Monash University Medical School students graduated from its rural campus, furthering its commitment to increasing the number of doctors in rural Australia.

The students, who began their studies in 2008, graduated this month as the first ever cohort from the Monash University Medical School at the Gippsland campus, a purpose-built facility designed to specifically address the shortage of doctors and health professionals in regional areas of Australia.

This rural medicine approach speaks to the Canadian medical system, as we see rural medicine shortages across the country.

Professor Judi Walker, Head of the Monash University Medical School of Rural Health – which oversees the operations of the Gippsland Monash University Medical School – said the graduation marked an important milestone not only for graduating students, but for Monash University’s increasing profile as a provider of regionally-focused health and medical education.

“The Gippsland Monash University Medical School has allowed us to extend our education and research footprint even further, and enhance our medical curriculum with an understanding of the specific needs of communities outside of big cities,” Professor Walker said.

“The result is a medical school that brings together local and global knowledge to produce medical graduates with the insight required to not only meet the challenge of working in regional areas, but to make an exceptional contribution to any community they work in, be it at home or abroad.”

Given the increasing research suggesting the location of medical training and clinical placements has a strong influence on where graduates choose to work, Professor Walker said Monash University expected the Gippsland Monash University Medical School would make a growing contribution to increasing the number of doctors in regional Australia in the years to come.

“While our training equips graduates equally well for practice in the city or country, we are seeing more students recognising the many opportunities of working in regional areas as a result of their time in Gippsland.”

Since being opened just four years ago, the Gippsland Monash University Medical School has quickly built a profile as one of the country’s leading graduate medical schools, attracting students from across Australia and around the world.

From an initial cohort of 57, student numbers at the School have grown strongly, with 100 students expected to commence their Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS) next year. Alongside returning second, third and fourth-years, the Gippsland Monash University Medical School will have a total enrolment of almost 350 students in 2012.

Before being accepted into the Gippsland Monash University Medical School, students are required to have successfully completed an undergraduate degree, with the first graduating cohort coming from a diverse range of backgrounds, including psychology, engineering, nursing, pharmacy, physiotherapy, journalism, biomedical sciences, arts and social sciences.

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Monash University Medical School researchers were acknowledged by United States Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton for a life-saving new drug concept at the Saving Lives at Birth global challenge forum held last month in Washington, D.C.

Following the forum, at which Monash University Medical School researcher Dr. Michelle McIntosh spoke, the research team received funding to engineer a drug that could save the lives of mothers of newborn children in developing countries.

The project has the potential to dramatically reduce the number of women dying, approximately 150,000 women per year, at childbirth from postpartum hemorrhage. Postpartum hemorrhage is a massive and potentially fatal loss of blood after delivery of a baby.

The team of researchers at the Monash University Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences and the Monash University Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences, will attempt to develop the drug oxytocin for aerosol delivery. Oxytocin is the drug of choice for treating postpartum haemorrhage.

The project was recognised as the most significant of all the projects presented at the two-day forum through a ‘peer award’.

At the forum, Secretary Clinton highlighted the potential game-changing impact of the Monash University Medical School project.

In her speech, Hillary Clinton said: “If you are dealing with the very common problem of bleeding during childbirth the most common treatment, a drug called oxytocin, is delivered by injection.

“Converting that medical intervention into an aerosol spray that can be inhaled through a simple disposable device immediately after childbirth – no needles, no cold storage, no bloodborne diseases – has the potential to save many lives,” said Secretary Clinton.

Monash University Medical School‘s Dr. McIntosh said she and her team were delighted to be recognised by Secretary Clinton and their colleagues around the world.

“It’s a great honour to be acknowledged for our work on this global campaign affecting third-world countries. I feel privileged to be able to present our potentially game-changing idea to such an audience, including the US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton.

“The funding will be used to develop our research project into a viable treatment which could stop unnecessary loss of life in developing countries, where currently, one woman bleeds to death every three minutes,” said Dr. McIntosh.

A partnership between the US Agency for International Development (USAID), the Government of Norway, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Grand Challenges Canada and The World Bank, ‘Saving Lives at Birth’ sought “innovative prevention and treatment approaches for pregnant women and newborns in rural, low-resource settings”.

Currently, oxytocin can be delivered only by injection and must be kept refrigerated. This poses numerous barriers for women in rural areas, where refrigeration is limited and needle-stick injuries have the potential to increase the transmission of blood-borne viruses. Administration of oxytocin via injection also means a trained medical person must be present at the time of birth, however, in developing countries less than 50 per cent of women give birth in a hospital.

Dr. McIntosh said she and her team would now start work on engineering an oxytocin powder which will allow patients to inhale the drug immediately after childbirth.

“This approach will remove the need for cold-chain storage and will open up the possibility of oxytocin being available to women in situations where highly trained health workers are not available,” Dr. McIntosh explained.

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