Rate My Professor Sandra Petty

A/Prof. Sandra Petty MBBS FRACP PhD is an Adjunct Senior Lecturer in the Department of Neuroscience at Monash University, School of Translational Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences. She holds a Senior Lecturer position at The University of Melbourne Medical School, where she engages in teaching and medical student curriculum development, emphasizing transition to medical practice and medical cognizance. As an academic and clinical neurologist focusing on epilepsy and its comorbidities, Petty completed her specialist training in neurology in 2006. She was awarded her PhD in 2009 for research examining bone health, body composition, falls, and fracture risk in twins and siblings discordant for anti-epileptic medication use. She undertook combined clinical and research training in neurology and bone health, followed by postdoctoral work using a mouse primary calvarial osteoblast model and patch clamping to study the effects of epilepsy medications on ion channels in osteoblasts.

Petty's research interests include neurology, epilepsy, bone health and body composition, falls and fracture risk related to anti-epileptic drugs, and facilitating transparent reporting of negative or inconclusive results in biomedical research to enhance communication between scientists and clinicians, improve research efficiency, and inform study design and patient care. Key publications encompass 'Bone loss with antiepileptic drug therapy: a twin and sibling study' (Osteoporosis International, 2017), 'Monotherapy with Levetiracetam Versus Older AEDs: A Randomized Comparative Trial of Effects on Bone Health' (Calcified Tissue International, 2016), 'The antiepileptic medications carbamazepine and phenytoin inhibit native sodium currents in murine osteoblasts' (Epilepsia, 2016), 'Changes in balance function with chronic antiepileptic drug therapy: A twin and sibling study' (Epilepsia, 2015), and 'Balance disorders and falls in epilepsy' (Epilepsy and the Interictal State: Co-morbidities and Quality of Life, 2015). She practices in epilepsy at St Vincent’s Hospital and Alfred Health in Melbourne, serves as Director of the Brain Foundation of Victoria, and is an honorary Fellow of Ormond College at The University of Melbourne.