Thursday 7 February 2019

What’s new in Research – across the campuses 2018

Peninsula Health
Recently the research being conducted by the surgical team at Peninsula Health was showcased, at the annual Surgical Symposium.
Medical students, medical interns, registrars and residents presented research they have done over the last year, to be considered for the Professor Jonathan Serpell Prize for Excellence in Surgical Research and Endeavour and the Frankston Orthopaedic Research Prize.
Congratulations to everyone who presented their work at the symposium.

July 2017 to June 2018 saw over 39 papers published within the Department of Surgery at peninsula Health.  We currently have several students completing a range of projects within our Honours, Masters PhD and Doctorate programs.

Significant Publication:
Cosmetic breast augmentation in Australia: a cost of complication study
Miller GS, Robinson S, Reid CM, Hunter-Smith DJ. C
2018 Australasian Journal of Plastic Surgery
Article View


Monash Health
It has been an exciting and productive year for our department both on the clinical research and also the simulation-based educational one. Ram Nataraja and Maurizio Pacilli have been leading the research streams and in total the department has had 16 peer-reviewed publications and 18 international abstract presentations at various international conferences. Damir Ljuhar our simulation fellow received the prize for the best presentation at the Victorian Simulation Alliance conference for our work in Myanmar.

We have also completed recruitment for 4 of our randomised controlled trials and are in the process of data analysis, as well as, completing one more. We have had 2 BMedSci students, Nic Ensor and Kirby Qin in the department who have excelled and become one of the MCH Surgical family. We also welcomed Simon Nguyen who is a co-supervised engineering PhD student this year to the department.
We have conducted 4 successful simulation-based educational courses in Myanmar with MCHI and our colleagues at Yangon Children’s and Yankin Children’s Hospital in Yangon and have more planned for 2019.


We have the pleasure of welcoming two new members of the team to the surgical simulation department; Iris Pilares our technician and Andrea Wallace our facilitator. With their arrival we have now become operational and have started to host simulation-based educational local and national courses. These have included courses designed by MCH Sim for the General Surgeons of Australia, Monash Newborn, Monash Hear, Monash Ed and also the Department of Urology. All of these courses have been a great success and it’s a great privilege to work in such amazing facilities.

We have also received a grant for augmented mixed reality headsets (HoloLensTM) and are in the process of setting up various new research stream using this novel technology. We are all looking forward to all the great opportunities that 2019 will bring improving the evidence base for paediatric surgery and surgical simulation!


Eastern Health
The Eastern Health surgical community has had a busy 2018. The introduction of surgical grand rounds and regular research collaborative meetings have provided a focus for inter-disciplinary interaction that has been invaluable.

The urology unit has opened a number of clinical trials, with others currently in the pipeline. A Below-the-Belt research grant from the ANZUP clinical trials group is supporting the development of a pilot study of water irrigation for bladder tumour resection. The unit was one of 2 Australian centers to contribute to the UK-led Identify study of haematuria investigation. The appointment of a dedicated trial co-ordinator recently and the enrolment of two Masters students for 2019 will help further support these activities.

The colorectal unit has completed two randomised clinical trials and have two further in varying stages of implementation. The upper GI unit has seen two Masters students complete their theses, with anticipation of successful completion shortly.
Other units, including Breast surgery, Orthopaedics and Plastic surgery have also continued to develop research interests. Overall, there have been more than 20 publications and conference presentations form Eastern Health surgeons this year. 


Cabrini Health
It has been another productive and busy year for Cabrini researchers.  We have successfully published 5 papers and have a further 3 manuscripts under review.  Our Department has presented at 4 national and international conferences and we have had grant success of up to $60,000

Our research has been recognised with awards at Cabrini research week. Dr. Christine Koulis our Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Cabrini Monash University Department of Surgery, won two awards for her research on Tissue Microarrays including the 'Best Cancer Poster Award’ by the Monash Partners Comprehensive Cancer Consortium and the ‘People’s Choice Poster Award’.  
Also, Dr. Rebekah Engel who is part of the research team at the Cabrini Monash University Department of Surgery, received the Monash BDI Award for Outstanding Achievement in Science Communication and Community Engagement.
Ms Karen Oliva our Departmental Data Manager, won a Cabrini Research Week Poster Award for her work on ‘When to resect? Management of patients with adverse histopathological features post colonoscopic polypectomy’ and Mr Ali Baqar our clinical colorectal fellow was awarded a Cabrini Research Week Poster prize for his work on ‘The impact of double stapled anastomotic technique in colorectal cancer surgery.

 Let’s Beat Bowel Cancer supported this year’s AL Polglase Visiting Professorship in November at Cabrini Institute and Hospital in Malvern.  Professor Antonio De Lacy travelled from Barcelona, Spain to be our 2018 visiting professor and the three days were jam packed for our special guest. Professor Antonio De Lacy presented an insightful and entertaining lecture on the future of education in surgery and how technology will change how our medical staff interact and learn in the future. Overall the visit was an extremely successful one and greatly contributed to the ongoing professional development of Cabrini’s colorectal surgeons.
We have also made great strides in fundraising this year with Let’s Beat Bowel Cancer having a successful Golf Classic corporate fundraiser, raising over $100,000.


The Alfred
Professor Wendy Brown presented the 2018 Central Clinical School Public Lecture on 18 October 2018: “Obesity: a serious disease that deserves serious treatment.”  In this lecture Prof Brown reviewed the disease of obesity, and described the role of bariatric surgery as an effective treatment option and potential model for future treatments.  She also addressed challenges and barriers to providing bariatric surgery at a population level.  This lecture was attended by 100 people and can be viewed here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QXln6_fQJ4Y

Our second Surgical Research Forum took place on 26 July 2018 and was designed to showcase the research activities of the Alfred Hospital Surgical Departments.  The forum was focused on Innovation for better patient care.  Operating theatres were cancelled for the event and this led to the attendance of 80 surgical unit members and included invited guests.  Some of the past Professors of the Department were acknowledged for their outstanding contributions and now have a keynote lecture or a symposium named in their honour.
The Hugh Dudley Symposium on Surgical Innovation
The Paul O’Brien Younger Surgical Researchers Symposium
The Sir Edward Hughes Keynote Lecture

The forum was followed by the John Masterton Public Lecture which was presented by Mr James Lee on, “Thyroid cancer: Towards a better paradigm.”

In this lecture Mr Lee addressed the challenges and potential strategies in achieving a new management paradigm that is necessary to meet the dramatic rise in the incidence of thyroid cancer diagnosis https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2fSOtPlz3mw

Funding Wendy Brown was awarded $4.144M in funding from the Commonwealth Government for the National Bariatric Surgery Registry.
                                                                                                                                            
NHMRC Grant  Discovery and validation of biomarkers for nonalcoholic steatohepatitis 
and liver fibrosis. Watt M, Montgomery M, Burton P, Brown W, Roberts S, Kemp W. 
$772,521 over 3 years                                                                                                                                      
Significant Publication 
Obesity Drives STAT-1-Dependent NASH and STAT-3-Dependent HCC        
Grohmann M, Wiede F, Dodd GT, Gurzov EN, Oooi GJ, Butt T, Rasmiena AA, Kaur S, Gulati T, Goh PK, Treloar AE, Archer S, Brown WA, Muller M, Watt MJ, Ohara O, MsLean CA, Tiganis T.
2018 CELL https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2018.09.053                                                                                                                                  
                                                                                

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