Professor Brown receives Health Lifetime Achievement Award

The award honours Professor Brown's service to Victoria's public health system, particularly the Royal Melbourne Hospital (RMH).

Professor Brown said, "This award acknowledges the role of clinical academics in a service environment and recognises the work over many years by wonderful teams, particularly in the field of clinical infectious diseases”.

He explained that the award recognised the important combination of teams with clinical and academic medical excellence.

“It is fantastic the University has many clinical doctors who are also involved in clinical research and patient care, where they transfer evidence to practice.

“The team was able to combine service with education and research, so we had a lot of patient-based studies to set guidelines and improve patient care, for example, with computer-assisted decision support systems. It was a new way of doing things, combining education, research and practice, thus fully embracing the University's concept of a triple helix," he said.

With a degree in Public Health from Harvard University and background training in clinical work at RMH, Professor Brown started the Victorian Infectious Disease Service in 1996 at the hospital.
Professor Brown is very proud of his relationship with the RMH, which started in his student years.

"The motto of the RMH is 'I learn to help the sick', a wonderful choice from our founders, demonstrating exactly what we try to do. 

“I've worked in many places around the world, but can honestly say the training at RMH was better than what I came across anywhere in the world.

“It's not just about treating patients, but creating an educational environment where the patients, students and colleagues are your best teachers,” he said.

After a 40-year association with the RMH, Professor Brown now focuses solely on his work at the Nossal Institute and continues his laboratory research in malaria. He continues to draw from his experience in the hospital, particularly by embracing the close connections between teaching, basic and applied research, or ‘action-based research’, and engagement.  It is clear that Professor Brown still has much to contribute through his role at the University.