Caroline Finch

Caroline Finch AO is widely regarded as Australia's leading sports injury epidemiologist and sports injury prevention researcher. Her research has been adopted and used to directly inform safety policy by Government Departments of Sport and Health, health promotion and injury prevention agencies, and peak sports bodies both within Australia and internationally. Her injury prevention research has been applied to falls in older people, road safety, workplace safety and injuries in children.

Professor

Caroline Finch
Caroline Finch in 2018
NationalityAustralian
EducationMonash University, Latrobe University
OccupationSports injury epidemiologist and sports injury prevention researcher
Medical career
ProfessionEpidemiologist and Biostatistician
InstitutionsMonash University Accident Research Centre;

Monash University, Department of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine; NSW Injury Risk Management Research Centre, University of New South Wales; School of Human Movement and Sport Sciences, University of Ballarat; Australian Centre for Research into Injury in Sport and its Prevention (ACRISP); Federation University, Ballarat;

Edith Cowan University, Perth, Western Australia
Awards2015 International Distinguished Career Award by the American Public Health Association's (APHA) Injury Control and Emergency Health Services (ICEHS) Section; 2018 Officer of the Order of Australia (AO)

Education

Finch graduated from Monash University, Melbourne in 1983 with a BSc (Hons, 1st Class) majoring in statistics. In 1985 Latrobe University awarded her a MSc in Statistics. In 1995 she was awarded a PhD in Mathematical Statistics from Monash University for a thesis titled: Fasting plasma glucose distributions and their implications for the diagnostic criteria for non-insulin dependent diabetes mellitus in Pacific populations.[1]

At high school Finch was interested in disease prevention. As an undergraduate student she realised this interest could be combined with her strong mathematics and statistics skills which led to her career as an epidemiologist and biostatistician.[2]

Career

Finch began work as a Researcher at the Monash University Accident Research Centre training in injury research from 1992 until 1997 [3][2] and continued from 2001-2003 within the Monash University, Department of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine.[2]

From 2003 to 2006 Finch was Professor and Director, NSW Injury Risk Management Research Centre, University of New South Wales and then held the position of Research Professor, School of Human Movement and Sport Sciences, University of Ballarat until 2010.

In 2010 she returned to Monash Injury Research Institute as Research Professor and National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Principal Research Fellow in the Australian Centre for Research into Injury in Sport and its Prevention (ACRISP). ACRISP is one of only nine centres worldwide recognised as International Research Centres for Prevention of Injury and Protection of Athlete Health and supported by the International Olympic Committee (IOC).[4][5]

Finch became the Robert HT Smith Professor and Personal Chair at Federation University, Ballarat, Australia in 2013.[6] In December 2017 she was appointed Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research) at Edith Cowan University, Perth, Western Australia.[7]

Finch has held positions as a sports injury prevention adviser to the Commonwealth Department of Health and Aged Care, the Australian Sports Commission, Sports Medicine Australia, Sport and Recreation Victoria, Department of Human Services (Victoria), the Victorian Health Promotion Foundation, The Australian Football League and other national and state sports bodies.[6] She is a continuing Board Member, Sports Medicine Australia, since 2015,[8] a Member of the Concussion Advisory Group for World Rugby, since 2014, a Member of the Victorian Government Sports Injury Prevention Taskforce from 2011 to 2013 and a Member of the National Sports Safety Framework Committee in 1996,1997 and 2003.[3]

Funding for Finch's research has come from the NHMRC, Australian Research Council, VicHealth, the International Olympic Committee (IOC), the US and Canadian National Institutes of Health, Australian Federal and State government departments for health and sport and from peak sports bodies including the International Rugby Board, Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), the Australian Football League and Cricket Australia.[4]

Finch has worked to improve community safety in sport and to drive significant change around children's and women's sport and in the Australian school system, to improve safety equipment and training methods in individual sports and to create a database for sports injuries. The work of Finch and her teams has led to government departments of health and peak sport bodies recognising that they have a duty of care to everyone, not just the elite athletes and that sports safety is their business as well.[3]

"My end goal would be that any policy that has anything to do with promoting exercise or fitness or health in any context has a component that this will follow the principles of sports safety."

