Welcome to Professor Johannes Kern

Professor Johannes Kern, new joint appointment for Monash
University and Alfred Health

From Professor Terry O'Brien and Associate Professor Douglas Gin

We are delighted to announce the appointment of Professor Johannes Kern (MD, PhD, ICDP-UEMS (Dermpath), FEBDV, FACD) to the joint clinical academic appointment between Alfred Health and Monash University as Professor and Deputy Director, Dermatology. He is also Vice President and Board Director of the Skin Health Institute.

The Alfred-Monash Brain Tumour Bio-databank

See the Alfred-Monash Brain Tumour biobank video

The Alfred-Monash Brain Tumour Bio-databank was featured on The Project, 18 November. The clips helps people to understand the experiences of patients faced with a devastating diagnosis who are assisting with our research. See links below.

If you would like to work with the Alfred Brain Tumour Bio-databank on a research project or use samples for your research, then please contact Loretta Piccenna (loretta.piccenna@monash.edu) and ABTB Clinical Coordinator, Emily Galea (E.Galea@alfred.org,au).

Forthcoming lectures by Alfred Hospital WTMS Visiting Professor Jocalyn Clark

Dr Jocalyn Clark, Executive Editor of the Lancet

Dr Jocalyn Clark is visiting the Alfred precinct for one week, 4-11 November 2019, and giving a number of free public talks.

• Thursday, 7 Nov, 12:30-1:30 pm
• Friday, 8 Nov, 11-12 am
• Monday, 11 Nov, 9:30-11 am

See detail about Jocalyn's background and the talks below.

International trauma program to reduce burden of injury

Saudi Arabia records over half a million road accidents each year.
Video image

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia records approximately 526,000 road accidents per annum - 7,900 people die each year due to road trauma and over 40,000 people are injured every year. The death rate from road accidents, per head of population, is five times higher than in Australia. This significant burden of injury endured by the Saudi people has been recognised by the Kingdom of Saudia Arabia as preventable.

Internationally, trauma is the leading cause of death in the first four decades of life and the second most frequent cause of deaths in all age groups. This has prompted the World Health Organisation (WHO) to declare the ‘Decade of Action’ (2011-2020) on road safety.

Thunderstorm asthma - why does it happen?

Mark Hew explains thunderstorm asthma
to ABC News Breakfast hosts Virginia
Trioli and Michael Rowland. See video

Associate Professor Mark Hew, Head of Allergy, Asthma & Clinical Immunology at The Alfred, explains the phenomenon of  'thunderstorm asthma' and what asthmatics can do to protect themselves.

"The recent thunderstorm asthma event has raised several important questions," A/Prof Hew said.

"How did it happen? It appears that three events need to line-up to trigger thunderstorm asthma.

Translational Research Symposium success

A passion for research drove the young Barry Firkin (right) to
establish the Australian Society for Medical Research. Barry
was the Alfred Department of Medicine's Foundation Chair

The Central Clinical School hosted Monash University's inaugural Translational Research Symposium last week.

With over 200 people attending the event throughout the day, the symposium showcased some of the country's top medical researchers in translational research. Early Career and graduate student researchers participated in the symposium's Translational Research Young Investigator Poster competition. It was won by MAPrc's Dr Rebecca Segrave.

3rd year MBBS students compete in inaugural PBL Feud Championships

The PBL Feud Champions of 2015 - Group 1, along with
the host Fiona Foley and A/Prof. Laila Rotstein

3rd Year Central Clinical School medical students at the Alfred have competed in the first annual PBL Feud Championships, held in May 2015. 14 groups started the competition, a creation of A/Prof. Laila Rotstein based loosely on Family Feud. Contestants fought it out across 2 weeks to reveal responses to PBL-based questions generated by Dr. Kah Peck and A/Prof. Laila Rotstein, trying to avoid the dreaded and noisy “X”. It was a great opportunity for the students to revise the material that they have been covering and there was some healthy competition going on! Of course, there can be only one winner and Group 1 took out the honors, winning prizes and bragging rights! See more about the Alfred based medical undergraduate program.

Photo of the Week: Burns Unit

Miss Heather Cleland (Director of the Victorian Adult Burns Unit based at the Alfred hospital) and a patient. In addition to being a practising clinician, Ms Cleland is also head of the Skin Tissue Culture Laboratory, part of the Monash University Department of Surgery. See more:
Research: www.med.monash.edu.au/surgery/alfred/research/skin-tissue-lab.html
Clinic: www.alfred.org.au/burns_unit/
Burns Unit photo gallery

Position vacant: Senior Lecturer / Associate Professor, Medical Student Programs

Year 3B medical students with A/Prof
Rob Selzer

The Central Clinical School, Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences is seeking to appoint a highly motivated Senior Lecturer/Associate Professor, Medical Student Programs to provide leadership for medical undergraduate students placed at the Central Clinical School (hospitals of Alfred Health, Epworth Health, Peninsula Health and Cabrini Health). PN 533475
See more: https://jobs.theconversation.com/jobs/9963-senior-lecturer-associate-professor-medical-student-programs?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=tweetbutton&utm_campaign=footer

New use for thermal imaging in neurosurgery

AVM: A congenital tangle of blood
vessels which can cause bleeding, pain
or other serious medical problems
Image: vascularrneuro.com

How do we tell when surgery to remove a cerebral arteriovenous malformation (AVM) has been successful? Normally it requires invasive angiography to image the blood vessels supplying the AVM. Associate Professor Peter Hwang and Dr Phil Lewis (Department of Surgery), working with Dr Jerome Maller (MAPRc), wondered whether the abnormally high blood flow through the AVM might be causing reduced blood flow and therefore lower temperature in structures fed by the same blood vessels. 

