August 2019
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Sarah Findlay selected for leadership program in New York
Sarah Findlay, social worker from Broadmeadows Hospital, has been selected to attend the ‘International Enhancement of Social Work Leadership Program’ at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York, and is the first person from Northern Health to ever attend this program. Around Easter time, Associate Director of Allied Health, Penelope Vye, forwarded information on a six week observership program at Mount Sinai Hospital to her team, and Sarah was immediately interested and excited about the opportunity. Knowing that Mount Sinai is an eminent teaching hospital, and having information of their programs that encourage people to come and observe what they did…
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Heart Failure Unit opens today
The newly established Cardiology Heart Failure (CAHF) Unit commenced their ward rounds today, led by Cardiologist Associate Professor Gautam Vaddadi. A/Prof Vaddadi said Northern Hospital Epping has the biggest cohort of heart failure patients of any tertiary hospital in Victoria, admitting over 2,000 heart failure patients per year. “These patients have high mortality and cost the community a lot in terms of resourcing, both in hospital and out of hospital. Our goal is to keep people well and out of hospital,” he said. “The new unit will help look after these patients better and try to optimise their management, which…
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Family Violence: Breaking Through the Barriers
This morning, we hosted our second Family Violence: At Risk Communities Breaking Through the Barriers half day forum. The speakers included Nicole Lee (Victim Survivors Council), Kaye Rigby (Victorian Centre Against Sexual Assault), Janet Clover (Foundation House), Amanda Dashwood and Linda Hebel (NorthWestern Mental Health) and Pat Jewell (Australian Childhood Foundation). Chief Executive, Siva Sivarajah, opening the forum spoke of how Northern Health has identified family violence as a major health issue. The statistics he quoted were sobering – a quarter of women have experienced at least one incident of violence by an intimate partner, approximately one in five women…
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Vascular surgery team hosts international surgeon for workshop
This week, Dr David Goh and the vascular surgery unit hosted a workshop, inviting experienced vascular surgeon, Dr Arne Schwindt, from Germany. The purpose of the workshop was to introduce new techniques and technologies used for the treatment of Type II endoleaks (leaks that can happen after endovascular aneurysm repair (EVAR)). Traditionally, these cases have been referred to the interventional radiology department, however, increasingly, this has become part of a vascular surgeon’s skill set. “It’s an excellent skill for vascular surgeons to have, as it leads to more familiarity with micro catheters and complex endovascular work,” David Goh said. Dr…
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Microwave Ablation: Cutting edge technology in the north
On 25 July 2019, Wumin Chen entered Northern Hospital with a cancerous lesion the size of a large button in his liver. The anxious expression on his wife and son’s face said it all. Thanks to a minimally-invasive liver microwave ablation procedure performed by Interventional Radiologist, Dr Terry Kok, the tumour was successfully treated and, after an overnight stay, he was well enough to go home. This was the second such microwave ablation procedure performed at Northern Health using the latest generation Thermosphere microwave…
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Innovation Winner: Simon Bertoli
Digital Design Lead for Organisational Capability, Simon Bertoli, has only worked at Northern Health for six months, but has already proven he is committed to making a change and bringing fresh ideas to the organisation. His efforts were recognised at the recent Quarterly Staff Recognition Awards, where he received the award for ‘Innovation’. Simon said winning this award meant a lot to him. “Having a supportive director, manager and colleagues who believe in me and what I can do for the organisation allows me to feel comfortable sharing ideas, knowing they will be met with genuine interest and thought,” he…
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Leading maternal health research at Northern Health
Associate Professor Lisa Hui is undertaking leading maternal health research at Northern Health. Lisa’s research aims to study the effect of blood thinning medications on placental health, and the release of cell-free DNA from the placenta. “We’re interested in this research question as many women are now using a revolutionary new prenatal screening test based on detecting placental DNA in the mother’s blood to detect fetal chromosome conditions. It has become apparent that women who are on blood-thinning medications are more likely to have a failed result because it somehow interferes with release of DNA from the placenta.” Lisa and…
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Carolyn Downing on our Postgraduate Nursing Program
As Operations Director for Specialist Clinics, Carolyn Downing oversees our clinics at both Northern and Broadmeadows Hospital, as well as Craigieburn Centre. She sees her role as supporting the teams for great patient care, and, with over 200,000 presentations to the clinics, to make sure “we get our patients to the right place at the right time”. She started at Northern Health as a Registered Nurse in her graduate year in 1998 and soon realised Emergency Department (ED) nursing was her calling. She completed her Graduate Certificate of Emergency Nursing while working in our ED, and then the Graduate Diploma…