The 2021-22 Rotary Melbourne Vocational Service Award was presented to distinguished Australian public health researcher, Professor John McNeil, AO.
Present were past recipients Susan Barton AM (Lighthouse Foundation), Dr Catherine Crock AM (HUSH Foundation), Dr Francis Macnab AM, Dr Margaret Leggatt AM, Bryan Lipmann AM (Wintringham), Prof Jeffrey Rosenfeld AC OBE (Alfred Surgeon), Edward Tudor (MITS), and Dr Neville White AM (Donydji Project).
Professor McNeil is a pre-eminent Australian public health researcher. He was Head of Monash University’s School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine (SPHPM) and Head of the Department of Epidemiology & Preventive Medicine at the Alfred Medical Research Precinct from 1986 to 2019.
His address gave members and guests insights from his research has been a game-changer on the efficacy on Aspirin in preventing heart disease in healthy individuals. The research was funded by the United States National Institute on Aging and others, and over 5 years involved 19,114 Australian and US men and women aged over 70 who did not have cardiovascular disease, dementia or disability. The participants were randomly assigned with half to receive daily 100mg of aspirin and the other half a placebo.
The research demonstrated that the use of low-dose aspirin as a primary prevention strategy in older adults resulted in a significantly higher risk of major haemorrhage but did not result in a significantly lower risk of cardiovascular disease than occurred among those who were given the placebo. Professor McNeill made it clear that Aspirin is helpful in preventative treatment older people who have suffered heart attacks or stroke.
Citation
Professor John McNeil is a pre-eminent Australian public health researcher. He was Head of Monash University’s School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine (SPHPM) and Head of the Department of Epidemiology & Preventive Medicine at the Alfred Medical Research Precinct from 1986 to 2019. Under his leadership the SPHPM became a world renowned clinical and public research centre and many of the present Australian leaders in public health research across a broad range of disciplines have been John’s mentees.
Prof McNeil was visionary in establishing the ground-breaking ASPREE (Aspirin in Reducing Events in the Elderly) trial, funded by the National institutes of Health (USA) and the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council. This longitudinal study has established that there is no benefit of aspirin for primary disease prevention for older people and resulted in the revision of international guidelines regarding aspirin for older people.
Beyond his distinguished leadership of SPHPM, Professor McNeil has published over 500 refereed publications and has been instrumental in the development of large-scale clinical registries to improve the measurement and benchmarking of clinical outcomes.
Professor McNeil has served in Directorships of Alfred Health, Austin Health, the Colonial Foundation, Orygen Youth Mental Health Research Institute, the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, the Metropolitan Ambulance Service, the Dunlop Medical Research Foundation, Victorian Managed Insurance Authority and Water Quality Research Australia.
He was Chair of the Victorian Public Health Research and Education Foundation from 2006-2008, and the Scientific Secretary of the International Society of Cardiovascular Pharmacotherapy. He has been a member of the My-Health Record Expansion steering group, Cancer Australia's Stage, Treatment and Recurrence (STaR) steering committee, the Victorian Consultative Council for Maternal and Perinatal Mortality (CCOPPM) committee and the Victorian Patient Experience and Outcomes Measurement and Reporting Committee.
He has had a demonstrable impact as a public policy thought leader, serving on sensitive and urgent public health investigations such the Fiskville firefighters, the Hazelwood mine fire and the cancer clusters amongst Victorian Parliamentarians.
In 2018 he was awarded the Order of Australia (AO) in recognition of his services to public health.
Everything about Professor McNeil, his public health research leadership, his published research, and the contribution of his wisdom and professional leadership to a diverse range of public health and community issues, both nationally and internationally exemplifies the Rotary ideal of Service above Self.
He joins a distinguished body of men and women who have been previous recipients of this award.
If you missed the event, you can view it on our YouTube channel by following this link: https://youtu.be/9pjfzvETefQ
