Monash University: University Handbooks: Postgraduate handbook 2004: Units indexed by faculty
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Postgraduate handbook 2004
Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences

Principal research areas

The following is a brief summary of the research programs currently offered through the Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences.

Ambulance and Paramedic Studies

Ambulance paramedic education, conducted over the past 30 years by the Ambulance Officers Training Centre (AOTC), has gained a national and international reputation for the quality of its courses and the performance of its graduates. In particular, the MICA paramedic course is regarded as a national benchmark. As a result of a state government decision to mainstream ambulance paramedic education, Monash University sought and won the contract to provide ambulance paramedic education for ambulance services in Victoria from 1 July 1998.

To meet these responsibilities, the university created the Centre for Ambulance and Paramedic Studies (MUCAPS) within the Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences, which is located on the Peninsula campus in a purpose-built building funded by the State Government. MUCAPS, in partnership with industry, has developed integrated programs in ambulance and paramedic studies to meet the needs of the industry.

Contact: andrea.wyatt@med.monash.edu.au, http://www.med.monash.edu.au/mucaps

Anaesthesia

Pain; antinociception; spinal cord mechanisms; chronic pain syndromes; and epidemiology.
Contact: colin.goodchild@med.monash.edu.au, http://www.med.monash.edu.au/anaesthesia

Anatomy and Cell Biology

Kidney development; kidney disease in Aborigines; renal scarring; using stem cells to repair and make kidneys, protemics, gene arrays, confocal microscopy, testicular function; testis development; neurodegeneration; regeneration of motor neurones; neuroproteomics; spinal cord injury; neural stem cells; remyelination; cardiovascular cell biology; hypertension; thalassaemia; repair of ligaments; bone and cartilage biology; stereology; transgenic mice/molecular biology and cell biology.
Contact: nigel.wreford@med.monash.edu.au, http://www.med.monash.edu.au/anatomy

Biochemistry and Molecular Biology

Autoimmune diseases, autophagy and mitochondrial turnover, bioinformatics and molecular modelling, biomolecular interactions, cancer, cell cycle, connective tissue, fluorescent proteins, gene therapy, hyaluronan metabolism, mammalian mitochondria, membrane trafficking and diabetes, mitochondrial ATP synthase, molecular mechanisms of thrombosis, nuclear-cytoplasmic transport, obesity and diabetes, peptide/protein structure and drug design, plasma membrane redox, platelets and leucocyte adhesion receptors, proteases, protease inhibitors, protein crystallography, protein folding, protein tyrosine phosphatases, renal disease, signal transduction, structural biology and virus protein trafficking.
Contact: rod.devenish@med.monash.edu.au, http://www.med.monash.edu.au/biochem

Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine

All aspects of the public health research and preventive medicine, including chronic disease epidemiology (cardiovascular, respiratory and rheumatic diseases); the clinical evaluation of drugs including physiological studies in humans, drug trials and drug safety studies; clinical epidemiology (including diagnostic tests, clinical measurement and systematic reviews); infectious diseases; neuro-epidemiology; epidemiological modelling; and cost-effectiveness studies; health services research; environmental health; including health risk assessment, preventive medicine and occupational health.
Contact: michael.abramson@med.monash.edu.au, http://www.med.monash.edu.au/epidemiology

Forensic Medicine

All aspects of the interface between law and medicine including forensic pathology, clinical forensic medicine, forensic toxicology, molecular biology and tissue banking; intravenous drug abuse, death, injury and prevention; adverse events in hospital practice; patterns of injury; sexual assault; traumatic neuropathology; ageing of injuries; traffic medicine including drugs and driving; post mortem drug redistribution; wound ballistics; SIDS; tissue banking including allograft incorporation and tissue engineering.
Contact: olaf.drummer@med.monash.edu.au, http://www.vifm.org

General Practice

Health promotion; preventive care; evaluation of undergraduate and postgraduate medical education; intellectual disability and psychiatric co-morbidity; mental health; cardiovascular disease, rational prescribing; communication strategies for medical practitioners; occupational stress; and GP secondary care integration.
Contact: leon.piterman@med.monash.edu.au, http://www.med.monash.edu.au/general-practice

Medical Imaging and Radiation Sciences

Contact: marilyn.baird@med.monash.edu.au, http://www.med.monash.edu.au/radiography

