The 2019 recipient of the Strachan Memorial Prize was Dr Rajesh Thomas from the Department of Respiratory Medicine, Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital, for his article entitled “Effect of an indwelling pleural catheter vs talc pleurodesis on hospitalization days in patients with malignant pleural effusion: The AMPLE randomized clinical trial” published in Journal of the American Medical Association (Thomas et al., JAMA. 2017; 318(19): 1903-1912).

Dr Thomas’ research aims to identify treatment and management strategies for malignant pleural effusions to reduce hospitalisation stay times, relieve breathlessness and provide freedom for physical activity for patients with the disease. The Strachan Memorial Prize assisted Dr Thomas to attend multiple national and international conferences. In October 2019, he attended the American College of Chest Physicians CHEST Conference in New Orleans, USA, the world’s largest clinical chest medicine event. During this conference, Dr Thomas presented and chaired three sessions, where he shared the stage with several world leaders and key opinion makers in pleural medicine. These sessions were well attended and he received positive feedback from presenters and attendees alike, which has led to a number of potential future collaborators for his ongoing research.

In November 2019, he presented as an invited speaker at the Joint National Conference of Indian Chest Society & National Colleges of Chest Physicians in Kochi, India. He also presented at two conferences held in the Gold Coast in early 2019; the Thoracic Society of Australia & New Zealand Conference and the Asia-Pacific Congress on Bronchology, in early 2019. His presentations at these four conferences in 2019 has led to invitations to speak at upcoming international conferences in 2020. Since receiving the Strachan Research Prize, Dr Thomas has co-authored nine further publications in the field.