Michelle Leech is the Deputy Dean of Medicine at

Monash University Monash University () is a public research university based in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Named for prominent World War I general Sir John Monash, it was founded in 1958 and is the second oldest university in the state. The university has a ...

and an academic clinician-scientist. Leech oversees the delivery of the Monash medical program and maintains an active research profile and clinical practice as a rheumatologist.

Education

Leech graduated with a Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery (Hons) from

in 1987. She went onto residency training in internal medicine at Prince Henry's Hospital and advanced physician training in rheumatology at Monash Health. Leech completed her PhD at Monash University's Centre for Inflammatory Diseases and the

Fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians Fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians, abbreviated as the post-nominal initials FRACP, is a recognition of the completion of the prescribed postgraduate specialist training programme in internal adult or internal paediatric medicin ...

training program in 2000.

Career

Clinical

Leech is a consultant physician and currently serves as Head of the Rheumatoid Arthritis Clinic at Monash Health. In 2014, Leech was the Medical Director of

Arthritis Australia Arthritis Australia is a charitable not-for-profit organisation advocating for people with arthritis and musculoskeletal conditions. Arthritis Australia awards nearly $1 million in annual funding to researchers engaged in basic and clinical rese ...

. She has served on a number of National Rheumatology Advisory Boards, including

Janssen-Cilag Johnson & Johnson (J&J) is an American multinational corporation founded in 1886 that develops medical devices, pharmaceuticals, and consumer packaged goods. Its common stock is a component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the company i ...

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, Abbvie, UCB, Cortical and MSD.

Research

Leech is part of the rheumatology research group in the School of Clinical Sciences at Monash Health. Her research interests are focused on cytokine biology, glucocorticoid action and cell cycle proteins in the context of

Rheumatoid arthritis Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a long-term autoimmune disorder that primarily affects joints. It typically results in warm, swollen, and painful joints. Pain and stiffness often worsen following rest. Most commonly, the wrist and hands are involv ...

(RA) pathogenesis. She also maintains an active research profile in medical and interprofessional education. Leech has published over 70 peer-reviewed papers. Her most cited papers are: *Leech M, Metz C, Hall P, Hutchinson P, Gianis K, Smith M, Weedon H, Holdsworth SR, Bucala R, Morand EF. Macrophage migration inhibitory factor in rheumatoid arthritis: evidence of proinflammatory function and regulation by glucocorticoids. ''Arthritis & Rheumatism:''. 1999 Aug;42(8):1601-8. According to

Google Scholar Google Scholar is a freely accessible web search engine that indexes the full text or metadata of scholarly literature across an array of publishing formats and disciplines. Released in beta in November 2004, the Google Scholar index includes p ...

, it has been cited 388 times.Google Scholar Author page
Accessed September 27, 2020 *Morand EF, Leech M, Bernhagen J. MIF: a new cytokine link between rheumatoid arthritis and atherosclerosis. ''Nature reviews Drug discovery''. 2006 May;5(5):399-411. According to Google Scholar, this article has been cited 375 times *Leech M, Metz C, Santos L, Peng T, Holdsworth SR, Bucala R, Morand EF. Involvement of macrophage migration inhibitory factor in the evolution of rat adjuvant arthritis. ''Arthritis & Rheumatism'': y. 1998 May;41(5):910-7.According to Google Scholar, this article has been cited 222 times

Administration

, Leech is a Deputy Dean in the Faculty of Medicine at Monash University, Nursing and Health Sciences. Prior to this appointment, Leech was director of the undergraduate medical program at Southern Clinical School (now the School of Clinical Sciences at Monash Health). Other appointments include Deputy Chairperson, Postgraduate Medical Council of Victoria, Vice President, Medical Deans Australia and New Zealand, and member of the Scientific Advisory Committee,

In 2010, Leech received funding from the Department of Health and Ageing to develop interprofessional learning opportunities at Monash University and Southern Health (now Monash Health). In 2017, Monash University's medical program moved from a Bachelor of Medical Science and Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS) to a Doctor of Medicine (MD) under Leech's leadership. Leech also serves on the

Royal Australasian College of Physicians The Royal Australasian College of Physicians (RACP) is a not-for-profit professional organisation responsible for training and educating physicians and paediatricians across Australia and New Zealand. The RACP is responsible for training both ...

examination panel.

Honours, awards and distinctions

Australian Medical Students' Association The Australian Medical Students' Association (AMSA) is an independent association of the 17,000 medical students in Australia. AMSA was formed in 1960 in Brisbane, as a conference organised to network medical students from Australia. It has si ...

, National Teaching Award, 2012

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Leech, Michelle Academic staff of Monash University Monash University alumni Australian rheumatologists Honorary Members of the Order of Australia Fellows of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Women rheumatologists 21st-century women physicians