Medicine

Apoptosis; asthma and airways disease; anticoagulants; bioethics, bowel cancer; liver disease; cardiovascular disease, especially atherosclerotic and cardiac failure as well as hypertension; clinical and public health nutrition; cytotoxic lymphocytes; diabetes; gene regulation; haemostasis; oncology; inflammatory disease (joints, skin and kidneys); infectious diseases; intensive care medicine; intracellular signalling; movement disorders; osteoporosis; osteoarthritis; peptic ulcer; proteases and protease inhibitors; platelet biology; renal disease; rheumatology, serine proteinase inhibitors; skin cancer; psoriasis; clinical pharmacology; gerontology; palliative care; neurodegenerative diseases including Alzheimer's disease; neuro-otology; clinical and basic research in cardiology, vascular and respiratory areas including vascular biology, physiology and pharmacology of the peripheral and coronary vasculature; metabolic vasodilation; vascular effects of hormone replacement, vitamin therapy, hypercholesterolaemia; pathophysiology of left atrial thrombus; mitral stenosis; atrial fibrillation; pulmonary circulation; pulmonary hypertension; cardiac function, coagulation activity; acute coronary syndromes; inotropic agents; asthma; bronchiectasis; sleep disorders; thrombosis; platelets; Von Willebrand factor; fibrinogen; intracellular signalling; glycoprotein _IIb_3, RhoA, actin cytoskeleton, haemopoiesis; serpins; fibrinolysis; tissue plasminogen activator; urokinase plasminogen activator; plasminogen activator inhibitor-2.
Contact - Alfred Hospital
napier.thomson@med.monash.edu.au, http://www.med.monash.edu.au/medicine/alfred
Contact - Box Hill Hospital
robert.medcalf@med.monash.edu.au, http://www.med.monash.edu.au/medicine/box_hill
Contact - Monash Medical Centre
peter.tipping@med.monash.edu.au, http://www.med.monash.edu.au/medicine/mmc

Microbiology

Immunity; pathogenesis; gene probes; transposons; gonococci; meningococci; repetitive DNA; gonorrhoea; pili; regulon; environmental microbiology; molecular microbiology; dengue; coronavirus; measles virus; fungal viruses; molecular virology; respiratory syncytial virus; rubella virus; clostridial genetics; transposable genetic elements; two-component signal transduction; footrot; antibiotic resistance; calicivirus; viral gastroenteritis; Plasmodium falciparum; malaria; vaccines; DNA vaccination; transgenic plants as vaccines; malaria antigens; biorheology of malaria infected red blood cells; seroepidemiology of malaria infection; tuberculosis; genome databases; cell wall synthetic pathways; bioinformatics; protein-protein infections in malaria-infected cells; signal transduction regulation; mycoviruses; leptospirosis; pasteurella pathogenesis and vaccines; shigella virulence; bacillary dysentery; Buruli ulcer; Bairnsdale ulcer, diarheagenic E. coli; bacterial adhesins.
Contact: andrew.davidson@med.monash.edu.au, http://www.med.monash.edu.au/microbiology

Nursing

Community nursing; nurse education; acute care; palliative care; ethical/moral issues; legal issues; rural health care practice issues and models; midwifery; mental health; nursing informatics; gerontics and health services operation management.
Contact: tony.barnett@nursing.monash.edu.au, http://www.nursing.monash.edu.au

Centre for Health Services Operation Management

Development of workflow process and analysis communications (eg internet-based, multidisciplinary) cost management (eg case mix) systems analysis and design systems optimisation (utilisation review) and simulation use of IT tools for clinical/financial decision support.
Contact: liza.heslop@nursing.monash.edu.au, http://www.med.monash.edu.au/chsom

Obstetrics and Gynaecology

Reproductive endocrinology; reproductive hormones; menstruation; implantation; infertility; labour; trophoblast function; regulation of placental blood flow; preterm labour; low birth weight; prenatal diagnosis; models of antenatal care; endometriosis; preeclampsia; ovarian cancer; molecular obstetrics; molecular gynaecology; angiogenesis (control of blood vessel growth); and factors in fibroid growth and development, investigating why these common benign tumours develop and grow.
Contact: peter.rogers@med.monash.edu.au, http://www.med.monash.edu.au/ob-gyn

Paediatrics

Fetal and neonatal physiology; fetal surgery; adaptation at birth; cot death studies (SIDS); sleep studies; lung growth and development; neonatal neurological outcomes; growth disorders; childhood diabetes and endocrinology; pathogenesis of viral infections; antiviral agents (clinical trials); developmental disability; adolescent medicine; clinical and interventional cardiology.
Contact: rosemary.horne@med.monash.edu.au, http://www.med.monash.edu.au/paediatrics

