After more than five years at Oxford University, one of the world’s leading lights in medicine is returning home to Australia to take up a position at Bond University.
With the help of a four million dollar National Health and Medical Research Council’s Australia Fellowship, Professor Paul Glasziou of Oxford University will join the team of leading academics at Bond University’s Faculty of Health Sciences and Medicine, not far from where he did his original medical studies in Brisbane.
In 2003, the Bulletin Magazine named Professor Paul Glasziou one of Australia’s Top 10 Smartest People. Based at Oxford University’s Department of Primary Health Care, he is internationally renowned as Director of the Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine (EBM) and Editor of the Evidence-Based Medicine Journal.
Professor Glasziou will use his fellowship in Australia to undertake research to contribute new knowledge about the process and implementation of evidence-based medicine. This research will help to effectively close the gap between best available evidence and current clinical practice.
“This grant program is making significant inroads to reversing the ‘brain drain’ by encouraging world renowned Australians, like Professor Glasziou, to return and share their expertise with our next generation of leaders,” said Faculty Dean, Professor Chris Del Mar.
“Our cutting edge Bachelor of Medicine Bachelor of Surgery degree has been specifically designed around the principles of EBM, which has literally changed the face of medical practice in recent years, both here in Australia and overseas.
“For our students to have access to the world’s foremost authority in the field is a coup for our medical faculty.
“We are absolutely delighted that Professor Glasziou has chosen Bond University for the EBM key international centre.”
Bond University’s resident EBM authority, Professor Jenny Doust, has worked together with Professor Del Mar and Professor Glasziou over many years, on numerous research projects and studies in EBM, and they have published research papers and books together.
Nicknamed the ‘dynamic duo’ by industry colleagues, Professor Del Mar and Professor Glasziou co-authored two seminal reviews on the use of antibiotics for acute respiratory infections which challenge their widespread prescription.
Professor Del Mar has a long and distinguished history with the Cochrane Library - an online resource library that gives medical practitioners instant access to the very latest clinical trials and reviews.
Since joining Bond in 2005 to launch the new undergraduate medical program, Professor Del Mar has continued his involvement with the international Cochrane Collaboration by establishing the Acute Respiratory Infections Collaborative Review Group at the university’s Gold Coast campus, and Professor Glasziou is one of the editors.
On the other side of the world, Professor Glasziou continued teaching at Oxford University, heading up the Centre for EBM, publishing over 100 scientific papers and authoring six books, all while still working part-time in general practice.
These prestigious Australia Fellowships are awarded to researchers with exemplary record of achievements in a variety of fields. The recipients of these fellowships have been recognised as having made an outstanding contribution to health and medical research and as a leading researcher in their field.
Taking up the five-year Fellowship position at Bond, funded by the Australia Fellowship Awards program, Professor Glasziou will focus on turning evidence into best practice, and also making inroads into the science of monitoring clinical conditions.
Professor Glasziou will commence at Bond University early in 2010.