Emerging Researcher Fellowships

Monash Health 2020 Emerging Researcher Fellowships

The Chief Executive has established the Monash Health Emerging Researcher Fellowship. The primary purpose of the Fellowship is to invest in early research career individuals, with significant potential for a research career and for whom a fellowship would contribute to that end. The Fellowship is to encourage Monash Health employees to conduct a research project and to target emerging researchers.

The Emerging Researcher Fellowship provides a career development opportunity for those who do not have a proven record of research and to provide some salary support for employees in all health related disciplines including Allied Health, Medicine and Nursing.

2020 Emerging Researcher Fellowship recipients

Mr Scott Anderson

Advanced Musculoskeletal Physiotherapist

Scott is undertaking a project comparing the effectiveness of a traditional Plaster of Paris cast with a synthetic cast for managing patients with wrist fractures who are treated in the Monash Health Emergency departments. The goal is to find out how many times the casts need to be changed due to wear and tear or becoming loose or too tight. The research is looking at the cost and time to apply the different casting material as well as patient satisfaction and comfort in the casts they are given.

Dr Andy Lim

Consultant Emergency Physician

Andy is undertaking Phase I of the Minor Stroke (MS) -Home Investigation. This world-first, federally supported project ‘The MS-Home Pathway – Safety of a Minor Stroke Imaging-Guided Outpatient Model of Care’ aims to use advanced technology to separate high and low risk minor strokes long before the complications actually happen. This has the potential to scale state-wide via the Victorian Telemedicine Stroke network and beyond. Andy will work closely with Professor Thanh Phan to achieve this.

Dr Subramanian Muthusamy

Neurophysiology Fellow

Clinicians may sometimes find it challenging to tell the difference between epileptic seizures and non-epileptic seizures through visual inspection alone. This fellowship will support Subramanian in exploring how advances in computer science and machine learning may be utilised to assist clinicians in this diagnostic process. For patients, this could mean earlier and more timely diagnosis and therefore treatment with more appropriate therapies.

Ms Ruby Pipson

ANUM, Chesnut Gardens Aged Care

It is exciting to be awarded an Emerging Researcher Fellowship which provides an opportunity to promote Excellence in Aged Care and improve practice through research. Nurse’s perception of empowerment, teamwork and engagement in various contexts will be examined. Professional development strategies shall evolve based on participant input. The aim of the study is to support teamwork, promote resident-family-staff engagement and enable nurses to become empowered leading to Better Care for residents who live with Dementia.

Dr Kate Rassie

Advanced Training Registrar, Diabetes and Women’s Health Fellow

Kate is a final year Advanced Trainee in Endocrinology, working clinically as a Diabetes and Women’s Health fellow. Her proposed project looks to investigate the impact of metabolic conditions in pregnancy (namely polycystic ovarian syndrome, gestational diabetes and pre-existing diabetes) on the hormonal and nutritional composition of breastmilk, and to examine the impact that such conditions have on milk production physiology and on breastfeeding in general. She aims to start this with a major systematic review, and is intending to extend the project into a PhD in 2021 (involving a large observational study focused on the same question). She will work out of Monash Centre for Health Research and Implementation (MCHRI), supervised by Prof Helena Teede.

Ms Amelia Rattle

Clinical Pharmacist

Amelia hopes to improve her research skills during this time and build a solid foundation for future research in her career as a pharmacist. The project involves the Antimicrobial Stewardship (AMS) team at Monash Health. The aim of Amelia’s project is to expand the team’s work on risk allocation for AMS interventions, in order to improve the services and communications provided by the AMS team.

Dr Daniel Wong

Registrar, Otolaryngology/Head & Neck

Vocal cord insufficiency, which may be caused by vocal cord paralysis or scarring, is one of the leading causes of dysphonia (hoarse voice).
It can significantly impact on patients’ quality of life and ability to communicate. The Department of Laryngology, ENT research explores a novel technique of autologous fat injection into the vocal fold, whereby the patient’s own fat is harvested, filtered, and processed to concentrate adipocyte-derived stem cells and growth factors. This processed fat (nanofat) has been shown to have long-lasting effects compared to traditional fat injection. It has only been recently described in its use for the larynx. For patients, this could potentially translate to a longer-lasting, effective treatment for dysphonia.

Emerging Researcher 2020 guidelines

PDF Document

Emerging Researcher application form