About Us
The Melbourne Vaccine Education Centre (MVEC) is an educational website, developed with the aim of providing up-to-date immunisation information for both healthcare professionals and members of the public.
We are based at Murdoch Children’s Research Institute (MCRI), a research organisation, and are affiliated and collaborate with SAEFVIC (Surveillance of Adverse Events Following Vaccination in the Community).
The content of MVEC reflects a collaboration of information prepared by immunisation pediatricians and adult physicians, immunisation nurses, infectious disease specialists, allergy specialists and infection control teams. All information is reviewed and updated on a regular basis.
MVEC is a proud member of the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Vaccine Safety Net. All Vaccine Safety Net members are verified by the WHO as a source of reliable and credible vaccine safety information.
If you are interested in collaborating with MVEC, we’d love to hear from you! Please contact us here.
Editorial Board
Professor Nigel Crawford
BMBS, FRACP, MPH, PhD
MVEC Director
Professor Crawford is a consultant paediatrician and vaccinologist. He is the Director of SAEFVIC, based at the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute (MCRI), Head of Immunisation Services at The Royal Children’s Hospital (RCH) and Chair of the Victorian Specialist Immunisation Services (VicSIS). In 2021, Professor Crawford was appointed Chair of the Australian Therapeutic Advisory Group on Immunisation (ATAGI). He is an expert in the vaccination of special risk groups, a member of the ATAGI COVID-19 Working Group Executive, Chair of ATAGI Subgroup #3 (Vaccine Safety), Chair of Vaccine Safety Committee (B Part of It NT Study), Member of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) COVID-19 vaccine Expert Advisory Group (EAG) of the Department Health Canberra, and Member of the Victorian Department of Health COVID-19 vaccine Expert Advisory Group (EAG).
Dr Daryl Cheng
MBBS, MPH, FRACP, AFAIDH, CHIA
MVEC Medical Lead
Dr Daryl Cheng is a consultant paediatrician and clinical informatician with a special interest in immunisation and travel medicine, based at The Royal Children’s Hospital (RCH) and Monash Health. He also has clinical research and educational appointments at SAEFVIC & MVEC, Murdoch Children’s Research Institute (MCRI) and the Department of Paediatrics, University of Melbourne.
HIs keen interests in health informatics and healthcare systems are fostered through roles with the Melbourne Children’s Centre for Health Analytics and the RCH Strategy, Quality & Improvement Team.
Professor Jim Buttery
MBBS, FRACP, MSc, MD
MVEC Medical Advisor
Professor Buttery is a paediatric infectious diseases physician and vaccinologist. He is the inaugural Professor of Child Health Informatics at the University of Melbourne. He is Head of Health Informatics, Epidemiology and Signal Detection at SAEFVIC (MCRI) and Chief Clinical Research Information Officer and Infectious Diseases Physician at The Royal Children’s Hospital (RCH). Professor Buttery also serves as a member of the Australian Medical Services Advisory Committee, member of the TGA (Therapeutic Goods Administration) Advisory Committee on Vaccines, member of the Centre for Epidemic Preparedness and Innovation, SPEAC meta-DSMB COVID vaccines, and member of DSMB, COVID vaccine candidate, Serum Institute of India.
Rachael McGuire
BNurs, GradCertClinEd
MVEC Education Nurse Coordinator
Rachael is an accredited Nurse Immuniser and experienced paediatric registered nurse. She has a strong interest in the immunisation of special risk groups, including those with immunosuppression, as well as vaccine safety. She is passionate about immunisation education and has recently completed a Graduate Certificate in Clinical Education.
Francesca Machingaifa
BNurs (Hons), PGDipN (Paediatrics), GradCertClinEd
MVEC Education Nurse Coordinator
Francesca is an accredited Nurse Immuniser and experienced paediatric registered nurse. Prior to working at MVEC, she worked with SAEFVIC (MCRI) as a Research Nurse and holds the position of a Nurse Immuniser with a local council. Francesca is passionate about providing immunisation education to healthcare providers and the general public.
Lois Tham
DipMktg
MVEC Administrative and Technical Support
Lois is the administrative assistant at MVEC and personal assistant to Professor Nigel Crawford. She has a background in marketing communications, customer relations and has extensive experience in corporate/ private events management.