A national initiative led by Monash University researchers will bring together over 60 experts from across Australia to transform clinical care for Australians who experience moderate to severe traumatic brain injury (msTBI).
Extrapolating 2022 data from the Victorian State Trauma Outcome Registry and Monitoring Group, around 46 in 100,000 Australians will experience a new msTBI each year; that’s around 11,000 episodes annually.
Funding for Connect-TBI comes from the Medical Research Future Fund. The program – spearheaded by Chief Investigator Professor Belinda Gabbe, Head of Pre-hospital, Emergency and Trauma Research at Monash University's School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine – aims to deliver Australia’s first nationally representative data asset dedicated to msTBI. Drawing on the vast collective expertise of clinicians, researchers, data scientists and people with lived experience, the program will support innovative and tailored care, and enhance long-term patient outcomes.
Professor Gabbe said the collaboration brings together key national and international experts and stakeholders with expertise across the continuum of TBI care, drawn from multiple academic and research institutes including Curtin University and Flinders University, leading health services, registries, research networks, medical peak bodies, health advocacy groups, relevant statutory authorities, as well as consumer and patient groups.
"Connect-TBI will harness existing infrastructure and emerging digital health capabilities to establish a sustainable data foundation for msTBI care and research in Australia," Professor Gabbe said. “This national asset will not only improve outcomes for patients, but will reduce research waste, inform policy and resource allocation, and enable real-time quality improvement.”
The scope of Connect-TBI is significant. Building on the foundational work of the PRECISION-TBI, PREDICT-TBI, and AUS-TBI projects, the consortium will integrate clinical, biomarker, imaging and psychosocial data through the Clinical-Biomarker-Imaging-Modifier (CBI-M) classification framework. This multidimensional approach is critical to addressing the complexity and heterogeneity of msTBI.
The project’s three complementary workstreams – Clinical Innovation, Informatics and Research – will deliver on the MRFF’s Mission for TBI’s goals of improving treatment, rehabilitation and community integration.
The Clinical Innovation stream will define national quality indicators for msTBI care, develop a localised neuroprognostication tool, and implement data dashboards for institutional benchmarking. These tools will allow clinicians and health services to evaluate their performance relative to predicted outcomes, driving system-wide improvements.
The Informatics stream, led in collaboration with the Monash eResearch Centre and Monash’s Helix platform, will deliver the Connect-TBI data asset with a strong focus on sustainability, automation, and security. By leveraging national infrastructure such as the National Health Data Hub and HL7 FHIR standards, the program will build an interoperable and future-proof data pipeline.
The Research stream will unlock the full potential of the dataset through embedded clinical trials, discovery research and adaptive platform trials, and lay the groundwork for personalised, evidence-based care.
People with lived experience of msTBI, including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander partners, are central to the program’s governance and design. A dedicated Lived Experience Advisory Group and an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Advisory Group will guide data governance, privacy and outcome measurement to ensure that the Connect-TBI platform remains aligned with community values and health equity principles.
“msTBI is among the many health challenges inequitably impacting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities,” Professor Gabbe said. “The meaningful insights of these groups will be critical in delivering on the objectives of Connect-TBI.”
Connect-TBI is supported by significant in-kind contributions from national peak bodies and partner institutions and aligns closely with federal and state health data priorities. The project will onboard 15 trauma and rehabilitation sites nationwide by the end of the funding period, with capacity for future expansion.
This national platform has the potential to reshape how msTBI care is delivered, evaluated and studied in Australia ensuring that every patient receives care informed by the best available evidence, and that clinicians, researchers and policymakers have the tools needed to continuously improve care in this space.
A full list of organisations partnering with Monash to deliver the program is here:
Curtin University, Flinders University, Alfred Health, Queensland University of Technology, University of Sydney, University of Newcastle, Deakin University, Royal Perth Hospital, The University of Adelaide, The University of Queensland, University of Western Australia, Murdoch Children’s Research Institute, University of Cambridge UK, Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital, University of Melbourne, Sydney Children’s Hospital, Randwick, University of Wollongong, National Imaging Facility, Menzies School of Public Health, The George Institute for Global Health, Melbourne Health, John Hunter Hospital, Liverpool Hospital, Central Adelaide Local Health Network, Wellington Hospital, Griffith University, Hunger New England Local Health District, Gold Coast University Hospital, St George Hospital, Flinders Medical Centre, Auckland City Hospital, Brightwater Care Group, Brain Injury Australia, Australian and New Zealand Trauma Society, Australian and New Zealand Trauma Registry, Connectivity TBI Australia, Transport Accident Commission, Australian and New Zealand Intensive Care Society and Synapse Australia.
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