Australians offered new ‘neuro’ hope

A state-of-the-art neuroscience facility opened in Melbourne last Friday (12 August 20110), with expectations of offering new hope for Australians suffering from strokes and degenerative brain disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease, other dementias and Parkinson’s disease.

The Melbourne Brain Centre at The Royal Melbourne Hospital was officially opened by Minister for Health and Ageing Nicola Roxon, who said the centre was a “significant step forward” in the prevention and treatment of common brain disorders.

The Melbourne Brain Centre, which was provided funding by the federal government’s Health and Hospital Fund, will offer research and clinical facilities that will help to ensure research is effectively translated into improved clinical outcomes.

“Together, the three campuses of the Melbourne Brain Centre will make the Centre the biggest brain research centre in the southern hemisphere, and place it among the top neuroscience institutes in the world,” Ms Roxon claimed.

“These kinds of investments in research facilities will pay Australia back ten-fold over the coming decades,” she added.

At the Melbourne Brain Centre, Ms Roxon met a 75-year-old patient who, following a stroke had recently benefited from the Centre’s new scanning technology and ‘intra-arterial recue’ treatment, commonly called clot retrieval.

“Clot retrieval treatment is still in its infancy, and the new Melbourne Brain Centre will help to further develop the treatment,” Ms Roxon said.

The Centre will embark on a new trial to assess the effectiveness of the treatment, helping doctors to understand which patients this new treatment is best suited for.

The federal government’s 2009-10 Budget announced $700 million from the Health and Hospitals Fund would be available for 14 projects to build and upgrade health and medical research and training facilities across Australia.

As part of this commitment, the government has provided $39.8 million towards the Melbourne Brain Centres at The Royal Melbourne Hospital, Parkville and Austin Health.

Collectively all three facilities bring together more than 700 researchers from the Mental Health Research Institute, the University of Melbourne, Melbourne Health, Austin Health and the Florey Neuroscience Institutes.

“We are committed to ensuring Australia’s medical and health research institutions and our best and brightest researchers have sufficient support and financial assistance to continue to work at the forefront of their fields,” Ms Roxon stated.