Eric Chow and Erica Wood win NHMRC accolade!

Associate Professor Eric Chow (left) and

Professor Erica Wood (right)

National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Research Excellence Awards are awarded annually to top-ranked researchers and teams following peer review of applications to NHMRC’s highly competitive grant schemes.

The 2019 awards have been made to two Monash University researchers, Associate Professor Eric Chow and Professor Erica Wood, both from the Sub-Faculty of Translational Medicine and Public Health in the Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences.

The NHMRC supports their research preventing STIs (Chow) and understanding how to improve blood transfusion outcomes (Wood). See below for detail.

A/Prof Chow with Prof Anne Kelso AO,

NHMRC CEO at the award ceremony.

A multidisciplinary approach to understanding the transmission dynamics and the control of sexually transmitted infections: Associate Professor Eric Chow, Central Clinical School

Gonorrhoea and syphilis are a common sexually transmitted infections and the rates are rising in Australia. Gonorrhoea may become untreatable in the future due to the rise in antibiotic resistance.

Associate Professor Chow will use a multidisciplinary approach to understand the transmission dynamics of STIs and explore novel non-antibiotics approaches for gonorrhoea prevention and control (e.g. antiseptic mouthwash) to reduce the use of antibiotics in the era of multidrug resistance.

“We are aiming to translate the findings from this research into clinical practice for STI management, and hence lead to potential changes in national and international guidelines. Our work has the potential to reduce the burden of STIs and also to improve sex life and relationship of the individuals. This award provides me with a great opportunity to continue my research,” said Associate Professor Chow.

Addressing Australia’s national transfusion research priorities: Professor Erica Wood, School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine

Blood transfusion is an essential part of modern healthcare. However, it carries risks and costs, and evidence for how we use blood remains weak in many areas. To address national transfusion research priorities, Professor Wood will use clinical registries, and observational and interventional studies to describe how blood is used in Australia, and how its use can be improved, focussing on transfusion in major haemorrhage, blood cancers and critically ill patients in intensive care, and use of immunoglobulins.

“Because blood transfusions can save lives, but also carry risks, it’s essential to ensure that blood is being used in an evidence-based way – and currently the evidence for much of our practice is very weak” said Professor Wood.

“We spend more than a billion dollars annually in Australia on blood supplies, but that number only includes the cost of the products, not the costs of all the hospital activities every day around the country to safely complete a blood transfusion.”

For more information on the NHMRC, visit: https://www.nhmrc.gov.au/about-us/nhmrc-awards
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