Welcome BMedSc(Hons) students 2017

2017 BMedSc(Hons) students at SCS

Welcome to our Bachelor of Medical Science Honours students for 2017.

This year we have a record 43 students who have chosen to complete their research at the School of Clinical Sciences at Monash Health (SCS).

SCS BMedSc(Hons) student wins highest Faculty prize

School of Clinical Sciences at Monash Health (SCS) student Ms Sasha Skinner is the highest achieving BMedSc(Hons) student in the entire 2016 cohort.

Supervised by Dr Ryan Hodges, The Ritchie Centre, Hudson Institute of Medical Research and the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Monash University, Sasha’s project investigated experimental intra-amniotic carbon dioxide insufflation for fetal surgery to improve outcomes of babies with spina bifida.

“Prenatal repair of spina bifida improves neurological outcomes and prevents intracranial complications at birth,” said Sasha.

“To reduce significant maternal morbidity and high rates of preterm birth associated with open fetal surgery, fetoscopic spina bifida repair is proposed as a minimally invasive alternative.”

“Partial amniotic carbon dioxide insufflation (PACI) is one method to overcome the technical challenges of operating endoscopically in amniotic fluid.”

PACI involves partially draining amniotic fluid and insufflating the uterus with carbon dioxide—PACI increases space, improves visualisation and allows the use of surgical glues.

Sasha said that evidence of fetal safety during PACI is not well established and in sheep models, PACI causes fetal hypercapnia and acidosis.

“The effects of PACI on fetal-placental circulation or the developing fetal brain are unknown,” said Sasha.

“My project assessed the effect of PACI, at clinically used insufflation pressures, on the fetal-placental circulation, fetal and maternal acid base status and on the developing fetal brain in a sheep model.”

“We found PACI has detrimental implications for fetal physiology including large reductions in uterine blood flow, severe fetal hypercapnia, acidosis, hypoxia and lactic acidosis, increased fetal heart rate and blood pressure.”

Sasha’s study found that PACI leads to cerebrovascular changes on fetal brain histology and should not be performed in human fetuses until further studies have addressed these safety concerns in animal models.

Sasha said her BMedSc(Hons) year had sparked a passion and research will undoubtedly be something she remains involved in for many years to come.

“I have learnt so much, not just about science and the laboratory, but also an unexpectedly large amount about my personal ambitions and capabilities.”

“I have had a fantastic year and thoroughly enjoyed working with such passionate and dedicated people.”

BMedSc(Hons) student success 2016

BMedSc(Hons) student Masad Alfayadh

Read HERE about our extremely talented cohort of BMedSc(Hons) students who completed projects at the School of Clinical Sciences (SCS) this year.

BMedSc(Hons)—overseas travel and a chance to study at one of the world’s best universities

 BMedSc(Hons) students Jo and Viv in Oxford

The opportunity to live and study overseas at one of the world’s leading universities for medical research was the drawcard for two Monash medical students completing their Bachelor of Medical Science (Honours) at the University of Oxford this year.

School of Clinical Sciences at Monash Health (SCS) medical students Viveka Nainani and Joanna Wang are currently in Oxford, undertaking research projects in vaccine safety and neonatal infections.

“I’m investigating the clinical implications of adverse effects following immunisation with the meningococcal B vaccine,” said Viveka.

“I’m aiming to create a protocol demonstrating what to do when an infant enters A&E with a fever who has been vaccinated in the past 48 hours.”

Viveka and the research team hope this will reduce clinical uncertainty and unnecessary invasive investigations, and thus reduce healthcare consumption.

Also interested in paediatrics, Joanna Wang is examining neonatal enterococcal infections and related healthcare-associated risk factors using data collected through neonIN, an international collaborative neonatal surveillance network.

“Our goal is to reduce rates of neonatal enterococcal infections, which are responsible for a significant burden of morbidity and mortality in these babies,” said Joanna.

“We hope that through identifying trends in neonatal enterococcal infections and related healthcare-associated risk factors, we can identify areas which may be effectively targeted through appropriate prevention and management strategies, thus decreasing infection rates.”

Viveka is interested in pursuing paediatrics as a career specialty and is currently working with the Oxford Vaccine Group, at the forefront of research in both paediatrics and vaccination.

“It's been an incredible opportunity to live and study abroad for 8 months and experience the differences in culture and healthcare overseas.”

Travelling overseas from the UK, learning a range of new research skills, gaining some clinical experience in a different healthcare system and having the opportunity to speak at a UK conference are among the highlights so far for Viveka. 

“Oxford is a beautiful place and has an atmosphere perfect for study and research,” said Joanna.
“Aside from my project, this whole year has been a really great experience—beautiful place, great people, engaging cultural exchange, fun travels.”

Joanna is supervised by, Monash University’s Dr Kenneth Tan and Dr Mark Anthony, neonatologist at the University of Oxford.  Viveka’s supervisors are Associate Professor Jim Buttery, Director of Research and Head of Infection and Immunity at Monash Children’s Hospital and Dr Matthew Snape, consultant in general paediatrics and vaccinology at the University of Oxford.


