UroRenal and Vascular



Director: Associate Professor Laurence Harewood


Services​

 

The UroRenal, Vascular Clinical Institute groups together surgical specialties in the areas of endocrinology, nephrology, urology and vascular surgery.

 

Activity

​ ​ ​       FY 2014 ​         ​FY 2015 ​        FY 2016 ​ ​

 Services ​Admissions
​Bed 
days
 ​Admissions Bed
days​		 Admissions ​Bed days ​

 Endocrinology 194 859 172 671 179 805 ​
​ Nephrology 4,720 6,637 4,518 6,905
 4,513 6,698 ​
​ Urology 9,346
15,172
10,118
16,928
 ​11,134 ​17,998
​ Vascular surgery
2,755
11,424
2,627
10,447
 ​2,632 ​10,715 ​
​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​


Conditions treated

​ ​ ​
​

​Endocrinology

 

  • Diabetes
  • Growth disorders
  • Hormonal conditions
  • Pituitary disorders
  • Polycystic ovary syndrome
  • Reproductive endocrinology
  • Thyroid conditions

 

Nephrology

 

  • Acute renal failure
  • Chronic kidney disease
  • Electrolyte disturbances
  • Hematuria
  • Hypertension
  • Kidney disease
  • Kidney stones
  • Proteinuria

​Vascular

 

  • Abdominal aortic aneurysm
  • Acute limb ischaemia
  • Aortic dissection
  • Carotid stenosis
  • Peripheral arterial occlusive disease
  • Varicose veins



Urology

 

  • Benign prostate enlargement
  • Bladder cancer
  • Bladder dysfunction
  • Bladder stones
  • Erectile dysfunction
  • Kidney cancer
  • Kidney stone disease
  • Prostate cancer
  • Testicular cancer
  • Urinary incontinence

​​​Clinical In​stitute Executive


The UroRenal & Vascular Clinical Institute Executive Members are:​​


Highlights

 

Epworth Healthcare performed the first robotic-assisted procedure in Australia in 2003, and now performs over 1000 robotic procedures/year, with the broadest array of robotic surgical procedures of any Australian centre. This revolutionary technology offers advanced key-hole surgery with 3D, high definition digital vision and wristed instruments, to enable a surgeon to perform complex surgery through only a small number of 5-10mm incisions. Robotic surgery is currently performed at Epworth in the following areas:


  • Urology
  • Gynaecology
  • Cardiac surgery
  • Gastric surgery
  • Colorectal surgery
  • ENT

 

The Australian Prostate Cancer Research Centre at Epworth

 
Home of the Australian Prostate Cancer Research Centre, Epworth has strong research links with both Melbourne University, Monash University’s prostate research centre in the Department of Anatomy and Developmental Biology as well as with the Peter MacCallum Cancer Clinic. Epworth is also one of the centres involved in the CAPTIV collaboration, which is a Victorian Government funded collaboration of major prostate researchers across the state.​

​

The Australian Prostate Cancer Research Centre at Epworth (APCRC@Epworth) is funded by the federal Department of Health (DoH) under a four year agreement, and is hosted and supported by Epworth HealthCare. 


The APCRC@Epworth has received a four year funding commitment from the DoH on two occasions (2009 and 2013). APCRC@Epworth is one of three APCRC’s. The other two centres are in Queensland and New South Wales.


The funding agreement for all three centres lists three objectives:


  1. Identify new ways to detect the presence of prostate cancer and reliably differentiate between slow growing and aggressive forms of the disease;
  2. Develop new therapies that target the molecular mechanisms that allow prostate cancers to resist current drug treatments; and
  3. Identify accurate markers which assist in predicting treatment response.


Each centre is differentiated by an area of expertise, and APCRC@Epworth is distinct by hosting a clinical and allied health arm at the centre, which supports a weekly multidisciplinary team (MDT) meeting and a free public clinic, providing patients with holistic care and providing the opportunity to recruit these patients for research and clinical trials.


The funds from the grant have created leverage and support in world class research attracting strong funding at a national and international level and publications in high impact, peer reviewed science journals. Much is this work has focussed on uncovering the molecular mechanisms of metastasis and treatment resistance through in depth sequencing studies of curated clinical samples.


 

Our performance

 

Prostate cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer and the second leading cause of male cancer deaths among Australian males. Men presenting with localised prostate cancer disease are faced with many treatment options.


Because of the many combinations of management available to men with prostate cancer, the

Prostate Cancer Registry (PCR) was established at Monash University. Its role is to monitor and allow benchmarking of quality of care by institutions and individual surgeons and radiation oncologists in the care of prostate cancer patients.


Epworth participates in the PCR as a way of monitoring the care we provide. The PCR monitors 10 indicators of care. Many of these indicators allow comparison of hospital results with acceptable levels of care. For those measures that do have a benchmark, Epworth’s hospitals perform well. These include surgical success (removal of cancer) and quality of life measures relating to urinary, sexual and bowel function.


Queries

If you have any queries regarding the data on this page, please email ClinicalProfile@epworth.org.au



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