Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine
In July 2019 we focused on MARC members in the Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine.
| Dr Jennifer Schumann (née Pilgrim) is a Senior Research Fellow and Head of the Drug Harm Prevention Unit at the Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine and an Adjunct Senior Lecturer at Monash University. Dr Schumann has a Bachelor of Science with Honours in Pharmacology (2006) and Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in Forensic Medicine (2011) from Monash University. Dr Schumann is a forensic pharmacologist and toxicologist with over 13 years' experience interpreting the involvement of alcohol and other drugs in death. |
| A/Prof Dimitri Gerostamoulos is Head of Forensic Science & Chief Toxicologist at the VIFM. He is a Toxicologist, Pharmacologist and Adjunct Associate Professor in the School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine. A/Prof Gerostamoulos has given evidence in more than 130 judicial cases in the field of forensic toxicology and pharmacology and has provided opinions on numerous other cases around Australia relating to the pharmacology of drugs, effects of drugs in drivers, and analytical and toxicological issues concerning drugs in hair, blood, urine and other matrices. His expertise includes alcohol-fuelled violence and synthetic drugs. |
An example of their recent work is their presentation at the Forensic And Clinical Toxicology Association's (FACTA) annual meeting in Adelaide last month. This represented a collaboration with the Victorian Poisons Information Centre and Austin Health and described quetiapine-related deaths and emergencies in Victoria between 2000-2016. The presentation demonstrated an increasing trend in quetiapine-related deaths and non-fatal overdose in Victorian, which correlated with an increase in prescriptions nationally.