Professor Kumar Visvanathan has been appointed as Precinct Lead, Department of Medicine, St Vincent’s Hospital, in the University of Melbourne

Message from Head of Department

Dear Colleagues,

I have great pleasure in formalising the appointment of Professor Kumar Visvanathan as Precinct Lead, Department of Medicine, St Vincent’s Hospital, in the University of Melbourne.

Professor Visvanathan joined both the academic Department of Medicine and the clinical Department of Infectious Diseases at St Vincent’s Hospital in 2012. He was also appointed as Co-Director of the Immunology Research Centre at St Vincent's Hospital.

Professor Visvanathan obtained his MBBS and PhD from the University of New South Wales before completing a Post-Doctoral Research Fellowship at the Rockefeller University in New York. He has an active research laboratory which focuses on the innate immune system in sepsis, viral hepatitis and hepatocellular carcinoma.  Professor Visvanathan’s ambitions for the Department of Medicine are to support early/mid-career clinician researchers through University-Hospital co-appointments to pursue their research and to integrate the Department of Medicine at the University of Melbourne to the clinical departments at St Vincent's Hospital in their leadership and innovative contributions to health care.

Professor Mark Cook AO will continue in his other leadership roles including the Sir John Eccles Professor of and Director of Clinical Neurosciences at St Vincent’s Hospital as well as his research leadership through the development of the Aikenhead Centre for Medical Discovery, and at St Vincent’s Hospital as chair of its Research Ethics Committee.

Please join with me in thanking Professor Mark Cook for his continuing contributions to leadership in the Department of Medicine over many years and in welcoming Professor Kumar Visvanathan to the position.

Warm regards,

Jo Douglass

Head, Department of Medicine, Melbourne Medical School

Director of Research, Royal Melbourne Hospital