| Staff |
|
The VIDS team
Prof Michael Richards
VIDS Director / ID Physician
A/Prof Michael Richards has a particular interest in clinical infectious diseases, hospital acquired infections, emerging infectious diseases, and antibiotic stewardship in the hospital setting. He has previously worked as a guest researcher at the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention in the Hospital Infections Programme, particularly working in the area of infections acquired in Intensive Care Units. He has participated in a multidisciplinary collaborative group that successful piloted programs using the web for restricted antibiotic approval which improved antibiotic use within the hospital, in a study currently being piloted to collect clinical and laboratory information on encephalitis (an infection that has been associated with a number of emerging pathogens in overseas reports in recent years). It is hoped this will be a prototype for collection of this information on other emerging undiagnosed illnesses. He is also the director of the VICNISS Coordinating Centre which collects data on hospital acquired infections from all Victorian public hospitals, and allows hospitals to compare their own risk adjusted infection rates with statewide aggregate infection rates. The centre also undertakes research on surveillance of hospital acquired infections.
Dr Alan Street
Deputy Director/ Head of HIV Service
The HIV Service was formed in 1988 and is the second largest hospital-based unit in Melbourne for the inpatient and outpatient care of people living with HIV/AIDS. The Service is an active participant in clinical trials of new HIV treatments and treatment strategies. The Service also has strong links with community-based HIV agencies and service providers. Dr Street is also Physician in Charge of the TB Clinic, which provides care for patients with tuberculosis, in close collaboration with the TB Program, Department of Human Services. Dr Street has been involved with VIDS colleagues and other hospital departments in developing protocols and preparedness plans for infections requiring specialised infection control responses, such as viral haemorrhagic fever and avian influenza.
Dr Allen Yung
Consultant Emeritus
Allen Yung was a member of the medical staff of Fairfield Infectious Diseases Hospital, from 1964 for the following 32 years. From first being a medical registrar, he became a staff physician in 1967, and was the Chief of Medicine from 1992 to 1996 when the hospital closed. He served for many years as the Dean of the Clinical School at Fairfield Hospital for both Melbourne and Monash University. When the specialty of infectious disease was relatively small, he was the mentor of many young physicians who now have senior appointments in Victoria and interstate. After the closure of Fairfield Hospital in 1996 he was appointed as a sessional physician at VIDS. On his retirement in 2003 he was made Consultant Emeritus of the hospital. Dr Yung calls himself a "fever watcher", and enjoys all aspects of infectious diseases, in particular tropical and travel related infections, community acquired infections, and tuberculosis. But his great love is medicine by the bedside and sharing knowledge with the young. He is still attending the hospital on a regular basis. He was made Honorary Life Member of the Australasian Society for Infectious Diseases in 1993, and was awarded the OAM in 1998.
A/Prof Karin Leder
Head Travel Medicine
A/Prof Leder is an infectious disease physician with a specific interest in travel medicine, tropical medicine and parasitology. She is head of Travel and Immigrant Health Services at VIDS. She performs research related to health issues among travellers and immigrant groups, is the Melbourne site director for GeoSentinel, and has given a number of invited international presentations in the field of travel medicine. She is also Head of the Infectious Disease Unit in the Department of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine at Monash University, where her main area of research involves water and health.
Dr Joe Sasadeusz
Clinical director, Centre for Clinical Research Excellence in Infectious Disease (CCREID)
Joe Sasadeusz is an infectious diseases physician primarily based at The Royal Melbourne Hospital with cross appointments at the Alfred Hospital and the Melbourne Sexual Health Centre in Melbourne Australia. After advanced training in general medicine then infectious diseases training in Melbourne, Joe moved to the University of British Columbia in Vancouver Canada where he completed a Ph.D in the area of antiviral resistance. His background training is in medical virology and he has specific interests in chronic viral hepatitis with a particular focus on confection of HIV with hepatitis viruses. His clinical involvement includes being a senior physician at the hepatitis clinic at The Royal Melbourne Hospital as well as HIV-hepatitis coinfection clinics at the Alfred Hospital and Melbourne Sexual Health Centre. He also has an attachment to the Bone Marrow Transplant Service at The Royal Melbourne Hospital where he has a specific interest in viral infections in bone marrow transplant recipients. He is clinical director of CCREID at VIDS and is principal investigator on a number of clinical research studies, both industry-sponsored and investigator-initiated.
Dr Emma McBryde
Head of Epidemiology
Emma McBryde is involved in research, education and practice in many areas related to the epidemiology of infectious diseases and hospital safety and service improvement. Research interests include mathematical modeling of infectious disease transmission with a particular focus on the hospital setting. Current projects include studying the effects of isolation on MRSA transmission in the Intensive Care Unit and investigating pandemic influenza transmission. Emma is also affiliated with VICNISS in which her research interests include the interpretation of diagnostic tools, validation of VICNISS activities and application of control charts for measuring infection rates.
Dr James Black
Locum Epidemiologist
The Epidemiology Unit is involved in research, education and practice in many areas related to the epidemiology of infectious diseases and hospital safety and service improvement.
