Head shaving fundraiser event for Cancer Immunology Research

Christopher Chew, PhD Student in the Cancer Development and Treatment Laboratory (Shackleton Lab) has been growing his hair for the last 8.5 years and will be shaving his head on Saturday 9 December in Melbourne CBD as part of Hair Off For Hair Loss.

The event will be run with the City of Melbourne as part of the Little Korea Street Food Christmas Festival - What's On Melbourne, including food, live performers, face paint, balloon art and Christmas celebrations!

Funds will be directed towards hair loss related initiatives including cancer immunology research, supporting the alopecia areata foundation and skin health institute.

Unveiling Hidden Potential: The Underappreciated Benefits of Integrating Community Medical Perspectives into Research

Co-authored by Chris Ewert Community Representative and Evangelia Bishop, CaRE Coordinator

Monash University established the Consumer and Researcher Engagement program (CaRE) to facilitate mutually beneficial and meaningful connections between researchers and community members with lived experience as a patient or carer of the medical conditions being studied at the Central Clinical School (CCS)

CaRE is a planned process covering a broad range of interactions with the specific purpose of informing, consulting, partnering, and empowering community members to contribute to medical research through a number of approaches.

When pain after surgery becomes chronic

Authors: Paige Druce, with special thanks to community representative Chris Ewert for contributing to this article.

Pain after surgery is expected. Pain that lasts for days, or even weeks is normal, and usually nothing to be concerned about. But for some patients, pain can persist for months or even years and develop into chronic pain.

It can be hard to know when pain after surgery becomes chronic pain because the symptoms can range from mild to severe. However, the pain can be distressing and debilitating for the people it affects, including stabbing and tingling feelings, numbness, altered sensations and problems with sensitivity.

Chronic pain after surgery may depend on the operation undergone and is often difficult to treat, meaning there are no proven strategies for prevention. So, it’s one of the most important research priorities in Perioperative Medicine – the area of medical care that covers the time from surgery being considered, through the operative period, to the patient’s full recovery. 

Vice-Chancellor’s award for Professor Anne Holland

Monash Medicine Nursing and Health Science researchers and staff have received ten awards in the Vice-Chancellor’s Education, Research and Professional Excellence Awards 2023. These awards acknowledge the efforts of high-performing Monash staff and the impact of their work on the Monash community.  See full list of recipients HERE.

From, Professor Terence O'Brien, Head, Central Clinical School

It is with great pride that I can inform you that Prof Anne Holland, Head of Respiratory Research@Alfred, CCS, was awarded the Monash Vice Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Research Engagement and Impact. This highly prestigious award recognises Anne’s sustained, impactful research developing and trialling in-home rehabilitation as a way to improve access for patients with chronic lung disease, providing an alternative to the traditional in-person delivery at outpatient facilities. Her work has resulted in a transformative shift of clinical practice towards a more integrated model of disease management (in-person and at-home via web-based platforms), as demonstrated by its citation in 27 clinical guidelines and position papers on pulmonary rehabilitation, pulmonary fibrosis, COPD, skeletal muscle dysfunction, oxygen therapy and respiratory management, from eminent bodies including the Thoracic Societies in the UK, USA, Europe, Asia and Australia/New Zealand.

Please join with me in congratulating Anne on her award.

16 days of activism against gender-based violence

In Australia, one in four women have experienced violence by an intimate partner or family member. On average, a woman in Australia is killed by a man they know every 10 days. 

The 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence is an international campaign led by UN Women that runs from the 25th of November to the 10th of December. During this time, communities around the world join the call that aims to prevent and eliminate violence against women and girls. 

Here in Australia, there are many ways to get involved, including the Walk Against Family Violence 2023 on the 24th of November, which marks the beginning of the 16 Days of Activism. 

All genders are welcome, so bring along your friends, family, and lab mates. Wear orange if you can and stand in solidarity with victim-survivors. 

If you’d like to join a group from the Department of Neuroscience that is attending, please contact Dr Georgia Symons (georgia.fullersymons1@monash.edu). One of the reasons they are walking is to acknowledge the contribution of victim-survivors in their research study to investigate brain injury in intimate partner violence. 

Other ways to get involved during this time:

• Visit the Safe and Equal 16 Days of Activism page and join a community event near you. 
• Follow Respect Victoria on social media, share posts using #16Days and #16DaysOfActivism.
• Start a conversation about respect at home, with friends or a sporting/community club. 

Thanomporn Wittayacharoenpong wins the Alfred Health Week Abstract Prize

Congratulations to Ms Thanomporn (Mon) Wittayacharoenpong on winning the Alfred Research Alliance Senior Medical Staff Association Prize for Clinical / Public Health Research at the 2023 Alfred Health Week.

A PhD student in the Epilepsy surgery research group led by Associate Professor Andrew Neal, Mon's research abstract submitted was entitled, "Using Stereo-EEG data to determine the optimal intracranial venous sinus location for an endovacular seizure detection device". She won the award for the best journal article, in the Abstract Prize category.

Find out more about the Alfred Health Week Prizes 2023.

Picture: Mon with Professor Terence O'Brien (Head, Central Clinical School) and Professor Stephen Jane (Dean, Sub-faculty of Translational Medicine and Public Health).

Strategies and tips for a healthy working life

 Summary of the CCS-SPHPM joint panel discussion for Mental Health Week by Zhoujie Ding and Lenka Vodstrcil (on behalf of CCS EDI committee)

Striving to maintain our mental wellbeing has emerged as a primary goal for many workers, especially since COVID first disrupted our routines and changed how we work. In academia, meeting deadlines and balancing our workload and expected output can sometimes be really overwhelming, especially when other issues in life cause additional stress. To provide some insights into how our working lives can be improved and where to get help when mental health issues arise, the CCS-SPHPM EDI committees organised a panel discussion with experts in the field, which took place at the Alfred Center Lecture Theatre on 6 November 2023.