— Caroline Finch, January 2018, [3]

Finch is a Senior Associate Editor (Injury Prevention) for the British Journal of Sports Medicine[9] and the Injury Prevention and Health Promotion BJSM Series[10] and a member of the Editorial Boards of the international journals: Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport,[11] Injury Epidemiology[12] and Sports Medicine.[13] She has published over 250 articles.[14]

Awards

Finch was awarded the 2015 International Distinguished Career Award by the American Public Health Association's (APHA) Injury Control and Emergency Health Services (ICEHS) Section. The award recognised her "outstanding dedication and leadership in injury/violence prevention and control and emergency health services internationally with contributions and achievements that have a significant and long term impact on the field".[15]

In January 2018 Finch was made an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO), "for distinguished service to sports medicine, particularly in the area of injury prevention, as an educator, researcher and author, and to the promotion of improved health in athletes and those who exercise."[16][3]

Projects

Projects Finch has been involved with include:

NoGAPS

Carried out from 2010 to 2013, NoGAPS (National Guidance for Australian football Partnerships and Safety) was a NHMRC Partnerships Project which aimed to develop, deliver, implement and evaluate new evidence-based guidelines for exercise training programs to prevent lower limb injuries in community Australian football. It aimed to identify factors that affect the application of evidence-based injury prevention interventions into practice in community sport, and to find evidence for the effectiveness of an evidence-based exercise-training program for lower limb injury prevention in community Australian football. The project involved partnerships with the Australian Football League, Victorian Health Promotion Foundation, NSW Sporting Injuries Committee, JLT Sport, a division of Jardine Lloyd Thompson Australia Pty Ltd; Department of Planning and Community Development - Sport and Recreation Victoria Division; and Sports Medicine Australia - National and Victorian Branches (SMA).[17][2]

Preventing Australian Football Injuries through eXercise (PAFIX) project

Finch was the project leader of the 2015 PAFIX study which followed 18 community-level Australian football clubs in Western Australia and Victoria through an entire season aiming to understand and prevent knee injuries in community Australian football. The large scale PAFIX project was unique in its use of a multi-level approach to understand the cause and prevention of knee injuries in community Australian football. Published results provide information to assist coaches and sports clubs to implement injury prevention programs.[18][19] Data was also collected during the project focusing on concussion with the aim to understand and prevent head injuries within a community Australian football setting.[20][21]

Helmets and headgear

Since the mid 1990s Finch has carried out studies relating to use of helmets for both pedal and motor cyclists.[22][23][24]

In 2013 Finch jointly published results of a study of associations between helmet use and brain injuries amongst injured pedal- and motor-cyclists. The study was carried out at the University of New South Wales, School of Risk and Safety Sciences under funding by an Australian Research Council (ARC) Linkage Grant: Pedal and Motor Cycle Helmet Performance Study. The project partners were: the Commonwealth Department of Infrastructure and Transport, NSW Roads and Traffic Authority (NSW RTA), Transport Accident Commission Victoria, NRMA Motoring and Services, NRMA-ACT Road Safety Trust and DVExperts International.[25]

Finch has also been involved in research into the efficacy and methods of improvement of protective headgear in rugby union, rugby league, and Australian rules football.[26][27][28]

Child safety

Finch's research has also encompassed several aspects of child safety including vehicular safety restraints,[29][30] parent/caregiver supervision[31][32][33] and water safety.[34][35]

Fall prevention in older adults

Finch has been involved in research around falls prevention and implementation of fall prevention strategies in older people.[36][37][38][39]

gollark: I could restart the APIOId project and make it persist bans.
gollark: It's impossible to remember anyway.
gollark: That is correct.
gollark: <@!535622610822627338> This requires discord.py to support them.
gollark: <@293066066605768714> I can check my journal for APIONET-related content.

