Gary Gray (Brand, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Resources) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the subject of medical research and the scientists who do this work. I rise to speak in particular about the Royal Melbourne Hospital's Research Hall of Fame. In 1848 a small group of visionary Victorians came together to open Victoria's first public hospital. Since that time the Royal Melbourne Hospital has become the linchpin of the Parkville Precinct's leading biomedical research hub and a magnet for some of the brightest minds in medical research. As Victoria's first hospital, the Royal Melbourne Hospital has seen many pioneering innovations in medicine and health care. Many of these innovations have had a real and lasting impact on health care today, not just in Australia but around the world.

In a few weeks—on Saturday, 21 June 2014—the Royal Melbourne Hospital will celebrate its rich history and bright future in medical research by launching the Research Hall of Fame and the inaugural Royal Melbourne Hospital Research Medal for a mid-career investigator. The special evening will honour the research legends of the Royal Melbourne Hospital, whose courage and brilliance has changed the face of medicine over the past century and before. They dared to challenge conventions of their day, and their legacy inspires today's researchers.

The inaugural inductees for 2014, in alphabetical order, are Dr C Glenn Begley, for contributions to leukaemia and cancer research; Dr Lucy Bryce, for pioneering work in blood transfusion services; Professor Sir Macfarlane Burnet, for contributions to immunology; Dr John Cade, who discovered lithium as a treatment for bipolar disorder; Dr Michael Denborough, for the discovery of malignant hypertension; Dr Edward Embley, who recognised in 1902 that sudden cardiac failure occurred with chloroform; Professor Maurice Ewing, for contributions to surgery, including Australia's first successful cadaver-patient kidney transplant in 1963; Professor Richard Fox, for clinical application of the blood cell growth factors, the CSFs; Dr James St John, for establishment of Australia's first bowel cancer registry in 1979; Professor Priscilla Kincaid-Smith, nephrologist, for pioneering work in renal medicine; Professor Richard Larkins, for contributions to diabetes research and health policy reform; Professor Richard Lovell, for contributions to understanding and treatment of hypertension; Dr Ian Mackay, immunologist, for recognition and treatment of autoimmune diseases; Professor Donald Metcalf, for the discovery of the blood cell growth factors; Professor Sir Peter Morris, for furthering the understanding of immune mechanisms in transplantation; Professor Sir Gustav Nossal, for contributions to immunology; Sir Benjamin Rank, for pioneering work in plastic and reconstructive surgery; Dr Graeme Robertson, for radiological examination of the brain; and Dr Graeme Sloman, who established the first coronary care unit in Australia in 1964.

These are great researchers, whose contributions will live through the lives that they have improved and lives that they have saved.