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MeDeFacts

MeDeFactshttp://cms.meddent.uwa.edu.au/ volume 13 number 1 march 2007

MeDeFacts

A FULL COLOUR VERSION OF MEDEFACTS CAN BE VIEWED AT WWW.MEDDENT.UWA.EDU.AU

Medical researchers and clinicians in WA will have greater opportunities for

collaborating in research with China under plans being developed by Faculty Dean Professor Ian Puddey, following a recent trip to major Chinese cities.In addition, the chances for UWA medical students to undertake electives in China and for Chinese students to study on a short-term basis at UWA will be increased under the plan.

NOVEL SCHOLARSHIPS PROMOTE GENERAL PRACTICE An innovative scholarship scheme to encourage medical students to become GPs has

been initiated by a Perth inner city general practice and the Faculty’s Professor of General Practice Jon Emery.It is believed it is the first time a general practice has provided funding for scholarships.

Professor Puddey said the Faculty aimed to foster the development of collaborative links with the Medical Schools in Nanjing and Hangzhou. Nanjing Medical School offers two programs – a seven-year MMedSci and a nine-year DMedSci. “It is a small medical school with an intake of only 50-60 students per year but it selects very good students and most graduates go to the best hospitals in China and also abroad, particularly to the US,” Professor Puddey said.

“It is affiliated with three hospitals andassociated with three others – all top hospitals which provide good clinical experience and collaborate in the education of the students.“At UWA, we can offer opportunities with the MBBS/BMedSci, electives, postgraduate exchange and research.”The course length and entry point were similar in the two medical schools and there was a similar course structure with basic sciences, research and clinical medicine.

FACULTY FORGES STRONG TIES WITH CHINA

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continued page13

Faculty Manager Susan Henshall, WA GP Dr Peggy Leung and Faculty Dean Professor Ian Puddey in front of the gates of the Nanjing University. Loosely translated, the calligraphy by former Chairman Mao Tse-tung on the gates says “Be united, keep alert, work hard and play hard.”

Faculty Manager Susan Henshall, WA GP Dr Peggy Leung and Faculty Dean Professor Ian Puddey in front of the gates of the Nanjing University. Loosely translated, the calligraphy by former Chairman Mao Tse-tung on the gates says “Be united, keep alert, work hard and play hard.”

2 MeDeFacts UWA Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences March 2007

Fostering an Australia-China link was important for UWA, which needed to have an outward focus mindful of the imperative for internationalisation, Professor Puddey said.“The reputation of the University doesn’t rely just on local students but also on international students and visitors,” he said. “I think a major way to start to grow that reputation is to grow collaborations and exchanges with key universities in other countries. Clearly China has some world-class institutions and the ones UWA has targeted at Zhejiang and Nanjing are amongst those universities.“Also at a student level, to be able to have interactions with international students must enrich the undergraduate experience. And I certainly hope that those students who visit us as undergraduates will give every consideration to coming back as postgraduates. “If we can encourage China’s best students to do postgraduate studies in Australia it is a win-win from our perspective of learning and from the research effort of the Medical School. From their perspective,

hopefully they will gain valuable experience which they will take back to China once they graduate.”

SCHOLARSHIPS FOR MEDICINE IN CHINAFifth-year medical students will have the chance to vie for scholarships taking them to China at the end of the year for an elective placement of six

weeks.Based in Nanjing, they will do a medical rotation of their choosing at the Drum Tower Hospital. The Faculty will pay their airfare and the Nanjing Medical School will provide their accommodation.Three of the Sobotka scholarships will be offered each year. This year’s applications close on 31 August.The Drum Tower Hospital has 1460 beds, 32 clinical departments, 21 special research sections or laboratories, 2300 employees, including 1890 medical personnel and serves 37,000 inpatients and 1.5 million outpatients and emergency cases each year. Its major strengths are in neurology, stroke, gene and stem cell research and it is also undertaking research into the high incidence of heart disease amongst diabetics, in collaboration with King’s College and St Thomas’s Hospital in London.In an exchange plan, three students have been chosen from the Nanjing Medical School to come to WA in November for three months to undertake two six-week electives at one of the major teaching hospitals. The Faculty will provide a scholarship to assist with the cost of accommodation and a living allowance and the Nanjing Medical School will pay their airfare. They were selected from 10 candidates by Professor Minghao Zheng, Director of Orthopaedic Research in the Faculty’s School of Surgery and Pathology, when he went to China in December as a follow-up to Professor Puddey’s trip.Professor Puddey laid the groundwork for the exchanges on his visit to the Nanjing Medical School which has a 10-week program to enable 4th year students to participate in research, attached to laboratories in the Medical School or one of the hospitals.“It would be possible for Nanjing students to do the Year 4, 10-week research program in Australia and this would provide a good opportunity to evaluate possible future exchanges,” Professor Puddey said after his visit.

