Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences of the

University of Melbourne The University of Melbourne is a public research university located in Melbourne, Australia. Founded in 1853, it is Australia's second oldest university and the oldest in Victoria. Its main campus is located in Parkville, an inner suburb ...

has the largest number of post-graduate enrolments in the University of Melbourne and also hosts the most school departments and centres of all University of Melbourne Faculties, consisting of 52 faculty sub-organisations. In 2021, Melbourne Medical School was ranked 25th in the world and second in Australia in the 2021 QS Subject Rankings.

History

The University of Melbourne’s School of Medicine was founded in 1858 by

Anthony Brownless Sir Anthony Colling Brownless, , (19 January 1817 – 3 December 1897) was an English-Australian physician and educationist, chancellor of the University of Melbourne. Biography Brownless was the only son of Anthony Brownless, of Paynetts House, ...

, a graduate of the University of St Andrews School of Medicine. By Federation in 1901, the school had become the Faculty of Medicine. When the Murray Committee reported in 1956 on the inadequacies of the nation's tertiary education sector, the mood to change medical education accelerated. The University was central to the revolution to medicalise society through the expansion of medical services. During the decades to follow, the University was the only tertiary institution to mentor the development of a number of medical institutions in South-East Asia and here in Victoria, the Monash Medical School. In 1989 the University's Faculty of Dental Science amalgamated with Medicine to become the Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry and later expanded again to include Physiotherapy, Psychology and Nursing. The University established Australia's first School of Population and Global Health in 2001 and then the School of Rural Health in 2002. As of 2016, the faculty also includes the School of Social Work (having moved from the University of Melbourne Faculty of Arts) as well as the Nossal Institute for Global Health. Jones, R. L., "Humanity's Mirror: 150 Years of Anatomy in Melbourne", Haddington Press, 2007. *In line with the Melbourne Curriculum (formerly the 'Melbourne Model'), the Faculty provides the Bachelor of Biomedicine, a three-year, full-time degree that offers 12 majors across biomedical disciplines. *For the year of 2016 The University of Melbourne attracted more nationally competitive research funding than any other Australian university *In the year of 2010, Medical and Health Sciences at the University of Melbourne achieved the maximum world rating (5) in the Excellence in Research for Australia Report (scale of 1 o 5) in the areas of:PDF, Excellence in Research for Australia Report 2010
Australian Research Council, Archive.arc.gov.au **Medical and Health Sciences **Medical Biochemistry and Metabolomics **Cardiovascular Medicine and Haematology **Clinical Sciences Dentistry **Immunology **Neurosciences **Oncology and Carcinogenesis **Ophthalmology and Optometry **Pharmacology and Pharmaceutical Sciences **Medical Physiology *The Melbourne School of Psychological Sciences which forms part of the Faculty is one of the oldest and largest departments of psychology in Australia with its first paper on Psychology written in February 1888 and the Department of Psychology being founded in 1946 *In 2011 the Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences introduced the Doctor of Physiotherapy as Australia’s first three-year entry to practice graduate level program *The Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences is the University of Melbourne’s largest faculty

Faculty structure

The Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences encompasses several Schools directly beneath it. Within each School, there are also several Departments, Research Centres, and Institutes that are contained. Each Department, Research Centre, and Institute can also contain several Research Unit sub-organisations which focus on specific research areas. An overview of the Faculty Schools and structure are as follows:

Melbourne Medical School

* Department of Clinical Pathology * Department of Critical Care * Department of Medicine and Radiology * Department of Surgery * Department of Psychiatry * Department of Paediatrics * Department of General Practice * Department of Rural Health * Department of Medical Education * Department of Obstetrics & Gynaecology *Mobile Learning Unit

Melbourne Dental School

Melbourne School of Health Sciences

* Department of Audiology & Speech Pathology * Department of Nursing ** Centre for Psychiatric Nursing * Department of Social Work * Department of Physiotherapy ** Centre for Health, Exercise and Sports Medicine * Department of Optometry and Vision Sciences

Melbourne School of Population and Global Health

* Centre for Epidemiology and Biostatistics * Centre for Health Equity * Centre for Health Policy * Centre for Mental Health * Nossal Institute for Global Health

Melbourne School of Psychological Sciences

* University Psychology Clinic

School of Biomedical Sciences

* Department of Anatomy & Neuroscience * Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology * Department of Microbiology & Immunology ** Microbiological Diagnostic Unit * Department of Pharmacology and Therapeutics * Department of Physiology

Faculty Institutes, Centres and Departments

* Health & Biomedical Informatics Centre * Melbourne Poche Centre for Indigenous Health * Melbourne Neuroscience Institute * Doherty Institute * Centre for Youth Mental Health * Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research (WEHI) * Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health * Medical Bionics Department * The Sir Peter MacCallum Department of Oncology *

Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre The Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, also known as the Peter MacCallum Cancer Institute and commonly abbreviated as Peter Mac, is an Australian oncology research institute, cancer treatment and professional oncologist training centre located in M ...

