Professor Peter Morris AM
Senior Principal Research Fellow, Head of the Ear Health Research Program, Child and Maternal Health Division
Qualifications:
PhD, University of Sydney, 1999; Fellow, Royal Australian College of Paediatrics, 1998; Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery, London University, 1986.
Approved level of HDR supervision at Charles Darwin University:
Primary Supervisor for PhD
Location:
Darwin - Royal Darwin Hospital campus
Biography:
Professor Peter Morris is a hospital clinician and visiting paediatrician to the Tiwi Islands. He is interested in clinical trials and systematic reviews of interventions for important childhood conditions. Peter teaches medical students through the Northern Territory Clinical School, supports doctors and nurses working at the Royal Darwin Hospital, and supervises students and staff within the Menzies School of Health Research. His research focus is on intervention studies and the application of evidence in practice.
Peter is an editor with the Acute Respiratory Infections Group of The Cochrane Collaboration. He is a contributor to the Indigenous Health InfoNet (ear and lung health). Peter contributes to the hospital paediatric guidelines and the CARPA Standard Treatment Manual. He also provides training in critical appraisal, evidence-based practice, clinical paediatrics and neonatal resuscitation.
Research Themes
- Child and Maternal Health
- Ear and Hearing Health
- Maternal and Infant Health
- Deadly Ears in Deadly Hands Trial: ‘Deadly Ears at Discharge’ - A hospital-based randomised controlled trial of an additional ear and hearing assessment to inform discharge planning by a trained Aboriginal Ear Health Worker in Aboriginal children with chronic ear infection.
- Az@birth Trial: ‘Azithromycin before Birth’- Single dose azithromycin shortly before birth to reduce infection in Aboriginal mothers and babies: a randomised controlled trial.
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Francis JR, Fairhurst H, Yan J, Fernandes Monteiro A, Lee AM, Maurays J, Kaethner A, Whalley GA, Hardefeldt H, Williamson J, Marangou J, Reeves B, Wheaton G, Robertson T, Horton A, Cush J, Wade V, Monteiro A, Draper ADK, Morris PS, Ralph AP, Remenyi B. Abbreviated Echocardiographic Screening for Rheumatic Heart Disease by Nonexperts with and without Offsite Expert Review: A Diagnostic Accuracy Study. J Am Soc Echocardiogr. 2023 Jul;36(7):733-745.
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Laird PJ, Walker R, McCallum G, Toombs M, Barwick M, Morris P, Aitken R, Cooper M, Norman R, Patel B, Lau G, Chang AB, Schultz A. Change in health outcomes for First Nations children with chronic wet cough: rationale and study protocol for a multi-centre implementation science study. BMC Pulm Med. 2022 Dec 29;22(1):492.
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Middleton BF, Fathima P, Snelling TL, Morris P. Systematic review of the effect of additional doses of oral rotavirus vaccine on immunogenicity and reduction in diarrhoeal disease among young children. EClinicalMedicine. 2022 Oct 6;54:101687.
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Leach AJ, Wilson N, Arrowsmith B, Beissbarth J, Mulholland EK, Santosham M, Torzillo PJ, McIntyre P, Smith-Vaughan H, Chatfield MD, Lehmann D, Binks M, Chang AB, Carapetis J, Krause V, Andrews R, Snelling T, Skull SA, Licciardi PV, Oguoma VM, Morris PS. Immunogenicity, otitis media, hearing impairment, and nasopharyngeal carriage 6-months after 13-valent or ten-valent booster pneumococcal conjugate vaccines, stratified by mixed priming schedules: PREVIX_COMBO and PREVIX_BOOST randomised controlled trials. Lancet Infect Dis. 2022 Sep;22(9):1374-1387.
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Leach AJ, Mulholland EK, Santosham M, Torzillo PJ, McIntyre P, Smith-Vaughan H, Wilson N, Arrowsmith B, Beissbarth J, Chatfield MD, Oguoma VM, Morris PS. Otitis media outcomes of a combined 10-valent pneumococcal Haemophilus influenzae protein D conjugate vaccine and 13-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine schedule at 1-2-4-6 months: PREVIX_COMBO, a 3-arm randomised controlled trial. BMC Pediatr. 2021 Mar 8;21(1):117.
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Leach AJ, Morris PS, Coates HL, Nelson S, O'Leary SJ, Richmond PC, Gunasekera H, Harkus S, Kong K, Brennan-Jones CG, Brophy-Williams S, Currie K, Das SK, Isaacs D, Jarosz K, Lehmann D, Pak J, Patel H, Perry C, Reath JS, Sommer J, Torzillo PJ. Otitis media guidelines for Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children: summary of recommendations. Med J Aust. 2021 Mar;214(5):228-233.
