Stroke researcher at Monash wins top award

Stroke research at the School of Clinical Sciences at Monash Health has again been recognised by the Stroke Society of Australasia (SSA).

Adjunct senior lecturer with the Stroke and Ageing Research Group Dr Michele Callisaya won the top Investigator Award at the SSA Scientific Meeting earlier this month in Melbourne.

Dr Callisaya’s oral presentation, ‘Subcortical infarcts and the risk of falls: combined results of TASCOG and Sydney MAS’ earned her the prestigious Peter Bladin New Investigator Award.

“We aimed to examine whether tiny strokes occurring deep in the brain, known as small subcortical infarcts, increase the risk of falls in older people,” said Dr Callisaya.

As people age, they tend to have an increasing number of such small subcortical infarcts even without knowing it. Older people are also at risk of falling and suffering serious injuries but until now, there has been no data on the role of small subcortical infarcts leading to falls.

“Our investigation found there is almost double the risk of falls in older people who have three or more small subcortical infarcts,” said Dr Callisaya.

It is likely that a large burden of such infarcts disrupts the wiring in the brain and leads to impaired balance.”

The study also found that having weak leg muscles and poorer vision amplified this risk.

“Apart from trying to prevent such infarcts from occurring, interventions aimed at strengthening leg muscles and improving vision may offset the risk of falling in older people.”

Dr Callisaya’s award, $1000 and a trip to the UK to present at the British Stroke Society meeting, provides her with an exciting opportunity to present her work internationally and meet others in the field.

“This award is also an important recognition of Associate Professor Velandai Srikanth’s mentoring, the support of others in the Stroke and Ageing Research Group, and interstate collaborators,” added Dr Callisaya.

Dr Callisaya is Associate Professor Srikanth's fourth past student to win this prestigious award. Previous recipients include Dr Lauren Sanders, Dr Philip Choi, and Dr Chris Moran.

Monash researcher recognised by World Sleep Association

Dr Sarah Biggs from The Ritchie Centre has been awarded the 2015 Distinguished Activity Award from the World Association of Sleep Medicine for her efforts in organising the Australian and New Zealand World Sleep Day event held 13 March, 2015.

World Sleep Day is an initiative aimed to increased awareness and provide education on all aspects of sleep health around the world.

This year, Sarah developed an education package for school counsellors and teachers designed to educate children and adolescents about the importance of sleep and provide tips to improve sleep health.

Launched on World Sleep Day, the education package was immediately downloaded by over 60 schools across Australia and New Zealand.

This is the second consecutive year that Sarah has won this prestigious award, ahead of other World Sleep Day events organised in over 40 countries around the world.

3MT Competition Monash final 2015

The 3MT race against the clock for graduate researchers to present the most engaging, inspirational and concise summary of their research finals, was held at Alexander Theatre on Wednesday 16 September, 2015.

Our Congratulations goes to Ms Zoe Marks in taking out runner up in the 3MT-Monash final competition and was presented with a $2000 cheque.

Zoe presented her Three Minute Thesis (3MT) titled 'Cancer 'signatures' in blood. Reading the fine print!'

Monash doctor and PhD student wins Young Investigator Award

Congratulations Dr Jonathan Dick who received the prestigious Young Investigator Award for basic science at the Australian and New Zealand Society of Nephrology (ANZSN) Annual Scientific Meeting in Canberra last week.

A PhD student with the Kidney Disease and Vasculitis Research Group at Monash University’sCentre for Inflammatory Diseases, Dr Jonathan Dick holds a Clinical Academic Training Fellowship fromMonash Health.

Jonathan presented his findings that proteins in the complement system could help in more targeted treatments for people with severe kidney disease caused by vasculitis.

“This form of severe kidney disease is hard to treat and current treatments affect a variety of other tissues in the body,” said Jonathan.

“I showed data demonstrating that complement proteins are important in stimulating the underlying immune response that causes the vasculitis and kidney inflammation, increasing our understanding of how we should target complement in kidney disease.”

