Mr SIMON VOGRIN, Academic Specialist, Medicine – St Vincent’s Hospital, Melbourne Simon is not just passionate about his chosen field of clinical neuroscience; he remains connected with his Slovenian roots. His Slovenian parents migrated to Melbourne in the early 1970’s, and he was encouraged and nurtured to follow his study interests. Simon enjoys the warmth of the Slovenian culture and traditional Slovenian Folk tunes and was struck by the challenge to learn the diatonic accordion as a teenager. He has always had a close affinity with Slovenia, so with his parents now retiring amidst the beautiful alpine national parks there and being married to Sara who also ventured out from Slovenia to make Melbourne their home, the opportunities to return are always eagerly welcomed.
About his profession Simon told us:
“I’ve always felt extremely fortunate to have been given so many opportunities to follow my instinct and focus on what I thought was valuable”. His inquisitive nature has lured him into the world of neurology and clinical neurosciences over the past two decades. “The challenge remains that there are so many conditions that are not well understood and have devasting impacts on patients. But the uncertainty associated with epilepsy sufferers and uncontrolled seizures is a struggle that drives me to explore what can be done to help”.
“In my role as a Clinical Neuroscientist, I try to bridge the gap between what we know about a patient’s condition, and what secrets can be uncovered using sophisticated technologies and techniques. As research unveils the complex interactions of the brain, mind and body – the boundaries of where we can map between important functions and abnormalities in the individual is where I focus my efforts. It’s about bringing these technologies together to build a unique and more complete picture of each patient and what makes them tick, but above all to ‘do no harm’.”
Simon’s activities involve not only exploring cutting-edge techniques using structural and functional imaging of the brain but bringing them to the clinic in a timely fashion.
Simon trusted with the following:
“The real beauty of clinical research for me remains in the honest and open interactions I have with patients and their families. As we explore their condition together to determine whether safe surgical therapies are possible, I am humbled by their selfless generosity to offer their own time as we try many different approaches, despite knowing that while it may not directly help them but may help others experiencing similar hardships. We couldn’t achieve this without a team of like-minded individuals all committed to a common outcome. I work with Physicians and Surgeons, Scientists and Engineers across hospitals, universities and with commercial partners to bring these opportunities together. It takes a great mix of talented and like-minded individuals to realise these goals, and I am appreciative of the opportunity to work with them on such complex but rewarding problems.”
His mark of success:
“My primary marker of success has remained patient outcomes. We cannot always guarantee complete success, but we can always learn how to reduce the risks and do things ever more safely.”
Simon also works as a Research Officer at the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute where he is a part of the Royal Children’s Hospital Melbourne’s Comprehensive Epilepsy Program and is involved in many different projects through The University of Melbourne. He holds honorary appointments with Bionics Institute and Swinburne University of Technology and has experience in working with national and international collaborators on various projects, as well as mentoring postgraduate students.
Simon is not just an excellent doctor and specialist, he enjoys as well the Slovenian culture. His Slovenian parents encouraged and supported him in his study. Simon likes to play a piano accordion, Slovenian Folk tunes, and has participated and performed on many occassions at the Slovenian Festivals. But his life is medicine. Read more:
Overview Contributions Info Stats Conference Paper: Movement Related Directional Tuning from Broadband Electrocorticography in HumansEwan S Nurse, Dean R Freestone, Thomas J Oxley, David C Ackland, Simon J Vogrin, Michael Murphy, Terence J O ‘brien, Mark J Cook, David B Grayden Article: Effects of transcranial direct current stimulation on motor evoked potential amplitude are neither reliable nor significant within individuals over 9 separate testing sessionsJared Cooney Horvath, Simon J Vogrin, Olivia Carter, Mark J Cook, Jason D Forte Abstract for presentation at 21st Annual Scientific Meeting of the Epilepsy Society of Australia The Effect of Different EEG Source Localisation Algorithms on Spike Dipole Position in TLE
Multi-modality 3-D image registration (MMIR) has advanced the localisation of the epileptogenic zone in the pre-surgical evaluation of patients with medically refractory partial epilepsy. EEG is temporally unmatched by any other modality. Although EEG is essential for tracking seizure evolution, it has been largely excluded from MMIR because of the difficulty in localizing the specific position of interictal discharges in 3D space. Numerous approaches have been described to localize the sources of EEG discharges, however many do not account for individual anatomical variation. In this study we examined different head models for dipole source localisation, including the boundary element method (BEM), and individual patient MRI.
Simon as Co-researcher: http://brainfoundation.org.au/research-grants/2014/neurodegenerative-diseases-4 http://www.rch1000.org.au/pdf/RCH_newsletter_SEP2013_RGB_2.pdf http://www.rch1000.org.au/pdf/RCH_newsletter_Dec_2011.pdf http://www.researchgate.net/profile/Simon_Vogrin http://www.artandepilepsy.com/international-epilepsy-congress—rome-2011.html http://www.icms.com.au/epilepsy2006/abstract/71.htm http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1528-1167.2012.03599.x/full http://www.austria.embassy.gov.au/files/vien/AustralianEmbassyNewsletter_JAN%202011.pdf http://brain.oxfordjournals.org/content/brain/136/4/1177.full.pdf http://www.yasni.com/simon+vogrin/check+people/research http://www.sinapsa.org/slo/arhiv.php?y=2004 more to come |
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