Pathology and Immunology

Autoimmunity; allergy; thymus biology; NK cells; exocytosis; endocytosis; cell division; plasma membrane proteins; transferrin receptor; obesity gene; gastric proton pump development; and acid secretion.
Contact: richard.boyd@med.monash.edu.au, http://www.med.monash.edu.au/path

Pharmacology

Anti-obesity drugs; autacoids; diabetes; drug development; drug receptor mechanisms; hypertension; molecular pharmacology; neuropharmacology; neurotransmitters; endocrine pharmacology; peptides; confocal microscopy; pharmacology of potassium channels.
Contact: phil.beart@med.monash.edu.au, http://www.med.monash.edu.au/pharmacology

Physiology

Human and animal physiology of cardiovascular and renal systems incl. hypertension, renin-angiotensin system, renomedullary vasodperessor substances, renal vascular growth, neural and hormone control of kidney, kidney development, cardiac function and vascular physiology, cell physiology; incl. ion channels, ion channel function, cell surface receptors and second messengers, membrane transport, erythropoiesis, genetics of cell determination, endothelial and pancreatic cell physiology. Muscle physiology incl. motility, energetics and mechanics of striated, cardiac and smooth muscle, exercise physiology and muscle metabolism, exercise and muscle damage, development of muscle, intestinal and urinary tract motility, vascular and uterine muscle physiology. Nervous system incl. sense organs, processing of sensory information, proprioception, reflexes, hearing, vision, neurobiology of memory and learning, autonomic nervous system; neurogenesis and neurodegeneration, brain development and brain aging, physiology of the cerebellum, control of body movement, sleep and circadian physiology. Neuroendocrinology incl. hypothalamatic and pituitary physiology, physiology of stress, stress and reproduction, sex differences and stress, steroid actions in the brain, endocrine control of gonadal function, appetite and growth. Reproductive and fetal neonatal physiology incl. lung development, placenta, ovarian function, endocrinology of pregnancy and parturition, fetal growth retardation, brain development, perinatal brain damage, Cot Death Syndrome, endocrinology of fetal neonatal stress, resuscitation of the newborn. Vertebrate developmental biology; incl. blood cell and blood vessel development and differentiation, organisation of the body plan, cancer genetics, genetics of the mouse, zebra fish and human.
Contact: david.walker@med.monash.edu.au, http://www.med.monash.edu.au/physiology

Psychological Medicine

Current research interests of the department include:

Psychological medicine

Consultation-liaison psychiatry; impact of psychological factors on physical illness; psycho-oncology; depression in the medically ill; psychosomatic medicine; mental health during pregnancy; post-natal mental health; attitudes to neo-natal death; psychological aspects of IVF; psychiatric complications of Parkinson's Disease; health psychology; frontal dementias; eating disorders; movement disorders; anti-androgen therapy and cognition; effects of trauma.

Psychotic illnesses

Clinical and experimental psychoneuro-endocrinology; schizophrenia phenomenology, classification and treatment; treatment-resistant schizophrenia; community treatment and epidemiology of psychoses; neurophysiological and neuropsychological studies in schizophrenia and Alzheimer's disease; neuronal growth and transmitter function; first onset psychosis in adolescents; women and psychosis; substance abuse and psychosis; gender issues in schizophrenia; menstrual cycle abnormalities and schizophrenia; neurochemical changes in schizophrenia; low prevalence psychosis.

Psychogeriatrics

Measurement of quality of care in nursing homes; non-pharmacological management of behaviour disorders in persons with dementia; management of behaviour disorders in elderly general practice patients with dementia; outcome of depression in elderly general practice patients; kinematics in Alzheimer's disease.

Community psychiatry

Database development; individual service plan development; service organisation; mental disorder in general practice; general practitioner education; recognition and treatment of depression by GPs; public attitudes to psychiatric disorders; general practice shared care; evaluation of deinstitutionalisation of long-stay psychiatric patients; disaster studies.

Psychoanalytic studies

Psychoanalytic theory; mother-infant interaction; psychodynamics of transition in individual, group, community and organisational developments; religion and psychiatry; group and organisational behaviour and structures; history, theory and practice of psychoanalysis with children; cross-cultural factors in mother-infant interaction; Winnicott; psychoanalytic practice; applications of psychoanalysis.

Children and/or adolescents

Eating disorders; depression and suicide; Tourette's syndrome; school refusal; infant psychiatry; ethics and child psychotherapy; obsessive compulsive disorder; adolescent mental health; psychopathology and intellectual disability; anxiety disorders in children; autism; compliance with treatment of serious renal disease in children; child psychoanalytic psychotherapy; outcome of training in child psychoanalytic psychotherapy; psychopathology of sexual abuse in children.

