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A Celebration of Partnership
Department of Medicine - a short history |
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Medical students participating in
bedside teaching during ward
rounds under the guidance of
Professor Richard Lovell, at left,
1957.
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The department was created in 1955 as the first clinical Department of Medicine, with three academic staff and the theoretical responsibility for academic medicine in all the teaching hospitals of Melbourne. It was principally based at The Royal Melbourne Hospital with initial accommodation located on the fourth floor of the Outpatient Department.
On 4 March 1957, the department moved into newly refurbished premises: initially comprising 30, and later 45 beds, and an area for laboratories, offices and a conference room. A sub-unit of 15 beds was also established at the Alfred Hospital.
The inaugural James Stewart Professor of Medicine was Professor Richard Lovell who held the position from 1955 to 1983. |
The creation of the Monash Medical School in 1961 led to the transfer of the sub-unit of the University of Melbourne’s Department of Medicine based at the Alfred Hospital to The Royal Melbourne Hospital. However, the Monash University Department of Medicine was not established at the Alfred Hospital until 1969. In 1964, the RMH re-allocated the Department of Medicine a total of 45 beds, with 23 beds housed in Ward 4 East and 22 beds in Ward 4 North.
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Department of Medicine staff member uses an electromanometer during studies into high blood pressure, 1957.
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Below: Measuring the blood flow in the
arms of a patient to determine the
cause of high blood pressure, 1957.
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A doctor prepares
extracts to measure substances secreted by the adrenal glands, 1957.
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Professor Lovell and a fellow researcher examining the arteries of Fijian people. This was part of a study designed to determine environmental factors which may predispose people to arterial diseases, especially coronary thrombosis, 1957. |
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In 1965, the department moved into the third and fourth floors of the newly built Clinical Sciences Building. The joint RMH and University of Melbourne facility provided laboratories, offices, and seminar rooms for the University Department of Medicine and similar facilities plus an operating theatre for the University Department of Surgery. In addition, accommodation was provided for hospital departments and laboratories. Overcrowding lead to the transfer of the Department’s epidemiology activities to nearby University Faculty of Medicine premises in Barry Street until 1988, when departmental activities expanded into sections of the newly built Centre for Medical Research building at the RMH.
In 1967, a Medical Renal Unit was established to treat the medical aspects of both acute and chronic renal failure in preparation for possible kidney transplantation. Following the appointment of a First Assistant in Clinical Epidemiology within the Department of Medicine in 1974, the research activities in the department expanded to encompasses fields of immediate and practical interest to the hospital administration, including the hospital and post-hospital recovery of patients with strokes and major fractures. Another specialist research appointment within the University Department of Medicine in 1974 was a First Assistant in Clinical Pharmacology. The continued close affiliation of the RMH Pharmacy Department and the University Department of Medicine, led to the creation, in 1976, of a Department of Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics within the hospital.
Major research areas in the 1980s were diabetes and endocrinology, nephrology, rheumatology, epidemiology, Aboriginal health, vascular disease, clinical pharmacology, gastroenterology, oncology and neurology. The department’s emphasis in education was aimed at teaching students to apply knowledge of the pre-clinical sciences to the clinical area, and developing their powers of critical evaluation and problem solving.
Professor Lovell retired in 1983 and was succeeded by Professor Richard Larkins who held the position of Head of Department and James Stewart Professor of Medicine until 1998, when he became Dean of the Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences. A unit of the department was created at the Western Hospital in 1987, and Professor Neville Yeomans appointed as Professor of Medicine to this hospital. Professor Graham Brown has been Head of the Department since 1999 and is also the James Stewart Professor of Medicine. In September 2004, Professor Yeomans took up a position as the foundation Dean of Medicine of the University of Western Sydney and was succeeded by Professor Peter Ebeling, who commenced in December 2005.
In 2003, the department jointly hosted the creation of the Centre for Clinical Research Excellence in Infectious Diseases together with the Victorian Infectious Diseases Service and the RMH. The Centre has special interests in clinical virology, illness in returned travellers, refugees and immigrant health, and the use of computers to assist in decision making for selection of antibiotics. Additional teaching and research units of the department have also been established in Geriatric Medicine, Rehabilitation Medicine and Rheumatic Diseases in association with the Arthritis Foundation of Victoria. There are also strong affiliations with many other hospital units, with many research staff, students and Fellows located in these areas. At The Royal Melbourne Hospital, the department hosts the Cooperative Research Centre for Chronic Inflammatory Diseases, focusing on arthritis and lung disease.
Today, the educational and research activities of the department are primarily based at The Royal Melbourne Hospital and Western Hospital. The scope of the department has expanded to include extensive research and postgraduate teaching programs. The University of Melbourne Clinical School at the RMH is responsible for the teaching of undergraduate medical students, but departmental staff are also involved in the clinical and pre-clinical training of medical students and have an active role in postgraduate education. |
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