Viveka and Joanna will return to SCS next year to complete their final year of medical school.

BMedSc(Hons) Information Night at MMC, TONIGHT

Tuesday 12 July, 5.30-7.30pm
Seminar Room 1, TRF at Monash Medical Centre

Enhance your MBBS experience, help people, get into research, make discoveries, and give yourself career options with Honours in the School of Clinical Sciences at Monash Health (SCS) and Hudson Institute of Medical Research. We have a wealth of research expertise and dedicated researchers with strong clinical connections who are experienced mentors for students.

More information here.   Registration here (for catering purposes).

Call for presenters at BMedSci (Hons) Information Session - Tuesday 12 July, 5.30pm

Information session for prospective 2017 BMedSci (Hons) students at the School of Clinical Sciences at Monash Health.

SCS will be running a Bachelor of Medical Science (Hons) information evening to recruit BMedSci students for 2017 - all supervisors are invited to attend. This is a great opportunity for you to make contact with a potential student.

Tuesday 14^th July, 5.30pm-7.30pm. 

Seminar Room 1, Translational Research Facility (TRF), Monash Medical Centre

Format: rapid fire presentations (1 slide / 2 minutes) from major research groups at the precinct. There will be plenty of opportunity for questions and answers, and to informally mix with potential students afterwards.

If you would like to give a talk to students (between 5.30-6.30pm) please notify Pianca Schwarz (pianca.schwarz@monash.edu) by Friday 1 July, 2016.

Lodge of Australia Felix No.1 (Freemasons Victoria) - Cancer Research Grants for students

The Lodge of Australia Felix No. 1 is part of Freemasons Victoria and offers two Cancer Research Grants of $750 each for the current funding period.   The submission deadline is Friday ​1 J​ul​y ​2016 (9pm).

The Cancer Research Grants are to be used to cover travel costs and registration fees of postgraduate students (Honours, Master or Ph.D.) for presenting a poster at a scientific conference in Australia. The scientific content of the poster needs to address cancer research.

​Please find attached a promotional flyer and a copy of the application form here.

For further information please contact the Secretary of the Lodge of Australia Felix No. 1, Graham Dines (gdines@bigpond.net.au).

Monash medical student’s research could save millions

Austin Lee

Final year medical student Austin Lee was selected to present two posters at the Australian and New Zealand College of Anaesthetists (ANZCA) Annual Scientific Meeting (ASM) in Auckland last week. 

Austin’s research findings have significant implications for health care costs as well as patient monitoring during sedation.

Undertaken during his Bachelor of Medical Science year, the School of Clinical Sciences at Monash Health (SCS) student was part of a research team that investigated whether pre-operative saline given through a drip can prevent low blood pressure during colonoscopy.

“Patients undergoing this procedure are at risk of low blood pressure because of pre-operative fasting, the dehydrative effect of bowel preparation, and the vasodilatory effect of sedative drugs,” said Austin.

“We undertook at randomised controlled trial, recruiting 150 patients, with either 2 ml/kg or 20 ml/kg of saline given intravenously to each patient.”

The randomised controlled trial found that large amounts of saline made absolutely no difference in blood pressure, thirst or post-operative morbidities including drowsiness, nausea and headaches.

“We estimate that in Australia, the annual cost of intravenous fluids administration during colonoscopy costs $7.14 million,” said Austin.

“Our study has shown that routine administration of fluid is not indicated, and therefore contributes unnecessarily to the cost of care.” 

At the ASM Austin also presented his findings of a survey of anaesthetists who were questioned about their methods of sedation during endoscopy (gastroscopy, colonoscopy and endoscopic retrograde cholangio-pancreatography).

“409 anaesthetists responded to our questions about the drugs they used in sedation, their preferred methods of monitoring patients (blood pressure cuff and pulse oximetry) and their use of intravenous fluids during the perioperative period,” said Austin.

Prof Leslie and Austin
at the conference last week

“The survey found that propofol is the drug of choice for endoscopy sedation administered by specialist anaesthetists in Australia, and that a maximum depth of sedation commensurate with general anaesthesia is routinely targeted by the majority of respondents for all procedures except for elective gastroscopy.” 

Significantly, Austin’s research revealed that blood pressure was not routinely measured by all respondents which is not compliant with ANZCA policy.   

Austin was ‘ecstatic’ to have had his posters accepted at the ASM and is grateful for the support of his supervisors.

“I thoroughly enjoyed the conference; the talks were very relevant and engaging, and I left feeling inspired about research and its impact on evidence-based medicine,” said Austin.

“I’d like to thank my supervisors, Professor Kate Leslie and Dr Megan Allen, for their teaching, guidance, and patience, and for their smiles, laughter, and encouragement that made these research projects an absolute blast.”


“I could not have asked for a better experience, and I highly recommend a BMedSc (Hons) project.” 

BMedSc information night at MMC, 12 July

For more information, available research projects and registration, read here.

