Director of Research: Professor Peter Rogers
Professor Peter Rogers is Research Director at the Women’s and Professor of Women’s Health Research in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at the University of Melbourne. His laboratories are situated in the Research Precinct of Women’s and his group has research interests spanning basic reproductive biology through to gynaecological problems. Current areas of interest include common women’s health disorders such as heavy menstrual bleeding, uterine fibroids, endometriosis, pelvic pain and uterine aspects of infertility. Professor Rogers also runs a program investigating the application of synchrotron generated micro beam x-rays for tumour radiotherapy.
Deputy Director Research: Professor Lex Doyle
Professor Lex Doyle worked in the field of neonatal paediatrics for more than 30 years, and exclusively between 1978, when he was first appointed to the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology in the University of Melbourne, based at the Women’s, and 2006, when he ceased working in the nursery at the Women’s. As well as training in Melbourne, he was fortunate to work and train for almost four years at McMaster University in Canada where he met and worked with many esteemed international colleagues in neonatal paediatrics. He leads the National Health and Medical Research Council’s (NHMRC) Centre of Research Excellence in Newborn Medicine, which is based at the Women’s, and the hospital’s Premature Infant Follow-up Program.
Deputy Director Research: Professor Della Forster
Professor Della Forster has been a midwife since 1989. She joined MCHR in April 1999 as joint project coordinator of the ABFAB breastfeeding trial. Professor Forster completed her PhD in March 2005 using data from ABFAB. She was a joint chief investigator of the statewide review of public in-hospital postnatal care (PinC).
She is Professor of Midwifery and Maternity Services Research at MCHR, the School of Nursing and Midwifery at the Women’s and a Chief Investigator on the NHMRC-funded randomised controlled trial of caseload midwifery and the NHMRC-funded randomised trial, Diabetes and Antenatal Milk Expressing (DAME).
Research Centre directors
Professor Peter Davis: Director, Women’s Newborn Research Centre
Professor Suzanne Garland AO: Director, Centre for Women’s Infectious Disease
Professor Martha Hickey: Co-Director, Women’s Gynaecology Research Centre
Professor Eve Dimitradis: Co-Director, Women’s Gynaecology Research Centre
Professor Shaun Brennecke AO: Director, Women’s Pregnancy Research Centre
Associate Professor Orla McNally: Director, Women’s Cancer Research Centre
Professor Kelsey Hegarty, Director, Centre for Family Violence Prevention
Professor Della Forster: Director, Midwifery and Maternity Services Research
Associate Professor Lesley Stafford: (Acting Director, Centre for Women’s Mental Health)
Professor Alicia Dennis: Director, Anaesthetics Research
Associate Professor Helena Frawley: Director, Allied Health Research
Board research committee
Research at the Women’s is overseen by the Board Research Committee which is responsible for governance of the Women’s Research Strategic Plan and for advocating research at Board level.
The Board Research Committee comprises:
- Professor Marie Bismark, Board Director and Committee Chair
- Ms Rosie Batty AO, Board Director and Committee member
- Professor Lisa McKenna, Committee member
- Professor David Vaux AO, Committee member
- Ms Margaret Lodge, Consumer representative.