“This may have relevance to the use of complement therapeutics in other diseases.”

Jonathan said it was very satisfying to have his hard work recognised.

“I had help from so many lab members on different aspects of the work and this award is also recognition for the time and expertise that many of them have contributed to make the project a success.”

Members of the kidney research groups at Monash Health and the Monash Centre for Inflammatory Diseases have won this highly prestigious award, given to only one person each year, for the past seven years.

Dr Lahn Straney wins 2015 Early Career Researcher Publication Award

SPHPM’s Dr Lahn Straney has won the Early Career Researcher’s publication award in the Public Health Research category for his research on mortality in critically ill children, as published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases journal earlier this year.

His research fills an important gap in the medical literature examining population-based studies of severe infections in critically ill children.

Dr Straney is an Aus-ROC (Australian Resuscitation Outcomes Consortium) Research Fellow and his expertise in evaluating patient outcomes in ICU using biostatistics is recognised nationally.

His study reveals that severe infections are responsible for a quarter of deaths of children in ICUs and continue to be a major public health problem even in high-income countries.

The data was taken from the Australian and New Zealand Paediatric Intensive Care Registry, and is one of the first population-based studies of severe infections in critically ill children.

Dr Straney’s research comprised of a retrospective multicentre cohort study of children who required intensive care treatment in Australia and New Zealand over a 12-year period.

“We assessed the population-based incidence of invasive infections, sepsis, and septic shock in critically ill children in Australia and New Zealand, and evaluated trends in incidence and mortality,” Dr Straney said.

“Our findings confirm that, despite existing strategies to improve outcomes, major infections remain a main cause of mortality in paediatric ICUs, even in high-income countries”.

2015 Simulation Australasia Project Innovation award

Prof Debra Nestel (centre) and A/Prof Margaret Bearment (right)

 being presented the award by A/Prof Marcus Watson from Simulation Australasia.

The National Health Education and Training in Simulation Programme (NHETSim) has won the 2015 Simulation Australasia Project Innovation Award announced last week in Adelaide.

The Project Innovation Award is a prestigious national competition which recognises and celebrates innovation and excellence in simulation by project teams around Australia and New Zealand and is presented to the simulation project team that has achieved outstanding results in delivering a new simulation capability or utilising a simulation capability in a new and improved way.

The NHETSim Programme is a nationwide training program in simulation for healthcare professionals and the Monash Project Team is led by Professor Debra Nestel from Health Professionals Education and Educational Research (HealthPEER). Current team members include: Associate Professor Margaret Bearman (Deputy Lead), Bronwyn Beovich (Program Manager) and Anthea Power (Administration Officer).

NHETSim is an education programme designed for anyone who currently or intends to use simulation as an educational method to support the development of healthcare students and professionals. It is open to all health professions.

NHETSim is supported by the Commonwealth Department of Health.

Further information on NHETSim available at:http://www.nhet-sim.edu.au/or by contacting the Programme team on 03 9905 0221.

Early Career Researchers honoured

Early Career Researchers (ECRs) and ECR Fellows from the Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences have been honoured in the Faculty’s annual ECR Publication Prizes. 

Each year, the Faculty awards prizes in each of the Faculty disciplines to six ECRs who have published an outstanding piece of research. For the first time in 2015, this prize has been extended to include an additional six ECR Fellows.

All 12 prize winners will be presented with their certificates at the ECR Symposium in November. While both ECRs and ECR Fellows will share some information about their publication in a five-minute presentation to the audience, the six ECRs will also receive $1,000 towards furthering their research career.

2015 ECR Publication Prize Winners

Dr Melissa Petrakis (School of Primary Health Care) won the Social and Educational Research category for her publication in Asia Pacific Journal of Social Work and Development ‘Consumer measures and research co-production: a pilot study evaluating the recovery orientation of a mental health program collaboration.’

Dr Zoe Davidson (School of Clinical Sciences at Monash Health) won the Nursing and Allied Health category for her publication in European Journal of Clinical Nutrition ‘Observations of body mass index in Duchenne muscular dystrophy: a longitudinal study.’

Dr Lahn Straney (School of Public Health & Preventive Medicine) won the Public Health Research category for his publication in The Lancet Infectious Diseases titled ‘Mortality related to invasive infections, sepsis, and septic shock in critically ill children in Australia and New Zealand, 2002–13: a multicentre retrospective cohort study.’

Dr Carmel Pezaro (Eastern Health Clinical School) won the Clinical Sciences category for her publication in European Urology ‘Activity of cabazitaxel in castration-resistant prostate cancer progressing after docetaxel and next-generation endocrine agents.’

Dr Tarrant Cummins (School of Psychological Sciences) won the Psychological Sciences category for his publication in Molecular Psychiatry ‘Alpha-2A adrenergic receptor gene variants are associated with increased intra-individual variability in response time.’

Dr Stephanie Simonds (School of Biomedical Sciences) won the Laboratory Based Sciences category for her publication in Cell ‘Leptin mediates the increase in blood pressure associated with obesity.’

2015 ECR Fellows Publication Prize Winners

Dr Carol Hodgson (School of Public Health & Preventive Medicine) won the Nursing and Allied Health category for her publication in Critical Care ‘Expert consensus and recommendations on safety criteria for active mobilization of mechanically ventilated critically ill adults.’

Dr Bradley Edwards (School of Biomedical Sciences) won the Clinical Sciences category for his publication in American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine ‘Clinical predictors of the respiratory arousal threshold in patients with obstructive sleep apnea.’

Dr Tracy Heng (School of Biomedical Sciences) won the Laboratory Based Sciences category for her publication in American Journal of Transplantation ‘Establishment of transplantation tolerance via minimal conditioning in aged recipients.’

Dr Govinda Poudel (School of Psychological Sciences) won the Psychological Sciences category for her publication in Journal of Psychiatry and Neuroscience ‘Abnormal synchrony of resting state networks in premanifest and symptomatic Huntington disease: the IMAGE-HD study.’

Dr Bianca Brijnath (School of Primary Health Care) won the Social and Educational Research category for her publication in Journal of Occupational Rehabilitation ‘Mental health claims management and return to work: qualitative insights from Melbourne, Australia.’

Dr Joanne McKenzie (School of Public Health & Preventive Medicine) won the Public Health Research category for her publication in PLoS Medicine ‘Hand sanitiser provision for reducing illness absences in primary school children: a cluster randomised trial.’

For additional information on the winners please see: http://www.med.monash.edu.au/intranet/research/ecrinformationgateway/

Monash University graduate wins Australian Alumni Award in Thailand

On Friday 26 June, Roisai Wongsuban, a Monash University graduate was awarded the 2015 Young Alumni Community Engagement Award at the Australian Alumni Awards in Bangkok. This award recognises a young individual (up to 35 years of age) who has applied their Australian education to offer exceptional community service in Thailand.

Roisai Wongsuban is a human rights and humanitarian advocate on behalf of migrants, refugees, displaced persons, asylum seekers and survivors of human trafficking. Her work focuses on contributing to improving the life circumstances of displaced Burmese living in Thailand.

Ebonie Rio awarded Fresh Scientist award for Victoria

FMNHS' Ebonie Rio has been awarded the Fresh Scientist award for Victoria out of ten finalists who were selected for the state. 

Fresh Science helps young Australian scientists find their story and their voice, and empowers future leaders of science to engage with the community, media, government and industry.

Since 1997 Fresh Science has trained more than 250 early career scientists about how to present their science in a way that’s accessible to a general audience.

Ebonie spoke with schools at Melbourne Museum last week to inspire the next generation of young scientists and answered questions from an audience of academics industry and interested people.

Ebonie will now proceed to the national competition.

