This year's Rotary Melbourne Vocational Service Award will be presented to Prof John McNeil.
Prof John McNeil Biography AO
After graduating in medicine from the University of Adelaide in 1971, Professor McNeil undertook specialist training to become qualified as a consultant in internal medicine and clinical pharmacology. He completed a PhD in Clinical Pharmacology at Melbourne University and was awarded a National Heart Foundation overseas postgraduate research scholarship to study epidemiology at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. In subsequent years he held clinical appointments as a visiting specialist physician at the Austin, Alfred and Monash Health.
In 1986 he was appointed as a Professor at Monash University, initially heading the Department of Social and Preventive Medicine (later Epidemiology & Preventive Medicine) and subsequently Head of Monash University’s School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine (SPHPM) at the Alfred Hospital. He held this position until January 2019 after which he has taken up a new role as an NHMRC leadership Fellow. Under his leadership the SPHPM experienced a sustained period of growth, increasing from 7 staff in 1986 to become the second largest school in the Monash Faculty of Medicine, Nursing & Health Sciences with 50 professors spread across four campuses.
During his time as Head he established the School’s core ‘methodology platforms’ in epidemiology, biostatistics and data-management which subsequently enabled SPHPM to establish itself as one of the major national centers of expertise in clinical trials and clinical registries .
Professor McNeil’s research interests have been focused on the application of epidemiological methods to problems in clinical medicine public health. This has included the development (along with a range of colleagues) of a strategy to undertake large community-based intervention trials. He initiated the ASPREE trial of low-dose aspirin in the elderly which was the largest trial conducted within Australia., The intervention phase of this study was completed in June 2017 and was reported in a trio of papers in the October 2018 edition of the New England Journal of Medicine. He also initiated and achieved funding for various sub-studies of ASPREE which will ensure that ASPREE will becomes a valuable epidemiological resource for the study of the elderly.
Professor McNeil has also played a leadership role in the development of clinical quality registries and their application to improving the safety and quality of medical care. The University has become a major centre for clinical quality registries covering trauma, cardiovascular disease, cancer, rare diseases and high-risk drugs and devices. The Monash clinical Registries Unit has also become a leader in developing registry policy in areas covering governance, reporting, data management and ethics.
His broader leadership roles have included service on the Boards of Management of the Alfred and Austin Hospitals, Ambulance Victoria, the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare The Victorian Managed Insurance Authority, Orygen Youth Mental Health Research Institute, Dunlop Medical Research Foundation, , the Colonial Foundation, the, Victorian Public Health Research and Education Consortium and Water Quality Australia. He has been regularly involved in sensitive & urgent public health investigations such the Fiskville firefighters, the Hazelwood mine fire & the cancer clusters amongst Victorian Parliamentarians. In 2018 he was awarded the Order of Australia (AO) in recognition of his services to public health.
About the Rotary Melbourne Vocational Service Award
The Rotary Club of Melbourne established the Vocational Service Award in 1964. It is presented annually to a person who has achieved a high level of excellence in their vocation and through such vocation has rendered outstanding service to the community.
Recent awardees include:
