Debate@Go8 Mini: Professor Simon Craig on the Consequences of the MFRR Funding Cap
While many kids’ asthma symptoms can be controlled with puffers and other oral medications, there is a group of children who are so sick with asthma that they need intravenous treatment. Problem is, doctors don’t know which of the known medicines are most effective for which kids. That’s why Professor Simon Craig from Monash University wanted to run a randomised trial comparing the effects of the most common treatments on these children. But his Medical Research Future Fund grant application to run the trial was knocked back – for the FIFTH time. Professor Craig, who is a paediatric emergency doctor, tells Go8 CE Vicki Thomson in this Debate@Go8 Mini that without the money for the trial – which was to run across several hospitals across Australia and New Zealand – doctors will miss out on the information that they need to properly inform their care of kids with chronic asthma in this part of the world. Recorded November 2025.