Congratulations Associate Professor Sally Ayoub, Director of Undergraduate Medical Education

Congratulations Dr Sally Ayoub who has been appointed Associate Professor (Practice), in the role of Director of Undergraduate Medical Education, School of Clinical Sciences at Monash Health, Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences.

A former Monash University and SCS student, Sally has a long association with Monash Health, first as a junior doctor and also completing the majority of her physician training here.

As a PhD candidate in Professor Eric Morand’s research group, Sally helped initiate the highly successful lupus research program.

“My interest in medical education started more than ten years ago as a bedside tutor,” said Sally.

“Taking on my current role as Director of Undergraduate Medical Education at SCS nearly three years ago has been the most rewarding and challenging role in my career thus far.”

“Sally has been a vital part of our teaching team at SCS for many years and has led it very capably since 2012," said Head of School of Clinical Sciences at Monash Health, Professor Eric Morand.

"I am delighted the University has recognised the importance of the position she holds, directing Monash’s largest medical student programs, with her appointment to this new title."

“I work with an incredible team to deliver an exciting and very high quality clinical program; we are all passionate about giving our students the best experience in the most supported environment possible,” said Sally.

“We want to train the best doctors for the future, but we are also acutely conscious of the high rates of mental and other health issues in this young population.”

“Over the coming years, I hope we can consolidate the work we have done to help tackle these issues within our large cohort of students, with evidence based interventions which can be utilised at other universities and medical schools,” added Sally.  

Sally plans to build on the already rigorous education program at SCS by utilising some state-of-the-art IT platforms.

“I hope my promotion is a signal to those with an interest in education that this is now a well-recognised pathway to academic success.”

SCS doctoral student recognised for outstanding research

Shireen with ISSS president
Dr Jennifer Muehlenkamp

Congratulations Shireen Mahtani who was awarded a highly competitive travel grant by the International Society for the Study of Self-Injury (ISSS) last month, in recognition for her outstanding research.

A doctoral student with the Centre for Developmental Psychiatry and Psychology in the School of Clinical Sciences at Monash Health, Shireen's research investigates the developmental trajectory towards engaging in non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) through maladaptive shame-related cognitive and behavioural processes.

"I am looking both at how distal and proximal risk factors of shame-proneness and non-suicidal self-injury relate, and how the various ways people cope with shame are associated with why a person begins and continues to engage in NSSI, a complex and multi-functional behaviour," said Shireen.

"My hope is that this research will not only assist in our understanding, prevention and intervention of NSSI, but also in our awareness and understanding of toxic shame processes that pervade the lives of many."

"I feel very honoured and grateful to have received this award and would like to acknowledge and thank my supervisors Dr Glenn Melvin and Dr Penelope Hasking for their utmost guidance and support."

Shireen presented her research at the ISSS 10th annual meeting in Heidelberg, Germany.

Prof Euan Wallace to receive VCRN Career Recognition Award

Congratulations Professor Euan Wallace on receiving the VCRN Career Recognition Award for his outstanding record in patient-based research and clinical work.

Established by leading health and medical organisation Biomedical Research Victoria, the Victorian Clinician Researcher Network (VCRN) supports clinician researchers in medicine, nursing and allied health.

Professor Wallace, Head of Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Monash University and Director of Obstetric Services, Monash Health has dedicated his professional life to excellence in obstetrics and improving the quality of care for women and babies.

He has personally cared for 7,000-8,000 women during their pregnancies at Monash Health, as well as authoring more than 230 published research papers and holding numerous leadership portfolios across Monash Health, the Victorian Government and Monash University. Under his leadership, Monash Health is now home to Victoria's largest maternity service.

Professor Wallace is committed to keeping researchers focused on meaningful clinical care improvements. He challenges himself and others with the question: ‘How has your work changed women's health this year?'. He has particular clinical interests in recurrent miscarriage, multiple pregnancy, hypertension and fetal growth problems. His research has been extensively funded both by the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) and by international funding agencies.

