2010 - General Practice and Primary Health Care Academic Centre

MESSAGE FROM THE HEAD OF DEPARTMENT
Welcome to the General Practice and Primary Health Care Academic
Centre within the Melbourne Medical School, Faculty of Medicine,
Dentistry and Health Sciences, The University of Melbourne. Our
Academic Centre brings together the Department of General Practice
and the Primary Care Research Unit with over 300 general practices and
community health services throughout metropolitan and rural Victoria.
The University of Melbourne was established in 1853 and is a public-spirited
institution that aims to be one of the finest universities in the world. General
Practice began as a unit within the Department of Community Medicine in 1977
and was established as a separate clinical department within the School of
Medicine in 2001. In 2010 we formed the General Practice and Primary Health
Care Academic Centre.
We are a multidisciplinary Academic Centre that is committed to excellence in teaching, research and knowledge
exchange. General practice is the core of our health care system and the main provider of primary health care in
Australia. The face of general practice is changing and this is reflected in our activities. Our Academic Centre is
much more than the Department of General Practice and Primary Care Research Unit located in Parkville. The
Academic Centre reaches out into the community. We are developing more lasting links with a number of
community health services, private general practices and emerging superclinics. We will be establishing nodes of
the Academic Centre at Sunshine and Northern Hospitals to work with the new clinical schools in the development
and delivery of the community based component of the new Graduate Medical Curriculum in the outer north-west
metropolitan area.
We also continue to play a traditional and key role in teaching medical students about general practice and primary
care. Our academic and professional staff work with a large and dedicated group of clinical teachers and medical
educators from across metropolitan and rural Victoria to deliver our medical curriculum. We have strong
partnerships to deliver vocational training for general practice and postgraduate training for primary care nursing.
These activities are of utmost importance in ensuring a quality health workforce for Australia and beyond.
Established in 2006, the Primary Care Research Unit (PCRU) strives to support our growing team of
multidisciplinary primary care researchers, research higher degree students and VicReN, our practice-based
research network. Our research is based upon a social model of health and broadly aims to improve the quality and
safety of primary care via models of care and clinical interventions that are rigorously developed and evaluated
using a mix of quantitative and qualitative methods. We have established research programs in areas of national
priority such as mental health, chronic disease, young people's health, and violence and abuse. We are also
involved in building quality primary care research in the areas of sexual health, cancer, musculoskeletal, child health
and complementary medicine.
I hope you enjoy Profile 2010 as we introduce you to our staff and students, share with you a snapshot of the
activities and achievements of the past two years and provide you with a glimpse into our future.
Professor Jane Gunn
Chair, Primary Care Research
Head, Department of General Practice
General Practice and Primary Health Care Academic Centre
The University of Melbourne
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