The main vessels feeding each hemisphere are the carotid arteries, which also supply blood to the eyes. The investigators found that in one patient, eye temperature on the side of the AVM was lower than the other, and this temperature difference disappeared after surgical removal of the AVM. They now plan to see if eye temperature difference can be used as a surrogate measure of AVM size or flow, and whether a resolution of eye temperature difference could be useful as an adjunct marker of the success of AVM treatment.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25408956

12 Nov 2014 Clinical Haematology symposium

The Australian Centre for Blood Diseases (ACBD) is hosting a one day symposium with speakers on a broad range of topics. See flier for details and below.
Details

• Date: Wednesday 12 November 2014
• Time: 9.00 am - 5.00 pm
• Host: ACBD 
• Location: AMREP Lecture Theatre (AMREP Education Centre)
• Speakers: ACBD researchers
• Topic: Clinical Haematology Symposium
• Twitter tag for following live tweets: #ACBD_Haem
• Cost: free
• Registration: not required

If you have any questions about the event, please contact Roisin Brisoe Ph: 9903 0122 Em: roisin.briscoe@monash.edu

ICU fatalities linked to after-hours discharge

Patients who are discharged from intensive care units (ICUs) after-hours have a higher chance of death than those discharged during the day, a new study has found.
Findings published today in Intensive Care Medicine, show that one in seven ICU patients continue to be discharged to general wards after-hours, and this has not changed for the past eight years. Lead researcher Dr Dashiell Gantner, from the Monash University Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Science, said it remains unclear why practices have not changed. Dr Gantner is an Intensive Care Fellow at the Alfred. See 18/08/2014 Monash story.

Improving quality information flow to medical practitioners: Living Systematic Review

Current and emerging health
knowledge ecosystems

Medical research output is doubling every five to seven years. The great boon of this body of work is its potential for dramatically improving  understanding of disease processes and treatment protocols. The curse is that busy practitioners who need comprehensive overviews of their field, don't have time to read everything. Systematic reviews analyse all the data for a given subject area, but are slow to complete because of the volume of material and rigour required. For the first time, a new process, called a living systematic review (LSR), has been proposed by a group of Monash University clinician-researchers based at the Alfred Hospital.

Student Profile: Kathryn Hackman talks about diabetes

Dr Kathryn Hackman is an endocrinologist in the Alfred Department of Endocrinology and Diabetes, and a PhD student in the Central Clinical School. Her research is on diabetes in lung transplant recipients. Her supervisors are Professor Leon Bach (Medicine) and Professor Greg Snell (AIRmed). Dr Hackman won the 3MT competition this year for the Central Clinical School and her presentation can be viewed here: http://youtu.be/Kdz4oXF_kZE
For profile detail see: http://www.med.monash.edu/cecs/education/profiles/hackman.html

Video: Russell Gruen on the National Trauma Research Institute work & research

Professor Russell Gruen, Director of the National Trauma Research Institute and Professor of Surgery (Central Clinical School) and Public Health (School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine) speaks on a number of topics. Youtube links:

• Research collaboration improving trauma care in India
• 2012 Lancet review of trauma surgery (series editor and lead author for one section)
• PATCH trial (Pre-Hospital Treatment of Acute Traumatic Coagulopathy and Haemorrhage)
• Overview of the National Trauma Research Institute

Research: Investigating the biology of skin grafts for burns treatment

Heather Cleland's group in the Skin Culture Laboratory, Victorian Adult Burns Service and Department of Surgery, Monash University, The Alfred Hospital have found that cadaver skin which has been frozen has, on analysis, a "positive and definite role as an adjunct to conventional dressing and grafting where available, particularly in patients with large TBSA [total body surface area] burns." Tissue viability in cadaveric allograft may not be essential for its clinical function as a wound dressing or even as permanent dermal substitute.
Reference: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24018216

Alfred Research Week 21-25 Oct

Alfred Research Week poster display is happening from Monday, 21 October to Friday, 25 October 2013. Alfred Research Day itself is Tuesday 22 October. The poster display showcases research on the Alfred campus and will be held in the main ground floor corridors of The Alfred. Staff members of The Alfred, Burnet Institute, Baker IDI Heart and Diabetes Institute and Monash, Deakin and La Trobe University departments based at AMREP will be giving details of their research in the posters. Poster prize winners will be announced at midday on Friday, 25 October via http://www.alfredresearch.org/alfredweek.htm.

CRC for Alertness, Safety & Productivity receives $14.5 million

Cooperative Research Centre (CRC) funding was announced on 16 February 2013. The CRC for Alertness, Safety and Productivity will receive $14.5 million over seven years to reduce the burden of impaired alertness on the safety, productivity and health of all Australians. This CRC was submitted as a partnership between Monash University Sleep Network, Sydney and Flinders Universities.

Window to optimise HIV-1 therapy

17/01/2012 Dr Edwina Wright, an infectious diseases physician and clinical researcher in the Department of Infectious Diseases at Monash and at The Alfred with a program at The Burnet, had an article published in the New England Journal of Medicine. Patients who are started on antiretroviral therapy for HIV-1 infection within four months of estimated infection date — and who have higher counts of CD4+ T-cells at the initiation of therapy — demonstrate a stronger recovery of CD4+ T-cell counts than patients in whom therapy is started later.