Featured post

SCS research and awards news

For all our research and awards news, please visit our news page.

Monday 29 January 2018

Monash University’s Professor David William Kissane, AC recognised for services to psychiatry

Professor David Kissane AC
Professor David Kissane, Head of Department of Psychiatry, School of Clinical Sciences at Monash Health (SCS) was made a Companion of the Order of Australia in last week’s Australia Day Awards for eminent service to psychiatry.

The prestigious Award recognises Professor Kissane’s contribution to his field, particularly psycho-oncology and palliative medicine, as an educator, researcher, author and clinician, and through executive roles with a range of national and international professional medical bodies. 

Professor Kissane, who is also a Monash Health consultant psychiatrist at Monash Medical Centre and McCulloch House, has dedicated his career studying the psychological impact of cancer on patients and their family, and has built a model of family-centred care to support families at risk of poorer bereavement outcomes.  He established the Australian evidence base for the benefits of cancer support groups in reducing anxiety and depression from the stress of cancer.

Professor Kissane said that perhaps more than any other illness, cancer with its complicated biology and challenging treatments can threaten patients and limit their coping. His research into demoralization, its measurement and clinical recognition, leading to the development of meaning-centred or existential psychotherapies as a treatment, is held in very high regard internationally.

“There is much that clinicians need to do to optimise coping and support people through this difficult experience of illness,” Professor Kissane said.

Throughout his career, Professor Kissane has conducted psychotherapy trials for individuals, couples, groups and families in the cancer setting.

“There is a great need to reduce fear and harness courage in dealing with cancer, to sustain intimacy and support for couples, to optimize communication for families, and foster group support for the isolated who might otherwise feel alone,” he said.

In 1996, Professor Kissane became the Foundation Chair of Palliative Medicine, University of Melbourne, establishing the Centre for Palliative Care at St Vincent’s Hospital and the Peter MacCallum Cancer Institute. In Victoria he established the educational programs for palliative medicine and helped develop the discipline of palliative care as a specialty.

In 2003, Professor Kissane became Chairman of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York, America’s largest comprehensive cancer center. Across the next decade, he grew this Department into the world’s biggest and most comprehensive psycho-oncology program, helping to establish this specialty that focuses on the psychological and behavioural care of the cancer patient.

Author of more than 350 publications and 7 books, Professor Kissane built a communication training laboratory at Sloan-Kettering, which developed a curriculum to train cancer surgeons, medical and radiation oncologists and palliative care physicians to communicate empathically with their patients. Over 1000 clinicians were trained during his tenure.

“There is an art to talking supportively about cancer as an illness, helping patients keep a sense of mastery over their lives, sustaining hope in the face of adversity, and preparing for the worst possible outcome while fighting for either a cure or achieving control over this disease,” Professor Kissane said.

“Physicians must be healers, accompanying each person and responding to his or her needs with cultural sensitivity and insight into each patient’s unique personality.”
“Clinicians need to enjoy being with their patients and understand them fully to be an effective healer in their medical care.”


Professor Kissane said his Award brings valuable attention to the needs of psycho-oncology and palliative care, both young specialty disciplines within medicine, both needing more government funding to build appropriate services, both needing to train more clinicians in skills to deliver such care, and both needing more public attention to achieve these goals.

Lola Douglas scholarship supports research into gestational diabetes

Shamil Cooray
PhD candidate Shamil Cooray is the recipient of the 2018 Lola Douglas Scholarship, funded through a bequest from the Estate of the late Miss Lola Douglas.

The scholarship helps support Shamil to complete his PhD at the Monash Centre for Health Research and Implementation (MCHRI).

"My research focuses on gestational diabetes, a condition which affects more than one in ten women and is becoming more common," Shamil said.

"It increases the risk of complications to the pregnancy and may also adversely affect the future health of the mother and her children."

Shamil said there has been little prior research into the best system of education and pregnancy care for women with gestational diabetes. 

"I will work with these women to develop an innovative model for pregnancy care that provides individualised guidance to impact health positively," he said.




Monash Animal Research Ethics Update – January 2018

Contents:
1.    Animal Ethics Information Sessions
2.    Updated Forms
3    Annual Reporting
4.    MARP AEC information & MMC AEC Information
5.    AEO staff changes
6.    NEW - NHMRC Best Practice methodology in the use of animals for
scientific purposes
7.    Updated AEC Terms of Reference & Ethical Research and Approvals:
Scientific Activities Involving Animals Procedures
8.    Reminders
9.    Aquatic Symposium 2018
10.    Animal Welfare Action Plan - Victorian Government
11.    Animal Ethics Regulations, Guidelines, Codes, Training & Information

Available from the web at:
http://www.intranet.monash/researchadmin/start/ethics/animal/moreinfo/updates

Providing support to the vulnerable

Leeroy William in The Canberra Times.

Read article here.

Association between fetal fraction on cell-free DNA testing and first trimester markers for pre-eclampsia

Daniel Rolnik, Fabricio Costa, Tim Lee et al. published in Ultrasound in Obstetrics and Gynaecology.

Read article here.

Obtaining high quality transcriptome data from formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded diagnostic prostate tumor specimens

Melissa Southey et al. published in Laboratory Investigation.

Read article here.

The 100 most cited articles in the endovascular management of intracranial aneurysms

Ronil Chandra et al. published in the Journal of Neurointerventional Surgery.

Read article here.

Impact of delivered tidal volume on the occurrence of intraventricular haemorrhage in preterm infants during positive pressure ventilation in the delivery room

Graeme Polglase et al. published in Archives of Disease in Childhood. Fetal and Neonatal Edition.

Read article here.

Medical student psychological distress and academic performance

Claire Dendle et al. published in Medical Teacher.

Read article here.

The Breathing Effort of Very Preterm Infants at Birth

Stuart Hooper et al. published in the Journal of Paediatrics.

Read article here.

Effects of vitamin D supplementation on inflammatory markers in heart failure: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials

Alexander Rodriguez et al. published in Scientific Reports.

Read article here.

FANCM and RECQL genetic variants and breast cancer susceptibility: relevance to South Poland and West Ukraine

Tu Nguyen-Dumont, Melissa Southey et al. published in BMC Medical Genetics.

Read article here.

The consequences of preterm birth and chorioamnionitis on brainstem respiratory centres: implications for neurochemical development and altered functions by inflammation and prostaglandins

Vanesa Stojanovska, Graeme Polglase et al. published in Frontiers in Cellular Neuroscience.

Read article here.

Transplantation of Whole Bone Marrow Indicates that Bone Marrow Very Small Embryonic-like Cells Do Not Contribute to Endometrial Lineages

Caroline Gargett et al. published in Stem Cells.

Read article here.

Age Effects on Cerebral Oxygenation and Behavior in Children with Sleep Disordered Breathing

Rosemary Horne et al. published in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.

Read article here.