2024-25 AT A GLANCE

During the year ended 30 June 2025, the funds held by the Health Services Charitable Gifts Board grew to $195.2 million.

Over $20 million in income was received which included $3.7 million received from gifts and donations and $13.2 million in investment income.

Further information on the financial performance of the Board and the trusts administered by the Board can be found within the 2024-25 HSCGB Annual Report.

During the year ended 30 June 2025 the Health Services Charitable Gifts Board approved Public Health Entity (PHE) budget requests of $14.6 million, of which $7.6 million was spent by PHEs on various purposes such as:

Clinical and Medical Research Equipment
Research costs including grants and fellowships
Conferences and Training; and
Other expenditure such as Volunteer support.

The Health Services Charitable Gifts Board provided over $2.9 million in research funding. Some of the research funded includes:

Multiple CALHN CEO Clinical Rapid Implementation Project Scheme projects:

Next Generation Sequencing as a Precision Medicine Tool in the treatment and management of patients with Prosthetic Joint Infection.
Integrating telehealth and triage tools to improve outcomes in diabetes-related foot disease and chronic limb-threatening ischemia.
Improving safety, quality, cost of care, and patient outcomes through a transitional care service for individuals with multimorbidity
Electronic Penicillin Allergy Screening with Machine Learning (EPAS-ML) with Systematic Allergy Delabelling.
Pyridostigmine to reduce the duration of postoperative ileus after colorectal surgery – a double-blinded randomised controlled trial
Enhancing recovery for intensive care survivors through an allied health-led follow-up clinic
Development and implementation of a digital tool for the personalised weight loss management within the Comprehensiv
Wearable continuous physiological monitoring and early intervention to detect and prevent acute clinical deterioratione Metabolic Care Clinic (CMCC)
Developing a patient centred toolkit to reduce representations and improve the discharge process for patients after a heart attack

Professor Guy Ludbrook – 2020-21 CALHN CEO Clinical Rapid Implementation Project Scheme grant recipient for his project: Advanced Recovery Room Care – an iterative model to improve outcomes and reduce cost in perioperative care

“For some years we had concerns about the care general wards could offer higher risk patients after surgery. Their numbers are growing rapidly as our population ages and has more chronic disease.

Based on some early pilot work, the HSCGB provided a grant to allow us to run a clinical trial of a new form of post operative care, termed Advanced Recovery Room Care, or ARRC. This extends the concept of a Recovery Room from 2 hours to care overnight, and utilises especially trained anaesthetists and nurses.

This trial, also supported by PARC Clinical Research, showed ARRC halved major complications, greatly reduced the need for hospital beds, increased the time patients spent at home, and decreased mortality by 35%. These findings, possibly the largest improvements in outcome after surgery demonstrated, have been published in the world’s leading surgical journal, JAMA surgery.

The ARRC model is being taken up by a growing number of hospitals, in Australia and overseas. CALHN is now leading the development of an international ARRC Network, under its Centre for Peri-operative Health Economics and Policy (C-PHEP). This Network will assist hospitals take up this concept, allow sharing of information on improving practice, and will help drive new research into further improving early care after surgery.”

Other significant research projects and grants

Research Project: Investigating novel biomarkers of Rheumatoid Arthritis pathogenesis and response to conventional disease modifying agents in Rheumatoid Arthritis.
Research Project: New azithromycin derivatives to address off-target effects for autophagy and the selection of antibiotic – resistant bacteria in COPD.
Research Project: Utility of a Maturity Onset Diabetes of the Young (MODY) probability calculator and exome sequencing to diagnose monogenic diabetes in the Australian clinic setting.
Research Project: Preclinical and clinical studies of CAR-T cell therapy for solid tumours.
Research Project: The Genetic Epidemiology of Hereditary Pancreatitis in Australia and its effects on patients of Total Pancreatomy with Auto-Islet Transplantation
Research Project: Identification and targeting dormant leukaemic stem cells in chronic myeloid leukaemia: a pathway to a cure.

Other funding initiatives

- Leksell Vantage stereotactic frame for deep brain stimulation (electrode implantation) for the treatment of movement disorders including Parkinsons Disease, Essential tremor and Dystonia
- GOBY IV Urodynamic system to allow the investigation of the function of the lower urinary tract and is essential in the diagnosis and management of urinary incontinence and pelvic floor dysfunction.
- During the year the Board was pleased to commit $2.2 million for the CALHN Clinical Trials Pharmacy expansion. The expansion aims to reduce worker health safety hazards, improve operational efficiency, increase capacity, and support continued growth of clinical trials in response to current and future growth in trial activity ultimately providing greater patient access to clinical trials. This expenditure is expected to be claimed during the 2025-26 year.

