“If you ever received a text message from the Department of Health, my team was responsible for most of those!” he says.
“We compiled data to clear people to leave quarantine after a negative test result, back in the day of quarantining for fourteen days. We also compiled data from multiple sources to send alerts to people that may have been in contact with cases.
“I felt like I’d gained five years’ experience in a year.”
Like a lot of us, he found himself restless when lockdowns started, and decided to try something new. In his case, it was an online graduate certificate in infectious disease epidemiology.
He’d studied a Bachelor of Science (major in Pathology) with some microbiology and immunology subjects at the University of Melbourne but had then left that industry to work in software development, so epidemiology’s combination of disciplines appealed to him.
“I realised that it was a cross-section of all those interests I had – public health, disease, stats and coding,” Matthew says.
“That’s when I decided I would continue into a masters at the University of Melbourne.”
He chose the Master of Science (Epidemiology) because of its emphasis on solving real problems through scientific research.
It was tough but rewarding. Working up to six days a week, and sometimes up to 14 hours a day, Matthew says study sometimes felt like a relief.
“Surprisingly, studying was actually a good way to wind down!
“I found studying at a masters level more practical, focused and specialised, and the subjects were covering things that I could immediately apply to what I was doing. While it was challenging, the self-driven nature of the masters research project we do under the guidance of our supervisors made me even more passionate about what I was doing.”
Students spend around a year on two research projects, which can include a literature review or meta-analysis to compare and understand existing research, an analysis of existing data to find new insights or designing a research protocol.
Matthew completed two research projects with Professor Fiona Russell, Director of the Child and Adolescent Health PhD Program in the University of Melbourne’s medical faculty and Group Leader for Asia-Pacific Health Research at the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute (MCRI) in the Parkville biomedical research precinct.
With vaccines now available, Matthew was able to slow down and complete the research that had driven his interest in the masters, conducting two research projects during 2022.
He first conducted a systematic literature review of risk factors for infection of SARS-CoV-2 (the virus that causes COVID-19), by variant of concern, then a project to describe the epidemiology of SARS-CoV-2 when schools reopened for onsite learning throughout Australia. The projects were a highlight for Matthew, and he says they reflected what he found most rewarding about postgraduate study.
“Through the research project, I was lucky to find excellent research supervisors whose guidance and support helped to develop new ways of learning and provided unique professional experiences” he says.
“The opportunity to present at conferences and write and publish research is fantastic for people who want to get into the field.”
“I also wanted to see if a research career was for me, so having a substantial research component really appealed to me and was one of the reasons I chose the Master of Science (Epidemiology) over similar degrees.”
Matthew is now considering a PhD while continuing to work with Professor Russell as a Research Assistant at the MCRI’s Asia-Pacific Health group. Working on projects including analysing COVID-19 epidemiology in schools and a World Health Organization (WHO) review on pneumococcal carriage.
“I’m really passionate about child and adolescent health, and how infectious diseases impact children in different communities, so it’s a very nice intersection of my interests.”
He says the experience and knowledge gained in the MSc (Epi) have been instrumental in being able to transition into a career in research and he was able to immediately apply these newly learned skills to current projects.
He says viewing health through data unlocks new insights.
“The way infectious diseases move through populations, and how different social and economic factors affect both spread and health outcomes, really interested me. That’s a really cool part of it – being able to collect and analyse data to help us understand how disease occurs; the data can support previous knowledge but sometimes really challenge existing interpretations of how things behave.
“Working at the Department of Health and seeing the varying ways COVID-19 moved through different areas of Melbourne and explaining that via the contrasting social dynamics and characteristics of the populations – the more you pull on those threads, the more interesting things become.”
Matthew says that while epidemiology gained unprecedented attention in the COVID-19 pandemic, leading to greater interest in the field, there is still strong demand for the skills students learn in epidemiology.
“There is still an enormous amount of potential. The last few years has really highlighted epidemiology, specifically infectious disease epidemiology, but there are so many other areas of epidemiology that people can go into.
“There’s non-communicable disease epidemiology, cancer epidemiology, public health and biostatistics. There are a vast number of areas where you can apply the skills and knowledge you gain and have an impact.”