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Binks MJ, Beissbarth J, Oguoma VM, Pizzutto SJ, Leach AJ, Smith-Vaughan HC, McHugh L, Andrews RM, Webby R, Morris PS, Chang AB. Acute lower respiratory infections in Indigenous infants in Australia's Northern Territory across three eras of pneumococcal conjugate vaccine use (2006-15): a population-based cohort study. Lancet Child Adolesc Health. 2020 Jun;4(6):425-434.
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Leach AJ, Homøe P, Chidziva C, Gunasekera H, Kong K, Bhutta MF, Jensen R, Tamir SO, Das SK, Morris P. Panel 6: Otitis media and associated hearing loss among disadvantaged populations and low to middle-income countries. Int J Pediatr Otorhinolaryngol. 2020 Mar;130 Suppl 1(Suppl 1):109857.
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9. Goyal V, Grimwood K, Ware RS, Byrnes CA, Morris PS, Masters IB, McCallum GB, Binks MJ, Smith-Vaughan H, O'Grady KF, Champion A, Buntain HM, Schultz A, Chatfield M, Torzillo PJ, Chang AB. Efficacy of oral amoxicillin-clavulanate or azithromycin for non-severe respiratory exacerbations in children with bronchiectasis (BEST-1): a multicentre, three-arm, double-blind, randomised placebo-controlled trial. Lancet Respir Med. 2019 Sep;7(9):791-801. doi: 10.1016/S2213-2600(19)30254-1. Epub 2019 Aug 16.
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Brewster DR, Morris PS. Indigenous child health: Are we making progress? J Paediatr Child Health. 2015 Jan;51(1):40-7.
Click here to view more Peter Morris publications in PubMed.
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MEDIA RELEASE | Menzies researchers in the top 2 per cent
Menzies School of Health Research is celebrating the work of its researchers who have been ranked amongst the world’s top scientists.
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Researchers at CDU some of the most influential in their fields
According to a Stanford University study, there were 22 academics from CDU and Menzies School of Health research who ranked in the top two per cent of researchers referenced in their respected disciplines for 2020.
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$74 million investment in Australian-led clinical trials
Includes a clinical trial in PNG led by Dr Holger Unger and a trial by Prof Peter Morris to reduce infection in Aboriginal mothers and babies.
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Preventing infant wheeze and childhood asthma
A new $1.6 million Australian-UK world-first project aimed at preventing wheeze in preschool children and potentially asthma in later childhood by using an orally administered bacteria lysate to boost immune systems has been announced.
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Ear disease in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children
In remote communities across the Northern Territory (NT), only one in 10 Aboriginal children younger than three years have healthy ears, a new report in the Medical Journal of Australia (MJA) has found.
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Otitis media guidelines for Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children
This 2020 update by the Centre of Research Excellence in Ear and Hearing Health of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children.
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CDU academics named among world’s most influential
Menzies School of Health Research Professor Bart Currie, Professor Anne Chang AM, Professor Ric Price, Associate Professor Steven Tong, Professor Nicholas Anstey, Professor Joshua Davis, Professor Alan Cass, Professor Peter Morris and Professor Amanda Leach
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Acute lower respiratory infections in Indigenous infants in the NT
Menzies senior research fellow Dr Michael Binks examined acute lower respiratory infection (ALRI) hospital admissions among Indigenous infants in the Northern Territory from 2006 to 2015, across three periods of different pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV) use.
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Northern Territory paediatrician honoured with Menzies Medallion
Long-term Northern Territory paediatrician, Professor Peter Morris has been awarded the prestigious Menzies Medallion.
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Australian Doctor - otitis media clinical trial
Otitis Media - a clinical trial where Indigenous infants will receive an extra dose of pneumococcal vaccine to try and cut down the rates of incidence.
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New Vaccine could help reduce Chronic ear disease.
Menzies School of Health researchers are hoping to reduce rates of a chronic ear disease called Otis Media, in remote indigenous communities. (Image source: creative commons)
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Extra vaccines may reduce 'unacceptable rates' of chronic ear disease in Indigenous children
The Menzies School of Health Research is conducting a clinical trial in remote communities in the Northern Territory and Western Australia, and hope the results will change the public health approach and give more help to families.
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New treatment trialled in battle against ear disease
In a world first, Northern Territory researchers are trialling a new treatment to heal an ear disease plaguing Indigenous communities and causing lifelong disadvantage.
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Rapid iron infusion trial to tackle widespread deficiency among children in Australia’s Northern Territory
Foodnavigator-asia.com: A project in Australia’s Northern Territory is to trial giving anaemic children rapid iron infusions before they are discharged from hospital in an attempt to reduce the risk of ongoing iron deficiency.
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Menzies secures 2016 NHMRC funding for groundbreaking projects
Innovation and transformation are at the heart of the Menzies School of Health Research (Menzies) projects which have secured funding in the highly competitive NHMRC grant round.