In additional, the Board provided funding for various patient support initiatives such as:

- - The Breathe Program – an exercise program for Breast Cancer patients to improve clinical outcomes.
  - Various mental health support initiatives such as animal assisted therapy and other sensory resources.
  - Funding for wards to provide Christmas cheer for patients that spend the Christmas period in hospital.
  - Various items to enable comprehensive food prep activities during therapy sessions at the Spinal Injury Unit at Hampstead Rehabilitation Centre.
  - Support for patients experiencing hardship.

The Health Services Charitable Gifts Board continued funding the South Australian Cancer Research Biobank during 2024-25. The Board has provided over $1.5 million in funding for this service since its inception.

See the 2024-25 HSCGB Annual Report for further projects and programs that have been funded during the year.

As trustee for the Ray & Shirl Norman Cancer Research Trust, the Health Services Charitable Gifts Board has provided over $3.7 million in funding for cancer research projects over the past 10 years. $360,000 was provided during 2024-25.

During the year the following projects continued:

- - Finding the needle in the haystack of NPM1 AML.
  - Microbial infiltrates in head and neck cancers as mediators of chemotherapy responsiveness.
  - Enhancing CAR-T-mediated bystander killing to overcome tumour escape.

In September 2025, a call for new funding applications was issued for up to four grants of $375,000 each, to commence in January 2026.

Further information about the trusts administered by the Board can be found in the 2024-25 HSCGB Annual Report.

Professor Branford – Recipient of a Ray & Shirl Noman Cancer Research Grant for her project BCR-ABL1 independent genomic factors that influence treatment decisions and outcome for patients with chronic myeloid leukaemia

“The grant funding from the Ray and Shirl Norman Cancer Research Trust has enabled an advancement of scientific knowledge that could have a direct impact for the improved management of patients with chronic myeloid leukaemia and, more broadly, to gain a better understanding of cardiovascular disease biology. The knowledge will continue to be disseminated and has enabled local and international collaboration, led to further grant funding and applications, enabled research participation by higher degree research students and directly contributed to the design of a clinical trial.”

As Trustee for the DE Brown Charitable Trust, the Board continues to support Holiday Dialysis with over $173,000 being provided since becoming Trustee in 2014-15.

Chris Kelly – Renal Advanced Nurse Consultant, Rural Support Services: “I would like to express our heartfelt gratitude for the generous funding provided by the Health Services Charitable Gifts Board to support holiday dialysis for individuals reliant on haemodialysis. Your commitment to facilitating respite for these individuals, who are often unable to travel due to their medical needs, is truly invaluable.

Your contribution ensures that we can offer vital holiday dialysis services using the SA Dialysis Truck. This initiative not only provides necessary medical care but also greatly enhances the health and wellbeing of both patients and their caregivers by allowing them a much-needed break. The opportunity for travel and a change of scenery can significantly improve their quality of life.

Thank you once again for your invaluable support and dedication to enhancing the lives of those dependent on dialysis. Your generosity makes a significant difference, and we are deeply grateful for your partnership.”

As Trustee for the three PF Beinke Trusts, the Board has continued to support education, training, and related expenses for Chaplains at the Royal Adelaide Hospital (RAH), Flinders Medical Centre (FMC), and the Repatriation General Hospital. Since assuming the role of Trustee in 2020–21, over $77,000 has been provided to assist Chaplains in fulfilling their roles.

Dr Sunita De Sousa – Deputy Head, Endocrine & Metabolic Unit, Royal Adelaide Hospital “I was fortunate to receive the Mary Overton Early Career Fellowship soon after completing my PhD – a critical crossroad between continuing a career in research versus returning to full-time clinical work. This generous fellowship enabled me to undertake a postdoctoral research program focusing on monogenic diabetes and other rare unexplained genetic conditions, and to integrate this research into my part-time clinical work running the SA Endocrine Genetics Clinic at the Royal Adelaide Hospital. This was a pivotal step towards my development as a clinician scientist, allowing me to build my research portfolio and collaborative networks and culminating in my role as Co-Chair the 2025 Australian and New Zealand guidelines on monogenic diabetes genetic testing in adults – the first guideline on the topic internationally. “