AAHMS Life as a Clinician-Scientist 2016: Session 4

Life as a Clinician-Scientist: The Best of Both Worlds was a one-day symposium for medical students, junior doctors and PhD students focusing on the intersection between clinical medicine and science. The day was aimed at encouraging and inspiring medical students and doctors to get involved in research and workshop the skills necessary to succeed in clinical research.

Life as a Clinician Scientist, organised by the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences, brought together students and doctors from different universities and hospitals to the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre on July 16 2016 for a day of discussion, learning and up-skilling.

Whether you are considering doing research or are already involved in research and perhaps wondering how to translate your results or thesis into a publication, poster or platform, this video series will be relevant and applicable. The sessions include talks by academics from a range of specialities and each speaker gives a vignette of their own research in addition to their speaking topic. The afternoon featured skills workshops including “how to get your research published”, “how to give a great talk or poster”, “how to select and structure a research question” and a panel on the varied career of a clinician-scientist.

SPEAKERS in Session 4:

Professor Katie Allen - Paediatric Gastroenterologist and Allergist, Royal Childrens Hospital & Theme Director of Population Health & Group Leader of Gastro and Food Allergy, Murdoch Childrens Research Institute. Investigating the population health and evolution of the new allergy epidemic including gene-environment and epigenetic associations with food allergy. Principal Investigator of the HealthNuts Study - the largest single centre population-based study of food allergy in children ever mounted.

Professor Michelle Leech - Rheumatologist & Deputy Director of Rheumatology, Monash Health & Deputy Dean (MBBS), Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences, Monash University. In addition to overseeing the delivery of the Monash medical degree, her research interests include cytokine biology, glucocorticoid action and cell cycle proteins in the context of rheumatoid arthritis pathogenesis.

Dr Kylie Mason - Clinical Haematologist, Royal Melbourne Hospital & Herman Clinical Research, Victorian Comprehensive Cancer Centre, University of Melbourne. Pioneering new treatments for haematological cancers, investigating how to reduce side-effects of new drugs, and exploring the role of platelets in cancer.

Dr Ken Myers - Paediatric Neurologist (Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of Canada) and Epilepsy Fellow, Austin Health Epilepsy Genetics Research Centre, University of Melbourne. Conducts translational research in epilepsy genetics, including genetic epilepsy phenotyping and clinical drug trials.

Dr Peter van Wijngaarden - Ophthalmologist, Royal Victorian Eye and Ear Hospital & Principal Investigator, The Centre for Eye Research Australia. Peter’s research focuses on three areas: harnessing the power of endogenous stem cells for regeneration in multiple sclerosis, interactions between neurons and glial cells in eye disease, and diabetic retinopathy.