Matthew Read - recipient of the Senior Lecturer Fellowship

Matthew Read - recipient of the Senior Lecturer Fellowship

Dr Matthew Read is a general and upper gastrointestinal surgeon. A recipient of the Senior Lecturer Fellowship from the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons (RACS) in 2020 – 21, he believes this is a great support, especially for those on the path to becoming an academic surgeon. With the Fellowship, he has established a research program in oesophageal cancer and mentors students interested in academic surgery. “This Fellowship is probably one of the very few funding sources around Australia that actually help academic surgeons in the early phase of their career,” Dr Read says. After completing his Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery from Monash University, Melbourne in 2003, Dr Read completed his internship and resident training at the Western Hospital, Melbourne. Despite his keen interest in surgery, his initial applications to the surgical program were unsuccessful. Following this initial setback, Dr Read gained further clinical experience by focusing on other areas such as critical care and remote medicine. After working in the Northern Territory, Dr Read returned to Melbourne before successfully being accepted into the general surgical program. Dr Read’s first rotation as an accredited Trainee was in Thoracic surgery where he gained an appreciation for the complexity of operating in the chest. “This led me to pursue my interest in Upper Gastrointestinal surgery, as I saw it as an opportunity to combine elements of both General Surgery and Thoracic surgery,” he says. Later, Dr Read undertook a PhD in surgical oncology at The Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, Melbourne. Under the supervision of Professor Wayne Phillips, he successfully developed a series of pre-clinical models for the study of oesophageal cancer. After returning to clinical training in 2016, Dr Read completed his General Surgical Fellowship and was accepted by the Australian & Aotearoa New Zealand Gastric & Oesophageal Surgery Association (AANZGOSA). He completed two years of subspecialty training in Upper Gastrointestinal surgery, which included training at both St Vincent’s and The Alfred hospitals in Melbourne. Following this, he secured a Fellowship at the University Medical Center Utrecht in the Netherlands. This surgical oncology Fellowship, with a special focus on robotic surgery, gave him the opportunity to work with Professor Richard van Hillegersberg, a leader in robotic surgery for the oesophagus. “I clearly had to prioritise the things that were important to me … given that there are key things that I want to achieve.”

It was at the end of his term in the Netherlands when he was awarded the Senior Lecturer Fellowship by RACS. With this support, Dr Read helped establish a collaboration with a goal of finding better ways of predicting how patients with oesophageal cancer would respond to treatment. It also gave him the opportunity of working under Professor Hans Clevers at the Hubrecht Institute—a guru in the field of stem cell biology. Dr Read’s interest in research stems from the fact that patient outcomes are universally poor with oesophageal cancer. A rapidly increasing cancer worldwide, he rues there is very little funding and awareness. Dr Read’s public affiliation is with St Vincent’s Hospital, and he has an honorary appointment through the University of Melbourne for both his teaching and research roles. Throughout his career, Dr Read has received numerous scholarships and awards. These have included the Francis and Phyllis Thornell Shore Memorial Scholarship through RACS and the John Ham Medal through General Surgeons Australia. With so much going on, Dr Read has found the perfect balance between his family and work life. “I was self-reflective very early on. After returning from overseas it was evident that I was too busy. I was overworked and time-poor and realised it wasn’t going to be sustainable long-term. I clearly had to prioritise the things that were important to me, especially given that there are key things that I want to achieve,” he says. “To get to where I am now has been 25 years of training. It’s a long haul and I’m only just at the beginning,” he says.

RACS offers more than 70 scholarships and grants valued at more than $2.5 million annually through its Scholarships and Grants Program. To learn more, visit www.surgeons.org/scholarships