FACULTY FORGES STRONG TIESWITH CHINA CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

The original Drum Tower in Nanjing, which gave the nearby hospital its name. The Tower originally housed two large drums and 24 small drums, which were used to announce the arrival of the emperor and his court to

Nanjing and to warn city residents of danger.

Professor Ian Puddey shares notes with

Professor Jianhong Luo, Executive Dean

of the Zhejiang University Medical

School.

Professor Ian Puddey and Faculty Manager Susan Henshall are the guests of Professor Ren Xiang

Tan, Dean of the Nanjing Medical School.

The Zheijiang University School of Medicine.

continued page 10

BY PROFESSOR IAN PUDDEY, DEAN

MeDeFacts UWA Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences 3March 2007

The

Dean’s

DeskDuring my recent trip to China I visited the Chinese University of Hong Kong

and was taken on a tour of their Minimally Invasive Surgical Skills Centre at the Prince of Wales Hospital. Established by their Faculty of Medicine, it is now one of the largest multi-disciplinary surgical skills centres in the Asia Pacific region. During the visit, Iwatched two Japanese surgeons performing a partial gastrectomy on a patient in Seoul, Korea, with the whole procedure being beamed live to hospitals throughout the region while the teaching was being moderated by a surgeon at the centre in Hong Kong. Such an active role by a University in post-graduate medical education both locally and internationally can now be emulated by The University of Western Australia, which has now assumed full responsibility for the Clinical Training and Education Centre (CTEC) located on the Crawley campus and which has been fully incorporated into its Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences.New configurationCTEC was previously managed by an independent consortium and led by its director, Adjunct Professor Bernard Lawrence, who developed a distinguished reputation because of the passion, drive and advocacy that he exercised for both CTEC and post-graduate medical education in Western Australia. In a new configuration, it will now beintegrated with the long-established Education Centre (EdCent) of the Faculty under a newly appointed Professor of Medical Education, Jeff Hamdorf. Jeff will bring not only his long-standing experience and expertise in both undergraduate and postgraduate surgical education to his latest role but also his contagious enthusiasm for medical education more broadly. These new arrangements portend significant opportunitiesfor medical and health professional education in our state. Firstly, we will see more than lip service being paid to the concept of the continuum of medical education,

with the new centre set to play a major role in streamlining the transition from undergraduate to pre-vocational and then vocational training. Secondly, there will be the opportunity to develop a suite of post-graduate degrees with articulated graduate certificates,diplomas and masters programmes with the prestige of the UWA stamp. The combined centre will be able to build on the newly established postgraduate programmes in Health Professional Education, which have commenced this year as a joint initiative of EdCent and the Faculty of Education. These inaugural programmes have been very well subscribed, signalling a hunger for training and credentialling in this important area. They will augment the highly successful Teaching on the Run workshops in which Associate Professor Fiona Lake has been teaching clinicians around Australia how to teach more effectively. Careful scholarship and research, which evaluates the most effective techniques for medical education and pushes new boundaries on how to optimally deliver teaching and training, is essential to the underpinning of medical education of the highest quality and relevance into the future. Thirdly, the new entity will foreshadow an increased level of cooperation between UWA and the Health Department of WA in the delivery of health professional education in a centre that will uniquely combine high fidelityequipment and state-of-the-art facilities with a professional and academic approach to medical education pedagogy. Such a high quality training environment for our undergraduates and postgraduates should enhance risk management and clinical safety in our hospitals and keep WA at the leading edge of international excellence in medical education.Teaching excellenceThese exciting developments build on what has been an excellent year for UWA and the Faculty in terms of external acknowledgement of its teaching excellence. Associate Professor Fiona Lake was awarded one of the inaugural Associate

