STAFF PROFILE
Professor Barbora deCourten
Prof Barbora de Courten, , MD PhD FRACP MPH ExecMBA is a Deputy Dean and Professor of Medicine at the School of Health & Biomedicine at RMIT University and Specialist Physician at the Department of Diabetes & Vascular Medicine and at General Medicine at Monash Health in Melbourne, Victoria.
Prof de Courten has a PhD in Epidemiology, a Master of Public Health and extensive training in clinical trials from the National Institutes of Health in the USA. She has expertise across the translational research continuum from basic science to human mechanistic studies to clinical trials through to public health interventions and clinical practice. She is also Business-focused Executive MBA delivering practical processes through translational strategy, commercialization, value proposition, and leadership.
She is passionate about research into holistic approaches to the prevention and treatment of chronic diseases by promoting health through safe, low-cost and easily scalable interventions with the potential to have an immediate public health impact to prevent and treat chronic diseases. She believes this will impact not only the health of individuals but also be beneficial to our society and the environment we live in.
Prof de Courten's vision is to establish new strategies for the prevention and management of chronic diseases, specifically obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Her goal is that her research findings will ultimately translate into treatment guidelines, reduced diabetes and cardiovascular morbidity and mortality and reduced healthcare costs.
She has worked in a variety of international settings, as reflected by my appointments at prestigious institutions in the USA (National Institutes of Health), Australia (Baker IDI, Monash University, The Alfred Hospital and Monash Health) and Europe (University of Copenhagen, Comenius University and Steno Diabetes Centre). She has held fellowships from the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC), National Heart Foundation (NHF), Fogarty (USA) and Royal Australasian College of Physicians (RACP). She enjoys an active national and international research network with >160 collaborators. She has attracted >$9.5 million in research funding, published more than 198 peer-reviewed scientific articles and was awarded 15 research awards. Her work has been cited in 7 international policy documents incl. World Health Organization, World Bank and National Institutes of Health.
Prof de Courten promotes the breakdown of information silos in research and supports collaboration across disciplines to achieve major advances in health in shorter timeframes.
Reporting to the Dean, she leads the applied discipline teams across Psychology, Pharmacy, Nursing and Medical Radiation.
She is responsible for:
- Updating the curriculum for all healthcare workers to reflect modern workforce requirements including programs in leadership, business management & basics of accounting, design thinking and digital health.
- Mapping the department's staff key skills and capabilities to ensure we understand what strengths we can draw upon and where we may need to address any unmet capabilities.
- Developing a detailed research strategy and creating our vision and mission for the next 3 years.
- Leadership of a transdisciplinary research program across Design, Engineering, IT and Health.
- Ensuring all courses meet the required accreditation standards.
- Global Executive Master of Business Administration - Strategy, Globalisation, Innovation & Transformation, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia– 2020-2021
- Master of Public Health, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia – 2010- 2012
- Fellow of Royal Australasian College of Physicians, Royal Australasian College of Physicians, Australia – 2010
- Specialty Degree, Internal Medicine, Slovak Medical University, Slovak Republic – 2003
- PhD, Epidemiology, Faculty of Medicine, Comenius University, Slovak Republic – 2002
- MD, Medicine and Surgery, Faculty of Medicine, Comenius University, Slovak Republic – 1992- 1998
- Advisory Board Member, Lancet Healthy Longevity Journal 2022 – current
- Member Monash Health Digital Health Management Committee 2020 – current
- Member, Women in Science Discovery Medicine, Monash University 2018 – current
- Elected Councillor Australia & New Zealand Obesity Society 2018 – current
- Elected Lead Fellow Council Royal Australasian College of Physicians 2018 – current
- Advisory Board Member Australian National Diabetes Audit Benchmarking Program 2015 – current
- Member, Pfizer Advisory Group – 2020
- Member, Nutritional Science and Metabolism Working Group, American Diabetes Association – 2018 – current
- Member, Eli Lilly Innovation Advisory Group - 2014-2015
- Medical Advisor, Nutromics (MedTech Start-up) - 2021-2022
- Member, Diabetes Australia Research Trust Research Advisory Panel - 2015-2019
- Advisory Board member, Biogrid - 2018-2019
5 PhD Current Supervisions
- Schön, M.,Kukurova, I.,Krumpolec, P.,Blazicek, P.,de Courten, B., et al, . (2023). Supplementation-Induced Change in Muscle Carnosine is Paralleled by Changes in Muscle Metabolism, Protein Glycation and Reactive Carbonyl Species Sequestering In: Physiological Research, 72, 87 - 97
- Khanal, M.,Bhandari, P.,Dhungana, R.,de Courten, B., et al, . (2023). Electrocardiogram abnormalities and renal impairment in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus: A healthcare facilities-based cross-sectional study in Dang district of Nepal In: Journal of Diabetes Investigation, 14, 602 - 613
- Stark, R.,Feehan, J.,Mousa, A.,Andrews, Z.,de Courten, B. (2023). Liver-expressed antimicrobial peptide 2 is associated with improved pancreatic insulin secretion in adults with overweight and obesity In: Diabetes, Obesity and Metabolism, 25, 1213 - 1220
- Kabthymer, R.,Karim, M.,Hodge, A.,deCourten, B. (2023). High cereal fibre but not total fibre is associated with a lower risk of type 2 diabetes: Evidence from the Melbourne Collaborative Cohort Study In: Diabetes, Obesity and Metabolism, 25, 1911 - 1921
- Jalali, S.,Heidari, Z.,de Courten, B.,Rashidkhani, B. (2022). Dietary Total Antioxidant Capacity and Odds of Breast Cancer: A Case-Control Study In: Nutrition and Cancer, 75, 302 - 309
- Naseri, K.,Saadati, S.,Hoseinian, P.,de Courten, B., et al, . (2022). Curcumin Offers No Additional Benefit to Lifestyle Intervention on Cardiometabolic Status in Patients with Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease In: Nutrients, 14, 1 - 15
- Khanal, M.,Bhandari, P.,Dhungana, R.,Gurung, Y.,Rawal, L.,Pandey, G.,Bhandari, M.,de Courten, M.,de Courten, B. (2022). Poor glycemic control, cardiovascular disease risk factors and their clustering among patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus: A cross-sectional study from Nepal In: PLoS ONE, 17, 1 - 19
- de Courten, B. (2022). Carnosine as a potential therapeutic for the management of peripheral vascular disease In: Nutrition, Metabolism and Cardiovascular Diseases, , 1 - 8
- Sood, S.,Itsiopoulos, C.,Wilson, K.,Plebanski, M.,de Courten, B., et al, . (2022). Higher Adherence to a Mediterranean Diet Is Associated with Improved Insulin Sensitivity and Selected Markers of Inflammation in Individuals Who Are Overweight and Obese without Diabetes In: Nutrients, 14, 1 - 15
- Naseri, K.,Saadati, S.,Ghaemi, F.,Ashtary-Larky, D.,Asbaghi, O.,Sadeghi, S.,Afrisham, R.,de Courten, B. (2022). The efects of probiotic and synbiotic supplementation on infammation, oxidative stress, and circulating adiponectin and leptin concentration in subjects with prediabetes and type 2 diabetes mellitus: a GRADE-assessed systematic review, meta-analysis, and meta-regression of randomized clinical trials In: European Journal of Nutrition, 62, 543 - 561