Burnet Institute The Burnet Institute is an Australian medical institute that combines medical research in the laboratory and the field, with public health action to address major health issues affecting disadvantaged communities in Australia, and internationall ...

Murdoch Childrens Research Institute The Murdoch Children's Research Institute (MCRI) is an Australian paediatric medical research institute located in Melbourne, Victoria, affiliated with the Royal Children's Hospital and the University of Melbourne. The institute has six research ...

St. Vincent's Institute of Medical Research St Vincent's Institute of Medical Research (SVI) is an independent Australian medical research institute located in , Melbourne, Victoria. The Institute conducts medical research into the cause, prevention and treatment of diseases that are co ...

Research

The University of Melbourne was ranked ninth in the world in clinical, pre-clinical and health subjects by the 2018

QS World University Rankings ''QS World University Rankings'' is an annual publication of university rankings by Quacquarelli Symonds (QS). The QS system comprises three parts: the global overall ranking, the subject rankings (which name the world's top universities for th ...

. The Faculty is highly active with over 1400 researchers in eight broad research domains encompassing the breadth of medicine, dentistry and the health sciences. As of 2016, some examples of research outcomes from the University of Melbourne School of Medicine, Dentistry, and Health Sciences include the

Stentrode Stentrode (Stent-electrode recording array) is a small stent-mounted electrode array permanently implanted into a blood vessel in the brain, without the need for open brain surgery. It is in clinical trials as a brain–computer interface (BCI) f ...

a collaboration between the University of Melbourne, the Royal Melbourne Hospital and the Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health,University of Melbourne joint project to create the

and prosthetic body parts that can simulate touch sensations to amputees. The Ultrasound Education Group (UEG) is a research and education group within the Department of Surgery, founded by Alistair and Colin Royse in 2004. UEG’s research topics are transthoracic echocardiogram; transesophageal echocardiography for

cardiac surgery Cardiac surgery, or cardiovascular surgery, is surgery on the heart or great vessels performed by cardiac surgeons. It is often used to treat complications of ischemic heart disease (for example, with coronary artery bypass grafting); to co ...

; clinical point of care diagnostic ultrasound for

heart The heart is a muscular Organ (biology), organ in most animals. This organ pumps blood through the blood vessels of the circulatory system. The pumped blood carries oxygen and nutrients to the body, while carrying metabolic waste such as ca ...

vascular The blood vessels are the components of the circulatory system that transport blood throughout the human body. These vessels transport blood cells, nutrients, and oxygen to the tissues of the body. They also take waste and carbon dioxide away f ...

lung The lungs are the primary organs of the respiratory system in humans and most other animals, including some snails and a small number of fish. In mammals and most other vertebrates, two lungs are located near the backbone on either side of ...

abdomen The abdomen (colloquially called the belly, tummy, midriff, tucky or stomach) is the part of the body between the thorax (chest) and pelvis, in humans and in other vertebrates. The abdomen is the front part of the abdominal segment of the to ...

, invasive procedures. Other areas of research include

cardiothoracic surgery Cardiothoracic surgery is the field of medicine involved in surgical treatment of organs inside the thoracic cavity — generally treatment of conditions of the heart (heart disease), lungs ( lung disease), and other pleural or mediastinal str ...

; cardiothoracic anaesthesia; postoperative quality of recovery in surgery; and self-directed learning with

ultrasound Ultrasound is sound waves with frequencies higher than the upper audible limit of human hearing. Ultrasound is not different from "normal" (audible) sound in its physical properties, except that humans cannot hear it. This limit varies ...

simulators A simulation is the imitation of the operation of a real-world process or system over time. Simulations require the use of models; the model represents the key characteristics or behaviors of the selected system or process, whereas the ...

