The Surgical & Critical Care Directorate supports research projects of medical students, junior medical officers and early career surgeons, knowing that participating in research is an important competency in the progression of doctors along the surgical pathway.

Margaret Rogers, Simon Williams & Sue Brereton (L-R)

Recent Research Highlights

  • The onset of COVID-19 saw our health services adapt and change procedures. A team of our early career surgeons and medical students documented the flow of surgical services in our public hospital serving a rural and regional population.  Results that highlighted over 76,000 operations were performed during the study period were published this year in the Australian Journal of Rural Health and the Australia and New Zealand Journal of Surgery.
  • Our early career surgeons have been working with research studies adjunct to their clinical load. Topics have included urological services provided at Hamilton Base Hospital supported by University Hospital Geelong, otolaryngology are assessing the concordance of different measures to identify optimal treatment choices, general surgery are exploring the effectiveness of day surgery for procedures traditionally having a longer length of stay, and orthopaedics are analysing any association between demographics and hip, knee or shoulder replacements.
  • The Royal Australasian College of Surgeons annual scientific conference gives the opportunity for study results to be presented prior to publication. Ideas are shared, modified and even reassessed with teams from all over Australia and New Zealand attending.  Our surgeons presented health equity of treatment for ear, nose and throat cancers in the Christchurch meeting and surgical techniques for breast cancer at Sydney.

Surgical Units

  • Vascular
  • Urology
  • Orthopaedics
  • Plastic & Reconstructive

Research Team

Research Staff

Collaborating Organisations

University Hospital of Geelong

  • Emergency Department
  • Anaesthetics
  • Operating Services
  • Business Intelligence and Data Integrity Unit
  • Library

Deakin University

  • Medical students

Feature Publications

Jacob Gordon, Michael Seitz.  A giant right coronary artery aneurysm:  an uncommon manifestation of artherosclerosis and a cause of chest pain.  2025 ANZ J Surgery 95(5):1017-1018

Jacob Gordon, Nathan Biggs.  A unique case of compartment syndrome due to a ruptured mycotic popliteal artery aneurysm.  2023 Annals of Vascular Surgery.  3(4) 100226

Deepika Gunda, Maria-Pia Bernardi, Michael Borschmann.  Implementing sustainable practices to reduce wastage and costs in adenotonsillectomy.   2025 ANZ J Surgery 95(4):708-712

Henna Eqbal, Michael Borschmann, Margaret J Rogers.  Equity of Treatment for Head and Neck cancer in the Barwon South West Region of Victoria.  Royal Australian College of Surgeons scientific conference in New Zealand 2024.

Bree Lauritz, M Trinh, Jessica Henegan, Margaret J Rogers, Kim Prince.  Oncoplastic breast surgery in a regional centre.  Royal Australian College of Surgeons scientific conference in Sydney 2025.

H Eqbal, A Owen, G Guest, D Watters, S Nagra.  Small bowel resection for ischemia following transcatheter arterial embolization for bleeding jejunal diverticulum:  an easily forgotten complication.  2023 ANZ J Surg  93(4):1027-1028

Thomas Page, Margaret Rogers, Kevin Eng, Kirsten Porter, Stephen Gill, Richard S Page.  Locked down:  Orthopaedic surgery in a regional health service during the COVID-19 pandemic.  ANZ J Surgery  2025 95(3) 544-548

Andrew Girjes, Holly Wardlaw, Stephen Gill, Richard Page, Margaret Rogers, Kevin Eng.  Optimising theatre time management:  A quality improvement project.  2024  Presentation to Barwon Health Orthopaedic Annual Conference.

Ellen Kelsey, Jessica Wynn, Angela Holmes, Kathryn McLeod.  Anatomical location and number of injection sites of intravesical OnabotulinumtoxinA for females with refractory idiopathic overactive bladder:  A scoping review.  2024  Neurourol Urodyn  43(3): 553-564.

Thomas J Neerhut, Jacob Gordon, Margaret J Rogers, Susan Brereton, Simon A Williams.  Surgery during the pandemic in a Public Hospital in South West Victoria, Australia:  A Regional/Rural Perspective.  2025 Aust J Rural Health  33(3):e70063.  Doi:  10.1111/ajr.70063

Support Our Research

Participate in a clinical trial

To find out about Clinical Trials currently underway at Barwon Health, click here.

Donate

Research requires ongoing investment and there are several ways to support this amazing work.

You can make a donation today and contribute to an item on our research wish list, consider a bequest in your will, or establish a lasting legacy fund in your name. No matter what size, your philanthropic support with deliver an immediate impact.

To donate now or for more information and further discuss your support, please contact the Barwon Health Foundation.

Page last updated: October 10, 2025