Accolades have been going out to Australian respiratory physicians who have been recognised with international awards in the past week.
Associate Professor Daniel Steinfort has been awarded the mid-career gold medal in clinical techniques, imaging and endoscopy from the European Respiratory Society (ERS) awards.
Reputedly the highest international accolade for the field, this reflected the world-leading interventional bronchoscopy service provided by Associate Professor Steinfort and his team at the Royal Melbourne Hospital, the ERS said.
The award citation (link here) added that he had authored over 140 journal articles on lung cancer and respiratory disease, with his particular field of expertise being interventional pulmonology.
“He has led multiple international research collaborations in diagnosis & staging of NSCLC and has been principal investigator for multiple first-in-human studies of bronchoscopic ablation techniques for NSCLC and other illnesses.”
“He is a significant contributor to active translational research programs examining the molecular and immunologic aspects of NSCLC and small cell lung cancer.”
Professor Anne Holland, the professor of physiotherapy and head of respiratory research at Monash University and Alfred Health in Melbourne was also recognised with the society’s mid-career gold medal for allied health professionals.
This reflected her work leading a research program into non-drug treatments for patients with chronic lung disease, with recent clinical trials testing novel models of pulmonary rehabilitation to improve access and uptake, including low-cost home-based models and tele-rehabilitation.