The University of Melbourne
Introduction to Melbourne School of Health Sciences
Since its inception in July 2009, the Melbourne School of Health Sciences has embraced the Melbourne Model to create an inter-professional learning community at the forefront of leadership in health sciences education, clinical research, scholarship, professional practice, workforce training and knowledge exchange. The Melbourne School of Health Sciences (MSHS) provides qualifying and postgraduate courses in the disciplines of Nursing, Physiotherapy, Social Work, Audiology and Speech Pathology, and Optometry and Vision Sciences.
VITAL project team cooperate with a rehabilitation expert, Prof. Linda Denehy, head of the Melbourne School of Health Sciences and local engineers to develop a low-cost in-bed cycle for use in ICU to prevent muscle loss and contribute to early mobilisation of ICU patients.
Team of Melbourne School of Health Sciences
About
Prof. Linda Denehy PT, PhD
Linda is the Head of the Melbourne School of Health Sciences and Professor of Physiotherapy at The University of Melbourne, Australia. She has a joint appointment as head of Allied Health Research at Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre. She is a research and academic leader within the profession of Physiotherapy in Australia.
Linda sits on the Board of the Australian College of Optometry and is a member of the Victorian Council of Victorian Health Deans and the Australian Council of Deans of Health Sciences. She is also a member of the American Thoracic Society, Society of Critical Care Medicine and the Thoracic Society of Australia and New Zealand. Linda is a thought leader in rehabilitation in critical illness survivors and in individuals with lung cancer. Her other research interest is in perioperative medicine where she was invited as a member of an international clinical guidelines panel in prehabilitation. She has several international collaborations in research in the USA, UK, China and Vietnam and reviews for national and international competitive granting bodies and for international scientific journals.
Linda has been successful in obtaining funding of over AUD $15million for research into rehabilitation, including as a chief investigator on six NHMRC grants in rehabilitation. She has over 150 publications and has delivered over 40 key-note presentations.
About
Thomas Rollinson BPhysio (Hons)
Thomas graduated from the University of Melbourne in 2011 with a Bachelor of Physiotherapy with Honours. He started as a graduate physiotherapist at the Austin Hospital in Melbourne, Australia and has been the Senior ICU Physiotherapist there for the last eight years. The Austin ICU is a world leading, large, quaternary, metropolitan unit with a mixed medical and surgical population that also includes several specialist services including acute spinal cord injury, liver transplant and prolonged ventilator weaning. The ICU has a strong multi-disciplinary research focus including several major trials investigating rehabilitation in the ICU. Thomas has developed a keen interest in professional education and introduced a simulation training program for physiotherapists working in the intensive care setting. He also developed an online subject for the University of Melbourne on rehabilitation in the acute setting. His research interests include physical activity monitoring of critically ill patients and early rehabilitation interventions and has presented at national and international conferences
