Epidemiology & Public Health

Monash University

Monash School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine (SPHPM) maintains core skills in epidemiology, biostatistics and large-scale clinical data management, with particular emphasis on large epidemiological studies, multicentre clinical trials, clinical registries, evidence synthesis and health social science.

With a vision of 'Better health and wellbeing for all,' the School's research programs dovetail with many of the Alliance’s own research themes, including:

• prevention and treatment of disease, disability and injury across the lifespan
• health promotion and creating healthy communities
• improving the cost-effectiveness, quality, and safety of healthcare
• improving health equity
• tackling climate health issues and preparing health systems for climate change

The School also offers an extensive range of education programs in public health, across undergraduate, postgraduate, graduate and short course formats.

Baker Institute

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.