The unit has had a major input into the Guidance DS project and electronic clinical decision support. This is a sophisticated and highly flexible system for the representation of clinical and other guidelines, protocols and other advisory documents. Guidance DS includes the very successful iApprove restricted drug approval system, a general guideline module called iGuide and iMicro - a module that provides anti microbial recommendations that are tailored to the particular organism found in a particular site in a particular patient. All three modules are integrated with the hospital databases, making Guidance DS a one stop shop for busy clinicians. Guidance DS puts RMH to the forefront of clinical decision support, and is designed to be easily transferable to other hospitals. The epidemiology unit also provides database creation and management services for research studies for VIDS and elsewhere. They provide a regular liaison with the DHS, and have been involved closely in developing a pilot project of syndromic surveillance using hospital emergency departments. They regularly support clinical research initiatives related to infectious diseases, including 3 current studies of the PHD level. They provide attachments for trainees on the Victorian public health training scheme, as well as supervision for students for the masters of public health course and others.
A/Prof Damon Eisen
ID Physician
Damon Eisen divides his full time position between clinical, research and teaching responsibilities. He is particularly interested in malaria and tuberculosis with research projects in malaria vaccine immunology and innate immune deficiency. His clinical studies in mannose binding lectin deficiency have lead to a usage patent for this protein. As the Director of Physician Training he is tasked with FRACP exam preparation and development of the Greater Western Basic Physician Training Consortium.
Dr Ian Jennens
ID Physician
Ian Jennens is an infectious diseases physician with a major interest in clinical management of patients with infections, with many years of experience and accumulated expertise in this area. He is also actively involved in the development of the hospital in the home program allowing patients to receive intravenous therapy at home instead of hospital.
Dr Monica Slavin
ID Physician
Monica Slavin has a major interest in infections in immunocompromised patients, especially patients with cancer, and is an international expert in the management of fungal infections. She contributes in this area also at the Peter McCallum Clinic and at the Alfred Hospital, facilitating collaborative research in this expanding area and has had a hospital and national leadership role in the development of published guidelines for antifungal therapy and prevention of fungal infections in at-risk patients. Together with Dr Joe Sasadeusz, she provides consultant infectious disease support to the large bone marrow transplant unit at RMH.
Dr Ruth Chin
ID Physician
Ruth Chin combines general Infectious Diseases with specific expertise in the area of chronic hepatitis infection, and is involved in the laboratory in molecular research into the natural history of Hepatitis B infection.
Dr Kirsty Buising
ID Physician
Kirsty Buising's activities at RMH have recently focused particularly on the innovative development of decision support and antibiotic stewardship programs. She has a key role in development of the content of the Guidance program, a web based decision support program developed at the Royal Melbourne Hospital that is also being adopted by other hospitals in Victoria and interstate to improve evidence based patient care.
Dr Karin Thursky
ID Physician
Karin Thursky is an infectious diseases physician who has played a major role in the development of the Guidance DS computerised decision support system at VIDS. She developed and trialled an intensive care based antibiotic prescribing system that won several quality awards and reduced antibiotic prescribing in the ICU. Since then she has been a key member of the Guidance development team. Her interests include antimicrobial stewardship and infections in the immunocompromised host. She also has appointments at Peter McCallum Cancer Centre and St Vincent's Hospital Melbourne.
A/Professor Beverly Biggs
ID Physician
Beverley-Ann Biggs has specific expertise in the field of clinical parasitology and many years experience of research in malaria, from basic science investigating immune response to the parasite through to field research in the Mekong region funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. She has particular expertise on illness in immigrants and refugees and focusing clinical efforts on illness in returned travellers and patients with tuberculosis.
Dr Tim Read
ID Physician
Tim Read is a sexual health physician with an interest in the clinical management of HIV and other sexually transmitted infections. His research interests include non-gonococcal urethritis, adherence to antiretroviral therapy and risk-factors for HIV transmission among gay men.
Dr Caroline Marshall
ID Physician
Caroline Marshall's research interests are infection control and hospital epidemiology, in particular MRSA, Acinetobacter and hand hygiene. She is also setting up a multi-centre study of undiagnosed cases of encephalitis across Australia and New Zealand, with the aim of improving diagnosis and prevention.
Dr Grace Warren
ID Physician
Grace Warren is a plastic surgeon with internationally recognised expertise in the management of leprosy, who consults for VIDS within this area.
Dr Daniel O'Brien
ID Physician (Fortnightly Tuesday clinic)
Daniel O'Brien's interest are in Travel Medicine tuberculous, immigrant / refugee health and international health and also the position of HIV/AIDS specialist for medicines San Frontieres.
Dr Jack Richards
ID Physician (Wednesday AM clinic)
Dr Jack Richards' interests are Vector-borne diseases, Tropical Medicine and Global Public health. His clinical roles are in general infectious diseases and travel medicine.
Dr Benjamin Cowie
ID Physician
Ben Cowie is an infectious diseases physician and medical epidemiologist with a cross-appointment between VIDS and the Division of Epidemiology at the Victorian Infectious Diseases Reference Laboratory (VIDRL). Particular clinical interests include viral hepatitis and travel medicine. Research interests include infectious disease epidemiology and public health, with a focus on hepatitis B. In this area he has contributed to policy responses, development of clinical guidelines and medical education programs at a national level.
| 
