MCATS can provide collaborative support for grant development and submission, and can provide expert advice within departmental panel grant pitch reviews. MCATS subscriptions are also available for data analysis, grant re-submission needs and project ideas development, in addition to EFT support for long term Department research needs (Biostatistics). Contact us through the MCATS project form, and review our collaboration agreement.
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Research support
Access to researchers embedded within peer academic groups provides high standards of collaborative research support.
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Courses
Our program of courses and seminars covers study design, protocol development, REDCap and health economics.
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Research governance and ethics
There are a number of internationally recognised resources developed to support research.
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MCATS Research Journey
The MCATS Research Journey
Training timetable
Please use the MCATS project form to provide us with your research project needs. Based in Parkville, Melbourne additional MCATS contacts are below:
University of Melbourne
- mcats-info@unimelb.edu.au
- Phone
- +61 3 8344 3802
- Postal Address
- c/o Melbourne Medical school, The University of Melbourne, Grattan Street, Victoria, 3010
The Melbourne Clinical and Translational Sciences (MCATS) research platform seeks to facilitate and collaborate, with our partners to ensure resources are visible and mechanisms are in place for accessing the core research methods of Biostatistics, Health Economics or Health Informatics. These areas are a necessity for good research design and governance in order to generate research findings that lead to improved health care and informed health service reform.
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Biostatistics
Biostatistics underpins the sound application of statistical methods in clinical research.
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Health Economics
Economic evaluation is widely used to assess many new health care interventions and technologies.
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Health Informatics
Health informatics in the clinical and biomedical realm to aide in the optimal use of information. Includes REDCap.
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Research Quality and Integrity
Mutually beneficial relationships and resources allow the University and partners to work together, sharing resources and knowledge.
MCATS overview and testimonials
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I have a dataset I would like you to review, how do I prepare my data?
MCATS works collaboratively with SCC. A good summary can be found here
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I need to learn how to use REDCap
Free online REDCap training is available. See also dates for a half day data workshop using REDCap. See also information on the REDCap consortium, REDCap information at the university, FAQ and how to guides to help you further.
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Do you have a brochure?
The MCATS brochure can be found here
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If I pay for a service why would MCATS academics be on a publication?
MCATS is a collaborative research support platform where academics are funded for the work they provide. Aligning with academic collaborative principles, MCATS follows the University of Melbourne Authorship Policy (MPF1181) which states:
"5 Authorship. Introduction: The outcomes of research may be disseminated in a variety of ways but enduring forms, such as journal articles, are particularly important and to be an author for such a form is meritorious. To be named as an author, a researcher must have made a substantial scholarly contribution to the work and be able to take responsibility for at least that part of the work they contributed. Attribution of authorship depends to some extent on the discipline, but in all cases, authorship must be based on substantial contributions in a combination of:
- conception and design of the project
- analysis and interpretation of research data
- drafting significant parts of the work or critically revising it so as to contribute to the interpretation.
The right to authorship is not tied to position or profession and does not depend on whether the contribution was paid for or voluntary. It is not enough to have provided materials or routine technical support, or to have made the measurements on which the publication is based. Substantial intellectual involvement is required. A person who qualifies as an author must not be included or excluded as an author without their permission. This should be in writing, and include a brief description of their contribution to the work."
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Do I have a say in who I will work with at MCATS with my successful grant?
Yes. Lead researchers will always have a say in which statisticans / health economists will be involved in a successful grant application, in particular the analysis stage.
The statistician who is the CI or AI on the grant application will act in the role of CI or AI similar to any other CI and AI on the grant after the grant is successful. This means that the statistician on the successful grant will be the primary contact person for the duration of the grant and he/she may supervise another statistician within MCATS who will do the analysis.
The MCATS team has been developed to support high quality multidisciplinary research in basic science, cohort and epidemiological studies, clinical trials and health services research. This is enables through the provision of fundamental research components including Biostatistics, Health economics and Health informatics. MCATS also provides managment and networking capacities to coordinate and guide you through your project needs.
- Professor David Story
Director of MCATS
Professor Story is the Foundation Chair of Anaesthesia at the University of Melbourne; and Head of the Anaesthesia, Perioperative and Pain Medicine Unit. His clinical work involves perioperative care for all surgical specialties including liver transplantation. David is a senior investigator with the Clinical Trials Network of the Australian and New Zealand College of Anaesthetists (ANZCA), sits on the ANZCA Research Committee, and is Deputy Chair of the ANZCA Safety and Quality Committee. His research is focused on effective approaches to reduce short term and long term perioperative risk, complications, disability, and mortality. He is committed to integrating research evidence and methodology into safety and quality in health care.
