Eager … Victoria University students Bernard Borg and Alecia Carey can’t wait to take advantage of Sunshine Hospital’s new musculoskeletal sciences facility. 65848 Picture:DAMJANJANEVSKI
By Belinda Nolan
SUNSHINE Hospital will be at the forefront of international medical research after being revealed as the location for a new centre for musculoskeletal studies.
Star can confirm that a new Australian Institute for Musculoskeletal Sciences will be established at the hospital later this year and is set to become a global leader in the study of arthritis, osteoporosis and bone diseases.
The research facility is being developed in partnership Western Health, Victoria University, the University of Melbourne and Oxford University.
The institute has already attracted $1 million in start up funding and will be led by Western Health’s Professor Peter Ebeling, a clinical expert in the field of osteoporosis.
The state-of-the-art centre will include laboratories, clinical research space and a gymnasium, to be used in early intervention studies.
Prof Ebeling said he was excited to bring the revolutionary new centre to Melbourne’s West, where conditions like osteoporosis and arthritis are common.
“It’s certainly a first for the West but there’s not really anything comparable in Victoria,” Prof Ebeling said.
“Our philosophy was very much about bringing the best people, the best experts right here in the western suburbs of Melbourne.”
The institute is being established as part of the new Western Centre for Health Research and Education, a $51.6 million training and research facility which was unveiled at the hospital last week.
The centre is set to open in July and will house 300 people including clinicians, researchers, educators and students.
It is the first purpose-built research and training centre in the West and will feature state-of-the-art facilities including simulation labs designed to give medical students experience in real medical situations, including obstetrics, ICU and keyhole surgery.
Western Health Chairman Ralph Willis said the centre was already attracting a high number of students, with 520 applicants for just 63 intern positions.
Mr Willis said western suburbs students had previously been forced to commute to other areas to access simulation labs, a situation he labelled “inadequate.”
“We understand that there is nothing quite like this centre around Australia,” he said.
“We hope that one day the model which it represents will be used elsewhere…This is a coming of age for Western Health and indeed, for the Western region of Melbourne.”
The centre was jointly funded by the State and Federal Governments, Victoria University and the University of Melbourne.
