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Associate Professor Wendy Brown

Major Qualification

MBBS(hons) PhD FRACS FACS

Current Position

Deputy Director, Centre for Obesity Research and Education

Associate Professor, Department of Surgery, Monash University

Visiting Medical Officer, The Alfred Hospital

Track record and current interests

Wendy Brown graduated top of her year with first class honours from Medicine in 1992 (Monash University).  She went on to complete specialist training as a General Surgeon through the Alfred Hospital, Melbourne.  She attained her fellowship from the Royal Australasian College in 2002 and completed a further year of post-fellowship training in advanced laparoscopic and Upper GI surgery at the Princess Alexandria Hospital, Brisbane.

During her Advanced Surgical training she undertook a PhD from 1997-1999, and the degree was awarded in 2001.  Her thesis explored the Chemoprevention of Colorectal Cancer in a rodent model.  Wendy was supported by scholarships from the RACS in 1997 and the NH&MRC in 1998-1999. She won 3 travel scholarships from national and international organizations, and won 4 national prizes for academic achievement.

 

Since completing her surgical training she returned to the Alfred Hospital with a clinical appointment as a Visiting Medical Officer in Upper GI and General Surgery.  She was promoted to Associate Professor by Monash University in 2008, and is now also the Deputy Director of CORE.  She has played an active role locally within both the hospital and university communities being a member of many Alfred Hospital and Monash University strategic committees.  In addition she has served the broader medical community in a wide variety of roles including serving on the RACS court of examiners as well as on the Board in Physiology and by being a member of the Victorian State Ministerial Cancer Taskforce (2003-2004) and Bariatric working party (2008).  In 2004 A/Prof Brown was offered the opportunity to attend the Deans Harvard Macy Institute Course on Academic Leadership in the Blue Mountains.  In 2006 she was awarded the American College of Surgeons International Guest Scholarship and in 2008 she was made a fellow of the American College of Surgeons.

 

Along with an active clinical practice in Upper GI and Bariatric Surgery, A/Prof Brown has been establishing a research practice focusing primarily on the oesophago-gastric junction and obesity. Many of her early years following clinical training were spent establishing a clinical practice as well as taking responsibility for implementation of a new undergraduate clinical curriculum.  In spite of this, since 2003 she has been invited to speak at 14 national and 8 international meetings on these topics.  A/Prof Brown had 3 papers published in peer review journals in 2008 and a further 3 under consideration.

 

Relevant references

  1. Kampe J, Brown WA, Stefanidis A, Dixon J & Oldfield B. A Rodent Model of Adjustable Gastric Band Surgery-Implications for the Understanding of Underlying Mechanisms. Obesity Surgery e-pub Oct 2008.
  2. Brown WA, Burton PR, Anderson M, Korin A, Dixon JB, Hebbard S, O’Brien PE. Symmetrical Pouch Dilatation After Laparoscopic Adjustable Gastric Banding: Incidence and Management. Obesity Surgery 2008;18(9):1104-1108.
  3. Brown WA, Dixon JB, O’Brien. Management of obesity – the role of surgery. Australian Family Physician 2006;35(8):584-6.
  4. O’Brien PE, Dixon JB, Brown WA. Obesity is a surgical disease: overview of obesity and bariatric surgery. ANZ Journal of Surgery 2004;74(4):200-4.
  5. Brown WA, Thomas J, Gotley D, Lim KH, Martin I, Burmeister B, Harvey J, Walpole E, Thomson D, Smithers BM. Assessing the response of oesophageal carcinoma to neoadjuvant therapy using oesophagogastroscopy. British Journal of Surgery 2004;91(2):199-204.