- Professor Philip Clarke
Professor Clarke holds a Chair in Health Economics at the Melbourne School of Population and Global Health, University of Melbourne. His health economic research interests include developing methods to value the benefits of improving access to health care, health inequalities and the use of simulation models in health economic evaluation. He has also undertaken policy relevant research for the World Bank, OECD and AusAID.
- Professor Julie Simpson
Professor Simpson has over 20 years experience as a biostatistician contributing to clinical and population health research. Previously she has worked at St Thomas's Hospital, London, Mahidol-Oxford Research Programme in Thailand, University of Aberdeen, and Cancer Council of Victoria. Her main research areas are: the integration of biostatistics and mathematical modelling to improve the control of infectious diseases and statistical methods for handling missing data in observational cohorts. Julie is Head of the Biostatistics Unit, Melbourne School of Population and Global Health, and a Chief Investigator of the NHMRC Centre of Research Excellence for Biostatistics.
- A/Professor Kathleen Gray
A/Professor Gray is the Acting Director of HABIc Dr Gray’s research interests include Public participation in health through new technologies: Patients’ and consumers’ use of web-based health information and communication, related health behaviours and health outcomes. Kathleen also has a keen interest in professional education for e-health including educational strategy and policy development involving building health informatics knowledge, skills and attributes required to improve e-health competence in the health workforce. She is involved in research impacts arising from new technologies and the integration of emerging high capacity broadband technologies in healthcare and biomedicine, and their potential influence on health literacy, health services and research communication.
- Associate Professor Douglas Iain Ross Boyle
A/Professor Boyle is the Director of the Research Information Technology Unit (R2). Since 2006 Doug has been researching, developing and implementing systems for the ethical acquisition of record-linkable data for audit, research and health surveillance. Consent management, security and privacy-protecting record linkage are key components and research areas. The software systems (GRHANITE™) are now responsible for the largest collections of record-linkable primary care data ever accumulated in Australia. Prior to emigrating from Scotland in 2006, Doug worked in a similar capacity to develop and implement technologies for wide-scale data acquisition. His system SCI-DC Network is internationally recognised and is playing a continuing key role in the support of population-based diabetes health service provision across Scotland.
- Dr Tanara Vieira Sousa
Dr Sousa is an MCATS Health Economist and Research Fellow at the Health Economics Unit from the Centre for Health Policy. She joined MCATS in July 2017. She has completed her PhD in Economics at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul/Brazil specialising in Health Economics. Tanara worked as a Researcher at the Center for Drug and Alcohol Research/Brazil for ten years, where she gained experience in Monitoring and Evaluation of alcohol and drugs related interventions, design analysis and reporting of observational studies in alcohol, drugs and road safety.
- Ms Sabine Braat
Ms Braat is research fellow (biostatistics) at MCATS. She is the primary contact and facilitator for MCATS biostatistics enquiries, contributes to grant applications and presents short courses related to biostatistics. Sabine joined MCATS in June 2015. She worked as a biostatistician at several pharmaceutical companies for over 15 years during which she gained a deep knowledge of the design, analysis and reporting of clinical trials. She holds a Master's degree in Applied Mathematics and a Master of Science degree in Biostatistics
Dr An Duy Tran
Dr Tran is a Senior Research Fellow at the Health Economics Unit of the Centre for Health Policy. Before joining the University of Melbourne in October 2016, he was a Post-doc Researcher and Assistant Professor in Health Technology Assessment at the Maastricht University and Utrecht University in The Netherlands. Dr Tran’s expertise includes design of economic evaluation studies, analyses of costs and health outcomes, and development of computer models to simulate the impact of treatment strategies on progression of chronic diseases and assess the cost-effectiveness of the therapies. He joined MCATS in Jan 2017.
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Ms Sandra Henley-Smith
Ms Henley-Smith provides Health Informatics expertise to MCATS. Currently undertaking a Masters in Information Systems, Sandra has experience within the health industry and skills and experience in data collection methodologies, data collection tools and Case Record form design. Sandra also conducts the introduction to data management training workshops and has intricate knowledge of the REDCap data management system.
Dr Ronelle Welton
Dr Welton is the MCATS Manager. With a background in nursing, a PhD in Biochemistry working with animal venoms' and a Masters in Public Health and Tropical Medicine, her work within both research and industry (international public health programs), gives Ronelle a strong track record in health program design, monitoring and evaluation, project management and governance.