New short course! Introduction to Surgical Research starting in June 2016

Mr James Lee is convening a new short course, "Introduction to surgical research", starting in June 2016. The course is designed for:

• Early postgraduate research students
• SET trainees
• Pre-SET trainees
• Interns and Residents
• Medical Students – Year 3+ / BMedSci / Honours students recommended (1st and 2nd years please enquire)

• Link: www.med.monash.edu.au/surgery/alfred/teaching/sc-intro-surgery.html

Call for Research Projects for BMedSc(Hons) 2016 Feb Indonesian intake

The BMedSc (Hons) office is calling for a limited selection of ~30 projects to be included in a project booklet that will be sent to prospective medical students from the University of Indonesia (currently 7 potential candidates). The aim is for the Indonesian students and Monash supervisors to have agreed on a project before the students arrive in Australia in mid February. 

• Deadline to submit projects for the mid-year International cohort is: 5pm Thursday December 17^th, 2015 to bmedsc@monash.edu
• All candidates from the University of Indonesia have instruction in English and will have finished their third year of medical studies (equivalent to at least the end of the second year Monash MBBS).
• These students will be fully integrated with the domestic MBBS students undertaking their BMedSc(Hons) from February 2016 until November 2016, but will also have access to the Student Academic Support Unit (SASU) who provide assistance with written English language skills.
• Information regarding eligibility requirements, course structure and outline are at: http://www.monash.edu.au/pubs/2016handbooks/courses/M3701.html
• An orientation program will be held in Feb 2016 including EndNote, writing skills, literature search skills and other learning workshops. Student attendance at the orientation program is mandatory.
• The BMedSc program (MED4301 and MED4302) consists of the following assessment tasks:

1.     Progress report

2.     Literature review

3.     2 x Departmental oral presentations

4.     Minor thesis (up to 15,000 words)

5.     Faculty oral and poster presentations

Supervisors are required to meet all costs associated with training the candidate.

We thank you in advance for your involvement in BMedSc(Hons).

For any information about this program, please contact Megan Wallace in the Ritchie Centre.

Winners School of Clinical Sciences BMedSc (Hons) Conference Attendance Prize 2015

In 2015 the School of Clinical Sciences at Monash Health (SCS) received an anonymous donation of $2443 and have put this toward a number of student prizes to contribute to the costs of attending a conference to present the findings of BMedSc projects.

We received 12 applications to be considered for the travel prize. We were very impressed with, and proud of, the depth and breadth of topics covered by BMedSc students. Actually they were all very strong applications.   7 winners of the travel prizes were chosen:

Six prizes to the value of $400

Shuyu Wang. "Epilepsy of Infancy with Migrating Focal Seizures: clinical and genetic analysis of a rare, devastating syndrome in a large cohort of patients". Poster presentation to the Epilepsy Society of Australia meeting. Oct 2015. Adelaide, Australia. Supervised by A/Prof Jim Buttery.

Johnson Ja. "Clinical and familial characterisation of paediatric out-of hospital cardiac arrest survivors". Oral presentation to the Heart Rhythm Congress. Oct 2015. Birmingham, UK. Supervised by Prof James Cameron.

Charlie Wang. "Acute pulmonary embolism in children". Poster presentation to the International Society for Thrombosis and Haemostasis. June 2015. Toronto, Canada. Supervised by A/Prof Andrew Cochrane.

Benjamin McElwee. "Current Utilisation of Diagnostic Imaging for patients with suspected cervical spine injury in the emergency department: A retrospective cohort study." Poster presentation to the Australian College of Emergency Medicine annual scientific meeting. Nov 2015. Brisbane, Australia. Supervised by Dr Diana Egerton-Warburton.

Hector Thomson. "Paediatric anaphylaxis: Are we observing current guidelines?". Poster presentation to the Australian College of Emergency Medicine annual scientific meeting. Nov 2015. Brisbane, Australia. Supervised by Dr Simon Craig.

Tristan McCaughey. "Avoiding HeLa: incorporating a video animation to improve informed consent for induced pluripotent stem cell research" Oral presentation to Translation in Healthcare conference. June 2015. Oxford, UK. Supervised by Dr Christine Chen.

One prize to the value of $50

Zarraar Zia. "The impact of sleep during the last trimester of pregnancy and birth weight". Oral presentation to the Australasian Chronobiology Society 12th annual scientific meeting. Oct 2015. Melbourne, Australia. Supervised by Prof Helen Truby.

Congratulations to the successful prize winners.

Kind regards

Tony White

Bachelor of Medical Science (Honours) - why is research important?

BMedSc coordinator Dr Tony White
at last week's information session

Why should you undertake a BMedSci Honours year  at the School of Clinical Sciences at Monash Health (SCS)?

• broaden your career options

• ignite your passion for a career in medical research - medicine is the science-based healthcare profession

• make discoveries that will directly help patients - in a unique translational research environment in Victoria's LARGEST health system - every medical speciality 'under one roof' at Monash Health

• we have the broadest range of clinical departments anywhere in the University

• work with the best - our supervisors have international reputations for excellence in a huge range of fields 

• a chance to get published, or present your work at major national events

• SCS offers a unique clinical bridging program including weekly seminars - plus weekly bedside tutes to keep up your skills

• it looks great on your CV!! 

If you're an MBBS student and want to stand out from the crowd, read more about the BMedSci here