Professor Fabienne Mackay recognised by French government for exceptional contribution to education

Prof Fabienne Mackay receiving the
award. Photo: Jean-Baptiste Lemercier

Professor Fabienne Mackay, Head, Department of Immunology, has been recognised by the French government for her exceptional  contribution to education and research overseas. The French Ministry of Foreign Affairs hosts the award of an annual trophy to seven French expats selected, in 2014, out of 415 applicants worldwide. Professor Mackay received her trophy from CNED, the National Centre for Distance Education, on 6 March at a ceremony held at the Quai d' Orsay. The award was organised by le Petitjournal.com, supported by several organisations including CNED, which helped particularly for the award to Professor Mackay.

A Nobel opportunity for early career researchers

Dr Rebecca Segrave

Two Monash early career researchers have scored coveted invitations to attend the 64th Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting in Physiology or Medicine, in Germany to share knowledge, network and learn from 37 Nobel Laureates, who will present lectures, master classes and panel discussions. Dr Rebecca Segrave, from the Monash Alfred Psychiatry Research Centre, is one of two Monash researchers to be invited. Rebecca uses brain stimulation, neuroimaging and neuropsychological methods to better understand the causes of depression and develop new antidepressant treatments.

CCS now has a Google+ page - follow us through the page

Central Clinical School now has a Google plus page, which provides a feed of news, events, opportunities, course offerings, research updates, photos, videos and associated information from the School. Please +1 ('like') the page in order to receive updates into your own Google+ news feed, similar to Twitter, Facebook and other social media. If you don't yet have a Google+ account:

• Sign into your gmail account (all Monash staff & affiliates have one automatically - if not Monash, you will need to create a Google account)
• Open another tab and sign into www.google.com/plus
• Follow the prompts.

Gastroenterology FODMAP research in Channel 9 news

The Department of Gastroenterology has recently published research with first author Emma Halmos (pictured, left) on the effectiveness of a low FODMAP (Fermentable Oligo-saccharides, Disaccharides, Mono-saccharides and Polyols) diet for reducing irritable bowel symptoms. Channel 9 news did a feature on 25 Feb 2014. See news clip (1:54 min)

Professor Ruth Salom to lead pathology teaching at CCS

Professor Ruth Salom

Professor Ruth Salom has recently joined CCS on a part time basis to oversight the MBBS pathology teaching. Ruth is a Monash MBBS graduate and knows Monash and the Alfred well. She has over 20 years’ experience in working in health as a pathologist, a researcher and a health and life science manager. From 2008-2012 she was the Inaugural Executive Director of SA Pathology, an organization of 2000 staff and a budget of $300M. Ruth was also responsible for major research initiatives including the formation of the Centre of Cancer Biology and the establishment of the South Australian Genomics Facility. We look forward to Ruth's vast industry and commercial experience being applied in the Monash environment. For more detail see Ruth's LinkedIn profile.

Welcome to CCS's 2014 Honours & new PhD students

Undergraduate students
intently browsing at the

2013 CCS student infor-

mation evening

Central Clinical School has its highest ever enrolment of Honours students beginning this year, 34 in total (20 BBiomedSc and 14 BSc). We also have 2 Masters in Biomedical Science (Part 1), 19 Bachelor of Medical Science Honours (BMedSc(Hons)) students, and 9 midyear intake Honours students, bringing our total of currently enrolled one year program students to 64. We also have 15 new PhD students starting. We have orientations for general Honours and PhD students scheduled for Friday, 28 Feb and on Tuesday 4 March for the BMedSc(Hons) students.

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.