School Profile
The University of Melbourne has moved to boost regional and public health research and health care workforce education by establishing Australia's first School of Population Health. The new school has a strategic focus on population health approaches in clinical medicine, Indigenous health and health care services, as well as in traditional public health areas. It has a prime brief to help educate undergraduates, postgraduates, clinicians in all sectors of the health care industry, scientists, professionals and leaders in population health.
Founding Chair, Professor Terry Nolan, sees the new School developing a distinctive identity in population health research and teaching, and attracting a critical mass of population health scholars to the University. He says the School will coordinate and enhance research that addresses issues of population health and the health-related social sciences and medical humanities.
"Researchers in the School will discover critical knowledge needed to inform and influence debate on key public health issues such as the ethical challenges generated by modern genomics, health system organisation and funding, service innovation in rural communities and in Indigenous populations, and evaluation of new technologies in the community.
"Our activities involve a network of groups within the University and in other public health programs in Victoria, affiliated Health Care Networks, other universities, State and Federal government departments and the private sector. "Research links within the University that we plan to expand and develop include collaborations in the faculties of Arts, Economics and Commerce, and Science, and also in the Office for Environmental Programs," he says.
Professor Nolan says research and teaching in the School is expected to underpin a strengthening of health care system capacities and services, improve quality and equity of care generally and help to enhance rural and Indigenous health.
"We also have an important role to play in promoting health in Asia and in other regions where Universitas 21 universities are active, and in collaboration with the World Health Organisation," he says.
The founding element of the School is a new Department of Public Health.
Based in the new Department are the Epidemiology and Biostatistics Unit, the Program Evaluation Unit and the Centre for Genetic Epidemiology.
With the Centre for Genetic Epidemiology the Department brings under its roof several strategic national projects focusing on the role of genetic and environmental factors in the cause, course and outcome of diseases (including the Australian Breast Cancer Family Study) and the NHMRC Twin Registry headed by Professor John Hopper.
Other key elements in the Department are the joint Faculty of Arts and Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Science's Centre for Health and Society, the Centre for International Mental Health, the Sexual Health Unit based at the Melbourne Sexual Health Centre, the Key Centre for Women's Health in Society and the Diabetes Vaccine Development Centre.
Substantial funding contributions from the Australian Government Department of Health and Aging, and the Victorian Department of Human Services have aided the establishment of the School.