Forensic psychiatry

Relationship between mental disorder and violent behaviour; stalkers and impact of stalking on its victims; mortality among those with severe mental illness; assessment and treatment of sex offenders; abuse of benzodiazepines among offender population.

General

Medical education; compliance with medication; survivor psychology; ethnic psychiatry; gender issues; forensic psychiatry; psychopharmacology; outcome measures in therapy.
Contact: jenny.dsouza@med.monash.edu.au,http://www.med.monash.edu.au/psychmed/courses, http://www.med.monash.edu.au/psychmed

Psychology

Analysis of human skill, animal and human interaction, animal and human learning, animal welfare, animal-assisted therapy, attachment theory, attentional and movement disorders, behavioural medicine, biochemistry of memory, clinical psychology and clinical neuropsychology, chronobiology (circadian rhythms), counselling psychology, cross-cultural psychology, developmental psychopathology, emotional development, engineering psychology, environmental psychology, families and parenting, health psychology and health behaviours, human evolution, human information processing, human memory and cognitive processes, nature and psychological well-being, neuropsychology and neuroscience, organisational psychology, personality, play and aggression in children, psycholinguistics, psychology of ageing, psychometrics, road user behaviour, sensory processes and perception, sound localisation, stress management, vocational psychology. Graduates interested in pursuing research in these or related areas of interdisciplinary studies involving human or animal behaviour towards a higher degree should consult the manager, Postgraduate Studies, School of Psychology, Psychiatry and Psychological Medicine.
Contact: psychology.enquiries@med.monash.edu.au, http://www.med.monash.edu.edu.au/psych

Rural Health

Rural health workforce (recruitment and retention issues, education and training, the roles and functions of health practitioners, and gender issues), sustainable health services in rural and remote areas (self-sufficiency, sustainability, community development and capacity building, service delivery models, workforce support); determinant of health and population health issues; rural nursing; rural general practice; rural health service delivery, rural health quality assurance, pre-hospital care; rural and gender issues in rural medicine, rural health policy, pre-hospital care, rural mental health and mental illness services, sexual diversity in rural places, complementary therapies, migrant health and health services needs in rural/urban Australia.
Contact: gil.han@med.monash.edu.au, http://www.med.monash.edu.au/crh

Social Work

Casework; child abuse; child protection; community health; community services; corrections; ethnic welfare; Family and Children's courts; family intervention; family violence; globalisation; management; policy development; poverty; residential care; women and social work; the welfare lobby; drug law reform; child abuse and the media; aged care.
Contact: http://www.med.monash.edu.au/socialwork

Surgery

Experimental colorectal cancer; liver metastases; the vascular response to inflammation; ulcer healing; surgical education; laparoscopic surgery; cultured epithelial grafts; organ transplantation; microsurgery; gastrointestinal motility and endovascular stents and grafts.
Contact - Alfred Hospital
paul.obrien@med.monash.edu.au, http://www.med.monash.edu.au/surgery/alfred
Contact - Monash Medical Centre
http://www.med.monash.edu.au/surgery/mmc

Monash Institute of Reproduction and Development

Molecular reproduction and endocrinology; genetics of male infertility; immunocontraception; inflammation biology cell-based therapies and transgene/gene knockout technology; prostate development; prostate disease; endometrial physiology and angiogenesis; early human development; human infertility and fertility, fertilisation and embryogenesis; multipotential stem cells (embryonic stem cells); nuclear transfer, cloning and transgenesis in animals, gene expression in oogenesis and development, primate reproductive biology, developmental biology; molecular embryology and birth defects; fetal physiology; neonatal intensive care, sleep physiology and medicine; animal research program; functional genomics; genetics and human disease; cancer biology and genetics; tumour immunity; cytokine signalling, transcription factors; apoptosis and inflammatory diseases.
Contact: gail.risbridger@med.monash.edu.au, http://www.med.monash.edu.au/ird

Monash Institute of Health Services Research

Clinical decision-making and decision support systems, evaluation of the impact of evidence-based practice in clinical environments; evidence-based health promotion; empowerment of consumers participation in health, provision of reliable information to consumers of health care; methodology and impact of systematic reviews of research evidence; cost-effectiveness and economic modelling of health care interventions; internet, networking and telecommunications in health, educational technology, health databases; evaluation of information technology in general practice, health informatics, models of electronic support for clinical decision-making; and knowledge management.
Contact: donald.campbell@med.monash.edu.au, http://www.med.monash.edu.au/healthservices.

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