Andrew Simpson, Paul Meszaros, Gina Hammond and Lyn Hicks from the Museum Studies team at Macquarie University recently travelled to Brisbane to (among other research-based projects) meet with Prof Amar Galla from the University of Queensland, and to attend the high profile opening of the Integrated Pathology Learning Centre (IPLC) on the UQ campus of the Royal Women's Hospital in Brisbane. 

The IPLC is one of a kind and has been made possible through the community of alumni harnessing their collective power and making it happen!  Congratulations UQ on a wonderful facility.

The following article is reproduced from the UQ website and gives you a flavour of this amazing 'museum' space.

Image courtesy Daniel Hurst, Brisbane Times.

Australian-first Pathology Learning Centre Offers Unique Insight for UQ Health Students

The mysteries of the human body are being revealed to University of Queensland health students in an innovative way thanks to an Australian-first pathology learning centre housing thousands of specimens.

The $1.5million Integrated Pathology Learning Centre, which was officially opened today, brings together the extensive James Vincent Duhig Pathology Museum, including more than 2,500 specimens, artefacts from the Marks Hirschfield Medical History Collection, the Nursing Museum and the latest electronic teaching resources.

UQ's Professor of Pathology, Sunil Lakhani said the size and the presentation of the collection in a state-of-the-art facility was a unique development for Australia and comparable with leading facilities of this kind around the world,

“The collection has grown over many years, probably as long as UQ has had a medical program, which is more than 70 years. It has played a critical role in the education of UQ medical students, staff and allied health workers during this time.

“This is a unique and unprecedented venture as most medical schools in the world are shutting their facilities, but at UQ there is a strong commitment to pathology,” Prof Lakhani said.

The centre integrates historical, clinical, radiological and pathological processes. It takes students on a journey from past to present and from cells to patients, so they can gain a complete understanding of disease, he said.

The development of the facility was supported by financial donations of more than $135,000 - many from medical school alumni.

The Centre was officially opened by philanthropist and distinguished medical graduate, Dr Ron Thomson. It was a dual event with the opening of the Health Sciences Building, in which the pathology centre is housed.

The Health Sciences Building is located in the heart of the Royal Brisbane & Women's Hospital campus and is an education facility for health students from a range of disciplines.

Formerly named the Clinical Sciences Building, it has undergone a $27.8million refurbishment and now includes state-of-the-art teaching rooms, mock hospital wards and clinical bedside coaching rooms. The pathology centre takes up an entire floor of the building.

Image courtesy Daniel Hurst, Brisbane Times.

Other features of the Integrated Pathology Learning Centre include:

• Interactive stations to test students on clinical-radiological-pathological correlations
• Stations for video feeds – such as watching valve prolapse on echocardiography
• Audio visual presentations on topics such as global aspects of immunisation, the history of medicine, and malnutrition and disease
• A curator and technician to manage the collection in conjunction with medical staff of the Discipline of Molecular & Cellular Pathology.

The development of the facility was supported by financial donations of more than $135,000 - many from medical school alumni.

The Centre was officially opened by philanthropist and distinguished medical graduate, Dr Ron Thomson. It was a dual event with the opening of the Health Sciences Building, in which the pathology centre is housed.

The Health Sciences Building is located in the heart of the Royal Brisbane & Women's Hospital campus and is an education facility for health students from a range of disciplines.
Formerly named the Clinical Sciences Building, it has undergone a $27.8million refurbishment and now includes state-of-the-art teaching rooms, mock hospital wards and clinical bedside coaching rooms. The pathology centre takes up an entire floor of the building.

Images above courtesy Daniel Hurst, Brisbane Times.

For more of Daniel Hurst's images of the IPLC click here.

Dr Andrew Simpson, media megastar ... 

The Brisbane Times interviewed our leader extraordinaire at the recent opening of the IPLC in Brisbane.  Here's an extract from the article.

Medical students can now examine more than 2500 preserved human body parts at a new $1.5 million pathology display at the Royal Brisbane Hospital complex.

Architects' impression of the new centre.

Image courtesy of UQ website. 

Brains, hearts, lungs, kidneys, spleens and livers are among the specimens housed at the University of Queensland's Integrated Pathology Learning Centre, located in a new health sciences facility at the northside hospital.

The specimens, some of which are 50 or 60 years old, show the damage that various diseases can have on the human body.

They were donated to the university to help health and biology students learn about the body. The specimens are preserved in a liquid formaldehyde solution called formalin.

UQ pathology professor Sunil Lakhani said the new centre, launched today, was a "unique and unprecedented venture" because most medical schools in the world were shutting their facilities.

The centre brought together specimens from the James Vincent Duhig Pathology Museum and artifacts from the Marks Hirschfield Medical History Museum.

Andrew Simpson, from the Council of Australian University Museums and Collections, said he was impressed with the new centre.

"This is probably the best use of a pathology collection in a university setting I've seen in Australia," he said.

"This one is particularly good in the philosophy behind it, in terms of wanting to integrate it into the education of people."

Dr Simpson said the centre had great potential as a resource for high school students learning about the human bodies and diseases.

He said many such specimens were just "piled in a storage room".

"It's kind of unusual in a university setting; usually if they've got collections like this they don't know what to do with them," he said.

Philanthropist and medical graduate Ron Thomson officially opened the centre today.

Donations of more than $135,000, many from medical school alumni, helped pay for the facility

Architects' impressions of the building and the interior of the IPLC.

Image courtesy UQ website.