Fellowships by the Carrick Institute for Learning and Teaching in Higher Education as well as being a recipient of a Carrick Award for Australian University Teaching. Professor Geoff Riley and Associate Professor Sally Sandover are two other Faculty members who helped contribute to UWA being in receipt of nine such awards in total, the third highest for all Australian universities combined. Furthermore, UWA was the second ranked university Australia-wide this year in the top band for Health Sciences in grants from the Commonwealth Teaching and Learning Performance Fund, funds from which will now be utilised to further enhance the learning experiences of students in our Faculty through 2007.The 50th Anniversary of the Medical School has given occasion for us to celebrate medical education at UWA in a symposium held on 8 March entitled “Medical Education – Past, Present and Future”. An internationally renowned educator, Professor Gordon Page from the University of British Columbia, and Clinical Professor Alex Cohen, AO, Emeritus Chancellor of UWA, were two of the keynote speakers at the symposium which was held at the University Club.

FOCUS ON QUALITY OF LIFE

MeDeFacts UWA Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences March 20074

A novel way of teaching palliative care

to medical students has proven popular with students and staff and won the instigators a Faculty award.Senior Lecturer in Palliative Medicine Dr Kirsten Auret, of the School of Medicine and Pharmacology, spearheaded the drive to ensure all 6th year medical students could experience a palliative care clinical attachment during their 8-week medicine term.Before 2002, there had been minimal exposure of medical students to palliative care. Last year the Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences awarded Dr Auret and her colleagues a Contribution to the Curriculum award. “The main objective of the week on attachment is to give students exposure to a palliative approach to care where the focus is very much on quality of life and symptom control of the patient rather than their disease and a cure for the disease,” Dr Auret said.“It is trying to get them to think more about the journey they are on with the patient who is dying and the journey the patient’s family is on rather than what they need to do as doctors for the underlying disease.”At the beginning of the week, the students are taught the differences between a curative model and a palliative model and the transition from one to the other, and are asked to examine society’s and their own attitudes to death. They also spend

one afternoon in a clinical instruction workshop (see box on page 9).

They spend the rest of the week in one of the participating hospices, which include the Murdoch Community Hospice, the Sandalwood ward at Glengarry Hospital and the Bethesda unit, or in the Palliative Care Unit at Hollywood Private Hospital, Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital or Royal Perth Hospital. Each student is allocated to one patient and their family so their experiences vary widely.“Some students see someone who is eloquent, accepting of their death and ready to share so it is a rich and powerful experience for that student,” Dr Auret said.“Others are attached to someone who is not accepting of the fact they are dying, is in pain and is difficultto form a rapport with.”Nevertheless, the students are expected to talk to their patients about challenging issues such as how they view their life and death, what they value now, what they fear and how the doctor’s role impacts on them. The students also spend a day with

Silver Chain nurses visiting 5-6 patients in their homes.Dr Auret said that during the week, some patients died and sometimes the student was present at the time.“It can be intensively challenging,” she said. “The students see a lot of patients in hospitals but they are often excluded from being involved in the care of the dying so this may be the first time theyhave been with someone so close to death.”At the end of the attachment, the students are required to submit an essay on an aspect of their interaction with their patient. Feedback from the hospices has been exceptional and the senior doctors who are clinical tutors to the students have asked if they can assess the essays, which often reveal insights to their patients that they were unaware of. Feedback from the students also has been overwhelmingly positive, with many requesting a two-week attachment and exposure to palliative care before 6th year.

A palliative care patient shares a laugh with his daughter and grandchildren.

continued page 9

Dr Kirsten Auret

5

School of

DentistryGETTING TO THE ROOT OF DENTAL TRAUMA

MeDeFacts UWA Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health SciencesMarch 2007

