Community engagement

Community and Researcher Engagement (CaRE)
at the Monash School of Translational Medicine

iStock-891187194-crop sml

Monash School of Translational Medicine (STM) is committed to improving engagement and participation of members of the community within our health and medical research programs.

Community representatives (often referred to as 'Consumers'), who have a lived experience of a health issue, provide a unique and valuable perspective on health and medical research. We work to develop and establish partnerships between consumers and researchers within our school to foster a person centred approach to our research and evaluation.

Program overview

-

Video thumbnail

Hear from the team (video)

Drs Catherine Carmichael and Karen Alt introduce the STM Community Engagement initiative.

tile ken2-feature

Community representatives

Our community representative group provides valuable input and perspectives.

Information for researchers

We build resilient relationships between researchers and consumers, fostering community engagement to support the research efforts of the STM.

2018-symposium-Dickins - med

News and events

Join us at regular community engagement events.

Why is this important?

  • To raise awareness in community and patient groups about how medical research is performed.
  • Allows active participation of community representatives in identifying key research priorities and experimental questions within the STM.
  • Provide researchers with a unique perspective on the impacts of specific health conditions on patients, carers and their family members.
  • Provide transparency in research and enable rapid dissemination of research findings to the broader community.
  • Enhance community understanding of the importance of basic research if cures or treatments are to be found and implemented.
  • Enhance public confidence in research and raise awareness of research programs within the STM.

Disease groups

At the Central Clinical School, our world leading translational researchers study a diverse range of disease and health conditions. Please look through our different research groups, listed under specific diseases, to find out more and identify groups or research areas that best suit your own personal experience and/or interest area.

-

We are proud to partner with the Alfred Foundation in supporting community engagement at the STM.

logo of the Alfred Foundation

The School of Translational Medicine (STM)’s Consumer and Researcher Engagement (STM CaRE) program was initially developed in 2020 by Dr Catherine Carmichael (Chair) and Dr Karen Alt (Co-chair) within the Australian Centre for Blood Diseases (ACBD), to improve community engagement across the precinct. The STM CaRE program is defined by a genuine drive to establish authentic, long-term connections between researchers within the STM and people in the community who have a lived experience of the diseases or health conditions we research (commonly referred to as consumers or advocates). The program was founded upon the firm belief that engagement with people impacted by the health conditions that we study is vital to ensure that our research is appropriate, accessible and relevant to patients, carers and family members.