Please join us on Friday 14 August at 11.30am in Lecture Theatre 3 when Professor Wallace will be presented with his award. Invitation is attached here.

FMNHS researchers succeed in this year's Victorian Cancer Agency funding round

The Victorian Cancer Agency has announced it's 2014 - 2015 funding recipients, with four FMNHS researchers receiving grants.

Dr Hieu Nim from the Australian Regenerative Medicine Institute, Dr Arun Azad from Monash Health and School of Clinical Sciences, Dr Carmel Pezaro from Eastern Health Clinical School and Dr Kelly Walton from MIMR-PHI Institute of Medical Research were all awarded grants in this year's funding round. 

Congratulations to all our researchers! 

Prof Helena Teede appointed Executive Director of Monash Partners Academic Health Science Centre

Professor Helena Teede from The School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine has been announced as the new Executive Director of Monash Partners Academic Health Science Centre. Professor Teede is a respected clinician and researcher, with a breadth of experience that makes her a great candidate for this new appointment, including her role as Director of SPHPM's Monash Centre of Health Research and Implementation (MCHRI).

Monash Partners is an innovative Australian health industry, research and educational collaboration between eight independent, world class providers of health services, health research and health education in the south and east of Melbourne. Members are:

• Alfred Health
• Baker IDI
• Burnet Institute
• Cabrini Health
• Epworth HealthCare
• Monash University
• Hudson Institute of Medical Research (formerly MIMR-PHI Institute of Medical Research)
• Monash Health.

Professor Teede has an international profile in clinical, health services, public health research and translation, academic, government and NGO roles. She has held various leadership roles, stands on a range of committees, and is also President of the Endocrine Society of Australia; President-elect of the International PCOS Society; a co-lead of the National Indigenous women’s health partnership in research and translation; lead of the National Australian PCOS Alliance and guideline development group; and member of the Diabetes Australia Clinical Advisory Committee.

In addition to this, Professor Teede has held multiple State and Federal government advisory roles in Women’s Health, Healthy Communities, Diabetes, and Obesity and Prevention. Her outstanding work in research has also led to multiple honours including NHMRC Research Achievement Award for highest ranked CDF applicant, Victorian Health Minister’s Award for Outstanding Individual Achievement, Commendation for Premier’s Award for Health and Medical Research, and Government Awards for Healthcare Innovation.

Knight of Grace in the Order of St John awarded to Prof Jeffrey V. Rosenfeld

Congratulations to Professor Jeffrey V. Rosenfeld, Department of Surgery, Central Clinical School, who has been made a Knight of Grace in the Order of St John. The Order has the world-wide mission "to prevent and relieve sickness and injury, and to act to enhance the health and well-being of people anywhere in the world." (Wikipedia) Perhaps its best known service is St John Ambulance.

Professor David Clarke appointed Monash Health Program Medical Director for Mental Health

Eminent psychiatrist Professor David Clarke has officially been appointed Monash Health Program Medical Director (PMD) for Mental Health.

A highly respected academic psychiatrist and clinician, David has demonstrated an extraordinary dedication to Monash University and Monash Health over the last 25 years.

Jo Enticott awarded 2014 APHCRI / ICES International Visiting Fellowship

Congratulations to Dr Joanne Enticott on being awarded the 2014 APHCRI / ICES International Visiting Fellowship.

Jo was awarded $20,000 for her research project‘Primary health care for mental health: An analysis of Ontario health service activity rates by socio-economic measures’.

Novel medical device developed by SCS surgeon

A novel bi-directional cannula that prevents severe complications following cardiac surgery has been developed by School of Clinical Sciences’ Mr Randall Moshinsky.

A Department of Surgery Adjunct Senior Lecturer and Monash Health Cardiothoracic Surgeon, Mr Moshinsky has recently patented the device in the US that will enable safer cardiopulmonary bypass procedures and extra corporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) support of the circulation and respiration.