About us

The Department of Infectious Diseases and Immunology provides inpatient infectious diseases care as well as a consultative service to all units across Austin Health.

Annually, the department provides 1100-1200 formal inpatient consults and cares for 150-200 infectious diseases inpatients.

The Infectious Diseases and Immunology Department has close links to the Departments of Microbiology and Infection Prevention and Control, and the 3 groups operate within Austin Health as a coordinated team. We have a strong emphasis on clinical excellence and research relating to infection control, public health, microbiology and clinical infectious diseases.

We currently have 3 advanced trainees in Infectious Diseases and 1 advanced trainee in Clinical Immunology, supported by a PGY3 and a PGY2 resident. We are also supported by an advanced trainee in General Medicine on rotation to Infectious Diseases. The Department of Microbiology also supports a dual trainee in Infectious Diseases and Clinical Microbiology. Almost all Infectious Diseases consultants hold or are enrolled in higher research degrees (PhD/MD) and a number of our consultants are dual-trained in Infectious Diseases and Clinical Microbiology.

The Infectious Diseases & Microbiology Registrar role

Our program is accredited with the RACP Infectious Diseases SAC for core Advanced Training in Infectious Diseases and with the RCPA Microbiology Committee for core training in Clinical Microbiology.

Registrar roles

There are two registrar positions for 12 months core ID, and two positions for 6 months core ID/6 months microbiology.

Clinical ID rotations are divided into:

• Inpatient registrar – responsible for ID inpatients, ID Hospital in the Home (HITH) patients and ED referrals, and supervision of the ID resident (PGY3/PGY2).
• Consults registrar – responsible for ID consults for general hospital patients.
• ICU/immunocompromised host registrar – responsible for ICU, liver transplant, haematology and oncology consults.
• ID microbiology registrar – responsible for laboratory liaison, attendance at infection control meetings, hospital outbreak investigation, providing advice to clinicians, and daily running of the diagnostic microbiology laboratory.

All clinical ID registrars are also responsible for antimicrobial stewardship and antimicrobial approvals.

Outpatient Clinics

Infectious Diseases physicians attend a number of general and specialist infectious diseases clinics, including:

• General ID & tuberculosis clinic
• General ID & HIV clinic
• Hepatitis clinic
• Travel and Tropical Medicine clinic
• Hospital in the Home clinic
• Drug and Antibiotic Allergy clinic (including anaesthetic and food allergies)
• Immunocompromised host clinic (including pre/post transplant patients with ID issues)

Registrars are expected to participate in a number of these clinics for both service provision and advanced training.

In general, registrars are encouraged to maintain continuity of care of their own patients in clinic, with close consultant supervision. 

The Clinical Immunology Registrar role

The advanced trainee in Clinical Immunology will be responsible for immunology consults in hospital patients (eg. drug allergy, immunodeficiency) and will attend a range of Drug and Antibiotic Allergy clinics.

The trainee will participate in the weekly multidisciplinary ‘penicillin allergy’ antimicrobial stewardship round.

Out of hours on-call/re-call

Austin Health provides 24/7 on-call support for Infectious Diseases. Registrars share the on-call duties, usually covering one night during the working week, and 1 in 4 weekends, depending on holiday/conference staffing. Registrars are remunerated for all rostered on-call and if required, additional re-call. It is generally expected that during rostered weekends on-call, registrars come in on Saturday and Sunday mornings, but re-call is otherwise variable.

Registrar projects

In accordance with RACP and RCPA requirements, each registrar is expected to select and complete a project each year. Registrars will be assisted and supervised with their projects, with the aim of presenting findings at a local and/or international conference, and publishing results in a peer reviewed journal. 

Meetings and conferences

Local meetings

Melbourne Infectious Diseases Group meets via Zoom on alternate Tuesday mornings. Consultants and registrars from Austin attend and actively participate in the presentation roster. In addition, registrars are encouraged to attend other local meetings such as the Immunocompromised Host meetings every three months.

National meetings

Consultants and registrars generally attend one of the Australasian Society for Infectious Diseases (ASID), the Australian Society for Antimicrobials (ASA), or the Australasian Society for HIV Medicine (ASHM) annual conferences each year and are encouraged to submit abstracts for presentation. Registrars who have abstracts accepted will receive support from the department to attend and present their work.

International meetings

Consultants and registrars generally attend one of ECCMID, ICAAC, or ID week (IDSA) and are encouraged to submit abstracts for presentation. Registrars who have abstracts accepted will receive support from the department to attend and present their work.

Application process

To apply for an advanced training position in Infectious Diseases/Microbiology, you must:

• be registered with AHPRA as a Medical Practitioner in Australia, and
• have passed the FRACP written and clinical exams.

How to apply

There is a centralised process and program that governs the application and appointment of Infectious Diseases core accredited advanced training positions in Victoria.

There are several steps in the application process:

1. Notify us of your intention to apply by email: infectious.diseases@austin.org.au
   
   
2. If you intend to do Microbiology RCPA training, please also email Dr Marcel Leroi, Head of Microbiology: marcel.leroi@austin.org.au

3. Apply to the Victorian ID Training Program by emailing the match coordinators: vicidtrainingprogram@gmail.com

4. Apply via PMCV Allocation and Placement Service for RACP All Specialty Matches (scroll to Infectious Diseases).