. UEG research outcomes include: * Patients in heart surgery have better probabilities of survival if

arteries An artery (plural arteries) () is a blood vessel in humans and most animals that takes blood away from the heart to one or more parts of the body (tissues, lungs, brain etc.). Most arteries carry oxygenated blood; the two exceptions are the pu ...

from their

chest wall The thoracic wall or chest wall is the boundary of the thoracic cavity. Structure The bony skeletal part of the thoracic wall is the rib cage, and the rest is made up of muscle, skin, and fasciae. The chest wall has 10 layers, namely (from sup ...

and arms are used to replumb their heart, instead of leg veins. By scrutinising 51,000 Australian patients, Melbourne researchers discovered the risk of dying prematurely was at least 22 per cent higher if any leg vein was used in

coronary Coronary () may, as shorthand in English, be used to mean: * Coronary circulation, the system of arteries and veins in mammals ** Coronary artery disease **Coronary occlusion ** A myocardial infarction, a heart attack As adjective * Referring to ...

bypass surgery Bypass surgery refers to a class of surgery involving rerouting a tubular body part. Types include: * Vascular bypass surgery such as coronary artery bypass surgery, a heart operation * Cardiopulmonary bypass, a technique used in coronary artery ...

* Cardiac surgery relies heavily on donated blood because of the high

blood transfusion Blood transfusion is the process of transferring blood products into a person's circulation intravenously. Transfusions are used for various medical conditions to replace lost components of the blood. Early transfusions used whole blood, but mo ...

rates. But a major study of over 5,000 heart surgery patients has now shown that surgeons can safely use significantly less blood than they have been. The potential saving is equivalent to around one blood donation (about 470 millilitres) per moderate-to-high risk patient.

Criticisms

In 2010 the Faculty drew criticism from the Australian Medical Students' Association (AMSA) over its decision to alter its course structure to allow full fee paying domestic student places: "The Bradley report into Higher Education stated that participation by students from low socio-economic backgrounds in higher education in Australia needs to be increased. The Federal Government and Universities have been working hard to achieve this aim, which AMSA strongly supports. So for one of Australia's leading Universities to make an active decision to disadvantage students from low socio-economic backgrounds is very disappointing and will undermine much the good work being done around the nation", said Ross Roberts-Thomson, AMSA President. This alteration from labelling the course from "undergraduate" to "post-graduate" was seen as a way of avoiding the Australian Governments ban on full fee paying places for Undergraduate degrees, and as increasing potential barriers for applicants from low socio-economic background from enrolling.

Present and past Faculty Deans

Below is a List of all Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Science Deans from 1876 to present *1876–1886 George Britton Halford *1886–1889

Harry Brookes Allen Sir Harry Brookes Allen (13 June 1854 – 28 March 1926) was a noted Australian pathologist. Education Harry Brookes Allen was born at Geelong, Victoria, the son of Thomas Watts Allen. He was educated at Flinders School, Geelong, and in 1869 ...

*1890–1896 George Britton Halford *1897–1924

*1925–1929 Richard James Arthur Berry *1929–1938 William Alexander Osborne *1939–1943 Peter MacCallum *1944–1945 Robert Marshall Allan *1946–1947 Roy Douglas Wright *1947–1949 Peter MacCallum *1950–1952 Roy Douglas Wright *1953–1971

Sydney Sunderland Sir Sydney Sunderland CMG (1910–1993) was an eminent Australian scientist in the field of medicine, and was a Foundation Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science. He was educated at Scotch College, Melbourne and Brisbane State High Scho ...

*1971–1977 Sydney Lance Townsend *1978–1985 David Geoffrey Penington *1986–1995 Graeme Bruce Ryan *1995–1997 Gordon James Aitken Clunie *1998–2003 Richard Graeme Larkins *2003 – 2013 James Alexander Angus *2013–2015 Stephen Kevin Smith *2015–2016 Mark Hargreaves *2015–Present

Shitij Kapur Shitij Kapur is a medical doctor and administrator; he is the 21st president and principal of King's College London since 1 June 2021. Previously, he was the dean of the Faculty of Medicine Dentistry and Health Sciences and assistant vice-chanc ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:University of Melbourne Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry And Health Sciences Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences Medical schools in Australia Medical and health organisations based in Victoria (Australia) Science and technology in Melbourne Healthcare in Melbourne Buildings and structures in the City of Melbourne (LGA)