Patients who have received severe trauma to their teeth are among many likely to benefit fromresearch by a dental student awarded a scholarship

to study dental medications.Fourth-year student Michael Cai last year won the inaugural Vacation Research Scholarship awarded by the local Chapter of Delta Sigma Delta, a large worldwide organisation. Professor Paul Abbott, Head of the School of Dentistry, said Michael was researching the diffusion of various root canal medicaments through the dentine of tooth roots by measuring the pH of the dentine over extended periods of medicament application. “The medicaments being tested are used in endodontic – or root canal - treatment of teeth with their major roles being to reduce inflammation in the tissues surroundingthe teeth, and thereby reduce pain, and to destroy any bacteria that remain in the tooth roots following initial root canal cleansing,” Professor Abbott said.“The information obtained from this project will provide valuable data to help dentists with a variety of treatment modalities, such as how long does the medicament remain effective and what level of anti-bacterial activity can be expected within the dentine. “These questions have particular relevance to teeth that have been traumatised in young patients where extended treatment is often required in order to encourage healing and further tooth development.”Professor Abbott and Dr Jacqueline Castro, also from the School of Dentistry, are supervising the research project, which complements research work they have done with other postgraduate students under their supervision.The scholarship provides financial support to the studentto the value of $2,700 over one year. The terms of the award are similar to the Vacation Scholarships provided by the Australian Dental Research Foundation which enable undergraduate dental students to pursue a research project during their vacation from Dental School.

Two Faculty dentists have won a consumers award for outstanding service. Dr Nick Boyd, Senior Lecturer in Oral Pathology, and Dr Gareth Davies, Senior Lecturer in Oral Medicine, won the Health Consumers’ Council Award

for Excellence for 2006.They were nominated for the award by a patient who, having had chemotherapy for breast cancer for six months, was suffering from several oral health conditions, including dry mouth, and thought she had exhausted all avenues of help.“These two ...treat the whole person, not just the condition, and I owe them both a great debt of gratitude for listening

to me and hearing me when I was in the depths of despair over my compromised oral health,” the patient said.They also reviewed the new Mouth Care leaflet which CancerCouncil WA published on their website, she said.Dr Boyd and Dr Davies said their work at the Oral Health Centre of WA (OHCWA) was unique because rather than treating gum and tooth diseases, they treated the oral manifestations of any disease in the body, including cancers, inflammatory and infectiousdiseases.They said the award was also a recognition of the work of the two OHCWA clinic nurses, Chris Smith and Karen Orchard.

(from left) Dr Jacky Castro, Professor Paul Abbott, Dr Greg Gee and Michael Cai.

(from left) Dr Gareth Davies and Dr Nick Boyd with their Health Consumers’ Council of WA award for Excellent Service to Consumers.

In Australia, there are Graduate Chapters of Delta Sigma Delta with membership by invitation. Professor Abbott said the WA Chapter was a very active group under the current leadership of Dr Greg Gee, with 35 specialist and general dental practitioner members who met 4-5 times every year for a variety of scientific andsocial events. The Chapter had raised funds over the years through its activities and regularly donated money to the School of Dentistry to buy various pieces of much-needed equipment, including dental surveyors and a digital video camera for teaching purposes. “The School of Dentistry and Michael Cai are very grateful to Delta Sigma Delta for their ongoing support of the School’s activities and their interests in the welfare of the students over many years,” Professor Abbott said.

AWARD FOR OUTSTANDING CONSUMER SERVICE


MONUMENT HONOURSWA DENTISTS

OUTER URBAN CLINICAL SCHOOL ON A ROLL

The pilot program of an Outer Urban Clinical School (OCS) involving five fourth-year medical students

proved so successful last year that it has been rolled out to involve 40 students this year.The program is a collaboration between the General Practice Unit of the School of Primary, Aboriginal and Rural Health Care and the Schools of Psychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences, and Medicine and Pharmacology, to provide an integrated community and hospital approach to teaching.The pilot centred on the psychiatry and medicine components of fourth year, with students spending about half their time last year in general practice and other community-based health services and the other half at the Joondalup Health Campus (JHC). This year, 40 students will do their 8-week psychiatry term in the OCS and it is expected a similar number will undertake their medicine term there later in the year.OCS co-ordinator Associate Professor of Primary Health Care Alistair Vickery said the principle of the program was that common medical conditions were seen more in general practice.“This enables students to have a greater exposure to high-prevalence disease and therefore to better prepare them for their graduation into being a doctor,” he said. Professor of General Practice Jon Emery said the students in the pilot program enjoyed it and did well in their exams.“They found it most beneficial,” he said. “They hadmuch greater patient contact both in the wards and in general practice and had more opportunity to practise their history and examination skills.“One of the major strengths is that it gets them to apply their learning in the hospital ward and in the general practice setting as well.”The pilot has resulted in three new academic positions being created and based at JHC – that of Associate Professor of Primary Health Care filled by AlistairVickery, a Chair in Psychiatry which is currently being filled by Professor Paul Skerritt, and a Chair in Medicine,which is being advertised. “We will essentially establish a whole new academic unit at JHC,” Professor Emery said.Associate Professor Vickery said the program was related to the expansion of the outer urban hospitals.With students spending part of their training time in the community, it was possible to rotate more of them through the secondary hospitals. “And by putting a University attachment out there (at JHC), we increase the academic loading in the outer metropolitan area bringing research and greater clinical support to outer urban hospitals,” he said.

