Venue: The Aikenhead Centre for Medical Discovery, corner of Victoria Parade and Nicholson St, Fitzroy
The Aikenhead Centre for Medical Discovery
On Tuesday 8th September, a small group of CSG members and colleagues had the privilege of visiting the Aikenhead Centre for Medical Discovery, (ACMD). It only opened in June this year so it was very exciting to see this state-of-the-art facility that enables seven key stakeholder organisations to undertake critical medical research within a shared environment.
Most of the areas we saw were unoccupied, but, unlike a famous episode of Yes Minister, they are looking forward to the centre teeming with activity! Each area has signage explaining its purpose, with examples of current fields of research. This includes an Alzheimer's clinical trial and a project addressing post-trauma cartilage injuries.
In addition to appreciating the impressive facility, it was valuable to learn about the challenges of managing multiple clients in a single workspace and the governance processes in place to reinforce accountability and operational oversight. Having shared laboratories sounds like it could be a challenge indeed, but the right protocols mean that there is a lot to gain from collaborating with others.
The ACMD is a partnership between St Vincent’s Hospital Melbourne, Australian Catholic University, Bionics Institute, RMIT University, St Vincent’s Institute of Medical Research, Swinburne University of Technology, and University of Melbourne. Its model is built on the principle that the fastest path from medical discovery to a patient’s bedside is to put the people who understand unmet clinical need in the same building as the people with the tools to solve it.
Communications Officer Sarah and Compliance Engineer Luke conducted the site tour professionally, and Acting CEO Michael Krieg provided detailed insights and helped answer several of the more technical questions raised during the visit.
As always, there is so much to gain by visiting other workplaces and finding inspiration for one's own working environment.
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