Congratulations Dr Emily Wright!

Heartiest congratulations to Dr Emily Wright from the Department of Medicine and Radiology (Eastern Hill Precinct, St Vincent’s Hospital) on being one of the five winners of this year’s Dean’s Award for Excellence in the PhD Thesis, titled Clinical and scientific features of post-operative Crohn's disease recurrence.

Dr Wright is now a practising gastroenterologist in St Vincent’s Hospital Melbourne and maintains an active research profile in the field of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD).

Emily completed her PhD in 2016 in the Department of Gastroenterology of St Vincent’s Hospital under the supervision and mentorship of Professor Michael Kamm and Professor Paul Desmond.

Her doctoral thesis has produced clinical and scientific results which provided novel insights into Crohn’s disease pathogenesis, changed clinical practice, and has been recognised internationally.

More significantly, her thesis has contributed to the development of a minimally invasive test that has shown to be an accurate indicator of recurring Crohn’s disease; thus replacing the need for frequent invasive colonoscopies. Published in the world’s highest-rated specialty journal, this practice has been adopted nationally and internationally.

She is also the lead author of peer-reviewed papers published in international journals, and has been invited to both national and international conferences to discuss her research.

Most recently, Emily was awarded the Gastroenterological Society of Australia’s prestigious Clinical Establishment Award to support her ongoing development as a national leader in IBD clinical practice and research.

She was presented with a certificate by the Professor Alex Boussioutas, MDHS Associate Dean (Research Training) in an award ceremony held on 24 October at the University of Melbourne.