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Victoria University (VU) plays a key role in training the next generation of health professionals. Professor Alex Parker explains how VU will operate within Footscray Hospital and what the co-location means for learning, research and clinical training.
She discusses the benefits of proximity, shared spaces and cross-disciplinary collaboration, for the students who learn and work here.
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Victoria University’s researchers will address urgent and complex health concerns in Melbourne’s West, across Australia, and internationally, at our new, four-level VU Research Facility, co-located at Footscray Hospital.
Funded by Victoria University, this $63 research million facility will build on our strength in health research, allowing Victoria University’s researchers to expand our work in preventive disease and healthy ageing, with great access to Western Health clinicians, allied health professionals and patients.
Focus areas will include exercise and nutrition and the impact they have on health conditions such as muscular skeletal disorders, brain related injuries and disease, obesity and metabolic diseases including diabetes, sleep disorders and mental health.
Fitted out with more than $3 million equipment, the new 2000 square metre space spans four levels and includes a large clinical exercise and rehabilitation gymnasium, nutrition kitchen and expansive yoga studio.
The new space, equipment and location within the hospital, means researchers will have the capacity to increase community participation in clinical trials by up to 50%.
Improving health through research
Our research
From bespoke exercise programs to slow the progression of Motor Neurone Disease, and exoskeletons to keep ageing bodies moving, VU researchers are investigating how movement to support our ageing population.
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Our researchers
This new facility will support the work of hundreds of researchers and research students.
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Join a research trial
From physical rehabilitation and bone health to aging well, VU’s team of professionals invite the community in the west to take part in trials that have the potential to change lives.
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