References
  1. Finch, Caroline Frances (1994). Fasting plasma glucose distributions and their implications for the diagnostic criteria for non-insulin dependent diabetes mellitus in Pacific populations (Thesis). Thesis PhD--Monash University.
  2. "Getting to know ... Caroline Finch". Monash University. Retrieved 2018-03-20.
  3. Kirkham, Rochelle (2018-01-26). "Australia Day honours 2018: professor honoured for work in sports injury prevention". The Courier. Retrieved 2018-03-20.
  4. "Professor Caroline Finch – SL SEM Conference". www.slsemconference.lk. Retrieved 2018-03-20.
  5. "Nine centres worldwide recognised as IOC Research Centres for Prevention of Injury and Protection of Athlete Health". International Olympic Committee. 2016-07-21. Retrieved 2018-03-27.
  6. "Caroline F Finch". The Conversation. Retrieved 2018-03-20.
  7. Australia, Edith Cowan University, Perth, Western (2017-11-28). "ECU appoints new Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research)". ECU. Retrieved 2018-03-20.
  8. "Board Members | Sports Medicine Australia". Sports Medicine Australia. Retrieved 2018-03-20.
  9. "Editorial Board | British Journal of Sports Medicine (BJSM), Senior Associate Editors". British Journal of Sports Medicine (BJSM). Retrieved 2018-03-22.
  10. "Editorial Board | British Journal of Sports Medicine (BJSM) IPHP Senior Associate Editors". British Journal of Sports Medicine (BJSM). Retrieved 2018-03-22.
  11. "Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport: Editorial Board". www.jsams.org. Retrieved 2018-03-22.
  12. "Injury Epidemiology: Editorial Board". Injury Epidemiology. Retrieved 2018-03-22.
  13. "Sports Medicine – (Editorial Board)". springer.com. Retrieved 2018-03-22.
  14. pubmeddev. "Finch, CF - PubMed - NCBI". www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov. Retrieved 2018-03-22.
  15. Professor Caroline Finch awarded major international honour (2013-11-18). "News". federation.edu.au. Retrieved 2018-03-26.
  16. "Australia Day 2018 Honours List: Professor Caroline Frances Finch, Officer (AO) in the General Division of the Order of Australia" (PDF). Governor General of the Commonwealth of Australia. 2018-01-26. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2018-04-24. Retrieved 2018-03-27.
  17. Bekker S, Paliadelis P, Finch CF (March 2017). "The translation of sports injury prevention and safety promotion knowledge: insights from key intermediary organisations". Health Research Policy and Systems. 15 (1): 294.1–294. doi:10.1136/bjsports-2016-097372.26. PMC 5371252. PMID 28351366.
  18. Finch CF, Twomey DM, Fortington LV, Doyle TL, Elliott BC, Akram M, Lloyd DG (April 2016). "Preventing Australian football injuries with a targeted neuromuscular control exercise programme: comparative injury rates from a training intervention delivered in a clustered randomised controlled trial". Injury Prevention. 22 (2): 123–8. doi:10.1136/injuryprev-2015-041667. PMC 4819647. PMID 26399611.
  19. Twomey DM, Doyle TL, Lloyd DG, Elliot BC, Finch CF (2015-05-05). "Challenges when implementing an evidence-based exercise injury prevention training program in community-level sport". Journal of Applied Case Studies in Sport and Exercise Science. 1 (1).
  20. "Concussion in community Australian football: plain language statement" (PDF). The PAFIX Project. Retrieved 2018-03-27.
  21. Fortington LV, Twomey DM, Finch CF (December 2015). "Concussion in community Australian football - epidemiological monitoring of the causes and immediate impact on play". Injury Epidemiology. 2 (1): 20. doi:10.1186/s40621-015-0052-5. PMC 5005765. PMID 27747752.
  22. Cameron MH, Vulcan AP, Finch CF, Newstead SV (June 1994). "Mandatory bicycle helmet use following a decade of helmet promotion in Victoria, Australia--an evaluation". Accident Analysis and Prevention. 26 (3): 325–37. doi:10.1016/0001-4575(94)90006-X. PMID 8011045.
  23. Finch CF (June 1996). "Teenagers' attitudes towards bicycle helmets three years after the introduction of mandatory wearing". Injury Prevention. 2 (2): 126–30. doi:10.1136/ip.2.2.126. PMC 1067676. PMID 9346076.
  24. Taylor M, Scuffham P (December 2002). "New Zealand bicycle helmet law--do the costs outweigh the benefits?". Injury Prevention. 8 (4): 317–20. doi:10.1136/ip.8.4.317. PMC 1756574. PMID 12460970.
