Evelyn Konstantopoulos
Evelyn Konstantopoulos
MD Scholarly Intensive Placement (SIP)
The SIP was one of my favourite rotations throughout my degree. It is the first time I have been able to dedicate full-time hours to a research project, and the team was incredibly supportive.
2021 was Evelyn Konstantopoulos’s final year of studying the Doctor of Medicine (MD) at Monash University, a year that sees medical students undertake a six-week Scholarly Intensive Placement (SIP). This research placement helps them understand how medical evidence is generated, how it supports clinical practice, and provides an opportunity for students to consider if research might play a role in their future careers.
Evelyn joined our Women’s Health Research Program under renowned Endocrinologist Prof Susan Davis and Medical Epidemiologist Prof Robin Bell. She used an established dataset of healthy pre-menopausal women (the Grollo-Ruzene cohort) to explore the prevalence of adenomyosis. While benign, this overgrowth of endometrial tissue into the surrounding uterine muscle can cause pain and abnormal bleeding.
Evelyn says, “The SIP was one of my favourite rotations throughout my degree. It is the first time I have been able to dedicate full-time hours to a research project, and the team was incredibly supportive. I have always been passionate about women’s health and was interested to participate in research that directly informs the evidence-based medicine that we practise. I felt extremely fortunate to work with a team whose research guides best clinical care for women globally.
Previous estimates on the prevalence of adenomyosis in the general population offered very broad ranges (0.8-66.6 per cent), due a myriad of reasons from diagnosis requiring imaging or surgery with histological confirmation, to the fact that most women will only be diagnosed if they are symptomatic and health-care seeking. Previous studies of the prevalence in the non-healthcare seeking pre-menopausal population often relied on self-reported diagnosis. However, the Grollo-Ruzene cohort contained 207 women who had undergone pelvic ultrasound as part of the study, offering objective data to establish a more robust prevalence estimate. The team are preparing the findings for publication.
In the months since her SIP, Evelyn has completed her degree and has begun an internship at Melbourne’s Royal Women’s Hospital.
“Experiencing the world of research, even briefly, has given me confidence to dig a little deeper into another side of medicine and take on further research opportunities that I hope will benefit patients and their families alike throughout the course of my career.”