Medical work wins Queen's Honours

Monash Institute of Public Health director Professor Chris Silagy (pictured) was last week named in the Queen's Birthday Honours for his contribution to medicine.

Professor Silagy was made an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) for service to medicine, particularly in research and education and developments in evidence-based medicine.

He said the accolade had surprised and thrilled him. "I'm 39, and never dreamed of getting an award like this now, or even at any stage of my career," he said.

Professor Silagy completed a PhD in epidemiology at Monash before undertaking postdoctoral studies in Oxford as the Sir Robert Menzies Memorial Scholar in Medicine.

While at Oxford in 1992, he became involved in setting up the Cochrane Collaboration, which others have dubbed the 'applied version of the Human Genome Project'.

"We are trying to gather into a single electronic database all the evidence of which treatments in health care work and which don't, so that when people make health care decisions they have access to the latest scientific evidence," he said.

"The award recognises that the Cochrane Collaboration exists and survives and that there are now 3000 people around the world collaborating on the database, producing and updating it every quarter.''

In 1993, aged 32, Professor Silagy took up the post as professor and head of the Department of Evidence-Based Care and General Practice at Flinders University.

He was appointed professor of public health and director of MIPH last year.

He is also director of the Australasian Cochrane Centre and the National Evaluation of Coordinated Care Trials and co-director of National Information Service.

He has been a member of numerous national committees including the National Health and Medical Research Council health advisory committee.

Among the current and former Monash staff and alumni receiving Queen's Birthday Honours were:

AO - Officer in the Order of Australia

OAM - Medal of the Order of Australia

• Angela Jane Hijjas (BA 1971) - For service to the advancement of Australian-Malaysian relations.

• David Smorgon (BJuris 1969, LLB 1971) - For service to the Western Bulldogs Football Club as an administrator, and to the community through health, education and social welfare organisations.

CSC - Conspicuous Service Cross

• Colonel Wayne Bruce Sercombe, AM (BAppSc 1988) - For outstanding achievement in the field of strategic policy development and in the application of technology to achieve flexible instruction methodologies.

• Wing Commander Margaret Mary Staib (GradDipLogMgt 1990) - For outstanding achievement in the field of inventory management in support of military aviation.

CSM - Conspicuous Service Medal

PSM - Public Service Medal

• Allan Douglas Hughes (BSc 1969), chief executive officer, Ballarat Health Services - For outstanding public service to health care, particularly in relation to hospital amalgamation.

• Kenneth James Rowe (DipEd 1967), principal, Frankston High School - For outstanding public service to education, particularly at Frankston High School.

APM - Australian Police Medal