  25. McIntosh AS, Curtis K, Rankin T, Cox M, Pang TY, McCrory P, Finch CF. "Associations between helmet use and brain injuries amongst injured pedal- and motor-cyclists: A case series analysis of trauma centre presentations" (PDF). Journal of the Australasian College of Road Safety. 24 (2, 2013): 11–18.
  26. McIntosh A, McCrory P, Finch CF (February 2004). "Performance enhanced headgear: a scientific approach to the development of protective headgear". British Journal of Sports Medicine. 38 (1): 46–9. doi:10.1136/bjsm.2002.003103. PMC 1724753. PMID 14751945.
  27. McIntosh AS, McCrory P, Finch CF, Best JP, Chalmers DJ, Wolfe R (February 2009). "Does padded headgear prevent head injury in rugby union football?". Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise. 41 (2): 306–13. doi:10.1249/MSS.0b013e3181864bee. PMID 19127196. S2CID 2503526.
  28. Finch CF, McIntosh A, McCrory P, Zazryn T (2003-12-01). "A pilot study of the attitudes of Australian Rules footballers towards protective headgear". Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport. 6 (4): 505–511. doi:10.1016/S1440-2440(03)80275-X. ISSN 1440-2440. PMID 14723399.
  29. Brown J, Hatfield J, Du W, Finch CF, Bilston LE (August 2010). "The characteristics of incorrect restraint use among children traveling in cars in New South Wales, Australia". Traffic Injury Prevention. 11 (4): 391–8. doi:10.1080/15389588.2010.481770. PMID 20730686.
  30. Du W, Finch CF, Hayen A, Bilston L, Brown J, Hatfield J (February 2010). "Relative benefits of population-level interventions targeting restraint-use in child car passengers". Pediatrics. 125 (2): 304–12. doi:10.1542/peds.2009-1171. PMID 20064863.
  31. Petrass L, Blitvich JD, Finch CF (April 2009). "Parent/Caregiver supervision and child injury: a systematic review of critical dimensions for understanding this relationship". Family & Community Health. 32 (2): 123–35. doi:10.1097/FCH.0b013e3181994740. PMID 19305211.
  32. Nakahara S, Ichikawa M (October 2010). "Care giver supervision and child injuries: consideration of different contexts when translating knowledge into practice". Injury Prevention. 16 (5): 293–5. doi:10.1136/ip.2009.024802. PMID 20643870.
  33. Petrass LA, Finch CF, Blitvich JD (April 2009). "Methodological approaches used to assess the relationship between parental supervision and child injury risk". Injury Prevention. 15 (2): 132–8. doi:10.1136/ip.2008.019521. PMID 19346426.
  34. Petrass LA, Blitvich JD, Finch CF (2011-03-07). "Lack of caregiver supervision: a contributing factor in Australian unintentional child drowning deaths, 2000–2009". The Medical Journal of Australia. 194 (5): 228–231. doi:10.5694/j.1326-5377.2011.tb02950.x.
  35. Petrass LA, Blitvich JD, Finch CF (August 2011). "Observations of caregiver supervision of children at beaches: identification of factors associated with high supervision". Injury Prevention. 17 (4): 244–9. doi:10.1136/ip.2010.031062. PMID 21335448.
  36. Day L, Finch CF, Hill KD, Haines TP, Clemson L, Thomas M, Thompson C (April 2011). "A protocol for evidence-based targeting and evaluation of statewide strategies for preventing falls among community-dwelling older people in Victoria, Australia". Injury Prevention. 17 (2): e3. doi:10.1136/ip.2010.030775. PMC 3064867. PMID 21186224.
  37. Finch CF, Day L, Donaldson A, Segal L, Harrison JE (December 2009). "Determining policy-relevant formats for the presentation of falls research evidence". Health Policy. 93 (2–3): 207–13. doi:10.1016/j.healthpol.2009.07.014. PMID 19720423.
  38. Day L, Finch CF, Harrison JE, Hoareau E, Segal L, Ullah S (October 2010). "Modelling the population-level impact of tai-chi on falls and fall-related injury among community-dwelling older people". Injury Prevention. 16 (5): 321–6. doi:10.1136/ip.2009.025452. PMID 20643871.
  39. Robins LM, Hill KD, Day L, Clemson L, Finch C, Haines T (July 2016). "Older Adult Perceptions of Participation in Group- and Home-Based Falls Prevention Exercise". Journal of Aging and Physical Activity. 24 (3): 350–62. doi:10.1123/japa.2015-0133. PMID 26539657.
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