Looking after the health of our community – locally, nationally and globally – is what the research and education done here at the Alfred Research Alliance is all about.
Monash School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine (SPHPM) maintains core skills in epidemiology, biostatistics and large-scale clinical data management, with particular expertise on large epidemiological studies, multicentre clinical trials, clinical registries, evidence synthesis and health social science.
SPHPM’s research programs, spanning the Alliance’s major research themes, include:
- prevention of disease and disability
- health promotion
- improving quality and safety of healthcare
- prolonging disability free survival amongst the elderly
- improving the care of the critically ill and injured, and
- reducing adverse health impacts of the environment.
SPHPM is the lead centre for ASPREE, Australia’s largest clinical trial and also offers an extensive range of higher education programs in public health, from undergraduate MBBS to PhD, at the Alfred precinct.
The Baker Institute‘s Population Health domain – led by Diabetes physician and researcher Professor Jonathan Shaw, Head of Clinical Diabetes – encompasses the Institute’s epidemiological and public health groups, which span:
- clinical diabetes and obesity
- genomics and systems biology
- physical activity
- population health, and
- behavioural epidemiology.
Researchers in this domain are examining the trends in diabetes and obesity prevalence and incidence, novel risk factors at a population level and new therapeutic approaches to preventing and treating diabetes, heart disease and obesity. These include behavioural change interventions, especially those aimed at reducing sedentary time, as well as new drugs and management strategies.
This work is helping to inform policy guidelines, to influence chronic disease management, to offer new, evidence-based therapies for health professionals, and to inform government and health authorities about the scale of these health problems.
ASPREE Trial participant