Rate My Professor Michael Leach

Dr Michael Leach serves as Senior Lecturer (Education and Research) in the School of Rural Health at Monash University, Bendigo, within the Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences. He earned a Bachelor of Pharmacy from La Trobe University, a Graduate Certificate of Science (Applied Statistics) from Swinburne University of Technology, a Master of Biostatistics from the University of Melbourne, a PhD in Pharmacoepidemiology from the University of South Australia, and a Graduate Certificate in Population Studies from the University of Waikato. Leach holds a Certified Health Informatician Australasia (CHIA) certification from the Australasian Institute of Digital Health and is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA).

Leach's research interests span health services research, rural health, cancer survivorship and supportive care, psychometrics, quality of life and social support, epidemiology and pharmacoepidemiology, drug safety, psychoactive drugs, health surveys, and health humanities with a focus on poetry. Current projects include the VMAX initiative examining methamphetamine use in Victoria, the Gippsland Cancer Survivorship Program, I.CAN health coaching for cancer patients, assessments of palliative care skills in rural nurses, neurological outcomes following in-hospital cardiac arrest, and pharmacoepidemiology studies on psychoactive drugs. Previously, he worked as a researcher and statistician at the Baker IDI Heart and Diabetes Institute and the Loddon Mallee Integrated Cancer Service, including a part-time secondment with Cancer Australia for the Data-driven Regional Cancer Care Initiative. Awards include Commended entry in the 2021 FPM-Hippocrates Health Professional Prize for Poetry and Medicine, Department of Veterans’ Affairs Veterans’ MATES PhD Scholarship (2011), election to the Golden Key International Honour Society (2003), First Prize in the Philippa Holland Award for Poetry (2025), and Dean’s Award for Excellence in Industry Education Programs (2024). Notable publications include "Community pharmacy density at national and subnational levels in New Zealand" (2025), "Correlates of physical activity among rural Australian cancer survivors: a cross-sectional study" (2025), "Individuals from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds have more advanced prostate cancer at diagnosis in Victoria, Australia" (2025), "Moments of Kindness in a Regional Hospital" (2025), and "Risk of Hip Fracture in Older People Using Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors" (2017). He teaches evidence-based practice and applied statistics, supervises PhD students, conducts online workshops for rural health students, and co-leads the ANZAHPE Health Humanities Hot Topic Action Group.