Public Health: Chelsea Brown

Chelsea works as an epidemiologist in the WHO Collaborating Centre for Viral Hepatitis at VIDRL at The Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity.

“I’m the project officer for a Victorian liver cancer prevention linkage study that commenced in 2016.  This is a retrospective cohort study including data from 1991 to 2016.  The study will link notifications of hepatitis B and hepatitis C with Victorian hospital data, the Victorian Cancer Registry and national datasets including the MBS, PBS and the Death Index.  As part of my role, I liaise with data custodians and key stakeholders including government departments and data linkage units.”

In addition to this Chelsea is a part-time research assistant in the Neuroepidemiology Unit within the Centre for Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the Melbourne School of Population and Global Health, University of Melbourne.

“The Neuroepidemiology Unit researches the potential for lifestyle-based preventive medicine approaches to reduce the disease burden of Multiple Sclerosis (MS).  I predominantly work on a longitudinal prospective international cohort study of people with MS.”

Chelsea has maintained a strong link with the University through her work and has many fond memories of her time spent studying here.

“I had excellent supervision throughout my MPH research project which provided me with invaluable experience, guidance and an ongoing vocational reference after graduation. And of course, meeting and befriending many fellow students with varied backgrounds and diverse career aspirations was a highlight of my time at University.”

The time Chelsea spent studying at the University was a great launch-pad for her career, with a successful publication arising from her master's research project. Since then she’s had additional research findings published including first author papers. Invitations to present at two conferences later this year- the Australasian Epidemiological Association and GP17- promise to be new career highlights.