedial massage, is an important way in which we value add to the outcomes of our patient.

Black screen with the following text: The program trained 160 healthcare practitioners in PCAST, biomechanical therapy and counselling in Indonesia, Timor-Leste and Cambodia.

Dr Dawn Wong Lit Wan, Counselling advisor, Digital Health Hub Rehabilitation Project, speaks: Part of the project we have the counselling program to help the person to adapt to those changes that's going on in their life. So under the guidance of Dr Prasad Podugu we developed and delivered the two month course. We covered the basic skills of counselling and coping strategies and that was followed with a two month clinical placement to apply their skills and that was followed with a two month clinical placement to apply their skills and to build confidence so that they can work with their patients.

Dr Dein Vindigni speaks: It's looking at the whole person and being responsive to what it is that they want and need, and making sure that when they walk out of the place, they've been giving the very best of evidence based approaches to make a difference.

Painu speaks: I was so happy. I feel comfortable wearing it in the fields or anywhere else, without worrying about it coming loose. I believe God never gives us trials beyond our capacity. My experience has taught me that difficulties are not an excuse to stop growing.

The Australian Urban Observatory is a digital liveability planning platform. Liveability to us is really important because your local environment has a huge impact on your overall health outcomes. So if you live in a place that's highly liveable, you're also living in a place that supports your health and wellbeing.

What we're really trying to do is work a bit further upstream and think about how do we change the factors that influence whether or not people develop an illness. These are complex problems we're dealing with in urban systems, and they require complex and transdisciplinary approaches. There is not one person that has all the skills. It is a true teamwork experience.

We launched in 2020, and since that time we've been releasing data every three years, and along that time we've also developed a whole range of different tools within the observatory too. We continue to grow because we continue to work with the partners that use our research. So as they tell us, "This is what we really need" or "This is how we'd like to use it," then we're able to expand.

As one of Australia's largest diversified portfolio property groups, we knew that we impact, you know, millions of Australians' lives every year but had no way of evidencing the social value that we were creating through that impact. What the AUO evidence and research enables us to do is to bring social outcomes alongside commercial feasibility into decision making right along our value chain, especially with a focus on social infrastructure. It enables us to develop a common language with stakeholders such as local councils and state government, and a shared vision in terms of wellbeing outcomes across our communities.

So I'm working with Stockland, and the partnership has been a fantastic experience, particularly with such a large organization that has such impact on housing choices for a huge number of Australians. To answer a question, we need to know what question we should be asking, and that really comes from working so closely with our partners to understand what are the questions they want answers to, for us to actually go on and do that research and share it back with them.

Now more than ever, it's really important for business to be transparent and credible. Using objective, high-quality data such as that from RMIT enables us to deliver those outcomes.

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[Jenny Pullen] I didn't hear anything I didn't smell anything I didn't see any Flames I was just so full of adrenaline that this is the next thing I have to do I have to get Mom into Alexandra and um and then we were going to come back.

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[Text on screen] On 7th February 2009, the Victorian town of Maryville was devestated by bushfire.

[Text on screen] 40 people lost their lives and around 90% of the town's buildings were destroyed.

[Jenny Pullen] I lost very very close friends in the in the fires um and even one of our friends who was just about to give birth to her very first baby she didn't make it in the fires um there's so many so many we went to so many funerals.

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[Text on screen] The fire was allegedly caused by a break in an electrical conductor on a power pole near a local sawmill.

[Michael Thorne] So I'm when I'm driving around the property I'm looking at the stock or at the pasture I'm not looking up at the power line which is well above me um and uh it would be pretty hard to spot a broken strand uh even if you were paying a reasonable amount of attention.

[Professor Alan Wong] When I went to Michael's property and discover the failing conductor I was thrilled like um you know we we always tell people that these Technologies can potentially save life prevented fires I think in Michael's uh example it captured all this Essence right it it has prevented a catastrophic a potential catastrophic fires.

[Michael Thorne] The the risk is that the power line breaks drops to the ground starts a grass fire grass fires can move very quickly faster than a bush fire typically because the wind's not interrupted as it flows across the grass and the fire could have swept up to the house through the sheds and then beyond uh to adjacent Farms very rapidly

[Professor Alan Wong] So efd uh is acronym for early fault detection is a system that can see and detect and locate faults on power line before they happen can think of it like a smoke alarm for the power Network right so if you place enough sensors across the network this uh sensors or alarm system will will send out alert when it thinks that there's a a certain risk exist in the network

[Michael Thorne] In addition to uh the houses lost uh in a major fire there's the lives uh there's the lives lost and the lives disrupted um fire uh fire can rip apart communities it can destroy so much that people value and so much uh that matters.

[Jenny Pullen] I was unpacking boxes of things that we needed and I can remember sitting on the floor and just bursting into tears because I didn't want to unpack what somebody had given me I wanted to unpack my things it has taken it it's taken a huge toll the bushire took a huge toll and there's still people who are trying to get over it and who will never never get over it

[Michael Thorne] The uh idea of a fire ripping through um my community is obviously deeply distressing and something that uh I'm Keen to celebrate any any tools that we have that can help reduce the risk of the kind of Devastation we can see uh and have seen across towns uh like Maryville and others in Victoria

[Jenny Pullen] I can remember one time coming in which was very soon after we're allowed back in after the 12 weeks and thinking when I get in into Maryville it's all going to be there cuz it's all just been a dream I'm sure it's just been a dream we couldn't have lost everything surely it was just a dream but went a bit further and we had had lost everything.

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[Text on screen] With 2500 units installed worldwide, including the US and Europe, Alan's technology now monitors over 12,500kms of powerlines.
[Text on screen] His early fault detection system has prevented more than 750 potential failures and saved potentially countless lives.