Marie Pirotta: Artist in Residence

Farewell to Associate Professor Marie Pirotta, after working in the Department for 22 years.

A Prof Pirotta has made an enormous contribution to the Department and the University over the decades, in both teaching and research. We are most fortunate that Marie will remain involved in the Department. She continues in her other roles as a practising GP in Clifton Hill and the medical advisor for the Health Complaints Commission.

She is delighted to spend more time developing her pastel drawing skills and this photo is of her winning entry “Last three in” for the Surf Coast Shire 2018 calendar – a highly contended competition amongst local artists.

Marie has played various roles in the Department over the years including leading the teaching and advancing primary care research, especially since being awarded her PhD in 2005. While she has diverse research interests, her focus has always been on the use and evidence for complementary medicines. Marie has been awarded approximately $19M in research funding and has authored over 110 peer-reviewed publications. A total of 114 of her academic papers (including 13 NHMRC grants) have been published in prestigious journals such as the Lancet and the BMJ. Marie has had many leadership positions within her discipline and the Department, with major leadership roles in key general practice organisations, for example: as Chair of the RACGP National Steering Committee for Research and as Treasurer for the Australian Association for Academic Primary Care.  She was also the Vice Chair of the RACGP ethics committee.

Within the Department, she has been Chair of the Human Ethics Advisory Group (HEAG), and performed so excellently in this role that she was invited to join the University Human Research Ethics Committee (HREC). She has been the Chair of Examiners and the mentor for academic registrars. She was the Chair of VicReN, the Department’s community-based research network. In this role, she was involved in both fostering research projects amongst the GP members and facilitating links with other researchers who wanted to engage with GPs for their own research. As an honorary Associate Professor, Marie will continue to publish and be available for supervision panels for RHO students and remains a member of VicReN.