Seen and Heard: Media and Podcasts

Melbourne Medical School researchers and clinicians share their expertise with the public.

Media training continues to take place on Zoom with Luke Waters (ex-SBS). To arrange a session, please email MDHS PR manager Annie Rahilly anne.rahilly@unimelb.edu.au. The faculty also arranges social media training sessions on request. If you have a story, a win, or a major event you would like your Faculty colleagues and precinct partners to know about, contacting the Faculty’s Marketing, Communications team is the best way to make sure your news ends up in faculty communications, social media (@UnimelbMDHS on twitter) and elsewhere. They can also refer you onto the media team and Pursuit where relevant.  Contact the team on marcom@unmimelb.edu.au and the social media team via mdhs-social@unimelb.edu.au. The media unit can be contacted via news@media.unimelb.edu.au and Pursuit have an online submission form for pitches, and guidelines on writing stories, in the Marketing and Communications section on Staff Hub.


Associate Professor Jo-Anne Manski-Nankervis and Professor David Story were photographed as part of the Metro Tunnel Thank You project . Image: Phoebe Powell. 

Alumni on the Frontline
Our colleagues at Chiron, the alumni magazine, have interviewed MMS alumni for a special on MDHS alumni on the frontline of the COVID response:  Associate Professor Jason Trubiano, and Stephen Warrilow, Director of Intensive Care at Austin Health & Director of the Critical Care Institute at Epworth HealthCare (you can also tune into a podcast interview).

Grasping COVID-19’s Long Neurological Tail
Pursuit, 4 October 2020
The Department of Psychiatry’s Professor Christos Pantelis, Dr Mahesh Jayaram, Professor Dennis Velakoulis, Cassandra Wannan, and collaborators at other institutions, on the neurological, neuropsychiatric and neurodevelopmental impacts of COVID-19. “We also do not know the extent to which nervous system infection contributes to COVID’s high death rate.”

Closing the Oxygen Access Gap
Pursuit, 29 September 2020
In Australia, amid the COVID-19 pandemic, we take oxygen access in our hospitals for granted. Dr Hamish Graham (Department of Paediatrics) is working to ‘close the oxygen gap’ globally.

Mapping the Terra Incognita of our brains
Pursuit, 29 September 2020
The human subcortex, deep in the centre of our brain , processes everything from our basic senses to our long-term memories. Dr Ye Tian and Associate Professor Andrew Zalesky (Department of Psychiatry) have been mapping it.

Joining the Dots on Diabetes and COVID-19
Pursuit, 28 September 2020
Dr Lori Sacks, Dr Nicola Fleming and Professor Elif Ekinci (Department of Medicine) look at the evidence coming in on why diabetes is a special risk for severe COVID infection.

COVID: What’s Best for the Elderly
BBC World Service, 25 September 2020
Dr Terry Chong (Department of Psychiatry) takes part in a panel discussion on the trade-offs involved in keeping elderly people free of infection.

Diagnosing Dementia in Younger People
Pursuit, 22 September 2020
Dr Samantha Loi (Department of Psychiatry and Melbourne Neuropsychiatry Centre) on a specialist service that helps identify dementia in younger people.

Thank you for looking after us: Melbourne's tribute to unsung heroes
The Age, 21 September 2020
Professor David Story on the portraits of 51 frontline healthcare workers  in the Melbourne Biomedical Precinct, by photographer Phoebe Powell, now on display in Parkville. “Professor Story said the photo essay was a lovely recognition of healthcare workers, who had faced uncertainty, anxiety and dramatic change during the pandemic, taking on major physical and emotional challenges and consequences.”  

How can we make sure people trust a COVID vaccine once we get one?
Pursuit, 14 September 2020
“Mandating vaccines is already being talked about, with the success of the ‘No Jab’ policies touted, but we are now in a very different situation with more uncertainty and fear about the COVID-19 vaccines than the routine immunisation schedule vaccine,” writes Associate Professor Margie Danchin (Department of Paediatrics and Director, Clinician Scientists Pathways).

Mission to Heal Well Covered
Shepparton News, 27 August 2020
Leah Lindrea-Morrison (Department of Rural Health) was featured in the local paper because of her mission to gift a possum skin cloak to Goulburn Valley

Professor Steve Ellen was interviewed about the perception of normality in psychiatry (ABC Radio, 25 August).
Professor Natalie Sims (MMS) and Dr Sandra Iuliano (MMS) were featured in a piece on bone health (Sunday Times, 16 August).

Medicos concerned about ill-fitting masks as infections spiral
The Age/ SMH, August 15, 2020
Professor David Story (Centre for Integrated Critical Care) said one Melbourne hospital had recently fit-tested a group of their staff and found half of them were unwittingly wearing masks that did not properly seal. “It’s like tossing a coin,” he said.

The Morals and Ethics of the COVID-19 Frontline
Pursuit, 8 September, 2020
Some degree of moral stress is inevitable in the COVID-19 environment. This makes it important for healthcare organisations to take proactive steps to reduce risks and support staff”. Associate Professor Andrea Phelps and Dr Ellie Laurence-Wood write about moral injury, a concept borrowed from military settings.