By Professor Paul Abbott, Head of the School of Dentistry

The generous support of scores of WA dentists whose donations will fund a second Professor of Dentistry has been recognised by the unveiling of a monument.

The WA Dental Foundation Monument was officially openedat the end of last year by University of WA Vice Chancellor Professor Alan Robson, who said the launch of the Foundation in 2001 was the most successful of any similar group within the history of UWA. The launch resulted in 78 members of the profession becoming Founding Fellows and to date they have donated almost $500,000.The major aim of the Foundation is to raise sufficient moneyto fund the cost of employing a second Professor within the School of Dentistry. The Foundation also wishes to contribute to the continuing professional development and education of its Fellows through its “Lecturer of the Year” program. The concept of having a Foundation was developed by a number of dentists and it was largely supported by the Australian Dental Association (WA Branch) with help from the University’s Office of Development.The monument has been built in the rear courtyard of the Oral Health Centre of WA to acknowledge the contributions from the Founding Fellows by listing their names. It was designed by Daniel Jeungling, a final year architecturestudent at UWA at the time. The Foundation sponsored a competition within the Faculty of Architecture for students to design a monument and Daniel’s submission won. By pure coincidence, and unknown to the judges at the time, Daniel has a “dental connection” as his father is a dentist and a graduate of this School.The Foundation is now gearing up its activities again to raise more money so it can reach its target of funding another Professor’s salary on an on-going basis.

The WA Dental Foundation Monument unveiled.

University of WA Vice Chancellor Professor Alan Robson opens the WA Dental Foundation Monument watched by (from left), Dr Terry Pitsikas, Chairman of the WA Dental Foundation’s

committee of management, and Dr Alistair Devlin.

The students who participated in the pilot program of the Outer Urban Clinical School were (clockwise from top left) Zeb Jamrozik, Bojan Bozic, Duy Ahn Pham, Wei

Kuei Ho and Jason Tan.

7

S T E P P I N G O U T F O R H E A LT H

A Faculty Professor will use a prestigious scholarship to conduct research that aims to benefit the physicaland mental health of older Australians – and help the hip pocket of the health system.Professor Billie Giles-Corti, of the School of Population Health, has won a 2007 Fulbright Senior Scholar Award, which

will enable her to spend 3-6 months in the US next year to further her studies into the impact of the built environment on active living. Based at Stanford University Medical School, she will also develop a collaborative research program focusing on active ageing and the built environment.“Active ageing is a very important issue for developed countries because of the ageing population,” Professor Giles-Corti said. “If we can keep people active as they age, it will reduce the risk of frailty and disability, keep people healthier and reduce the burden on the health system.“The other important thing about physical activity undertaken locally is the social contacts that people make when they are out and about in their neighborhoods, so there is the additional benefit of building social networks, which is important for mental health.”The award coincides nicely with the School’s plans to establish a multi-disciplinary Centre for the Built Environment and Health at UWA this year, using a $2 million grant from the National Health and Medical Research Council. Other key players at UWA will include Professor Matthew Knuiman, Biostatistician in the School of Population Health, Professor Osvaldo Almeida, Professor of Geriatric Psychiatry in the School of Psychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences and Professor Steve Zubrick, Head of Population Sciences at the Telethon Institute for Child Health Research.“In the past our work has been mainly focused on how the built environment affects adults but with the new Centre, we plan to broaden our research programs to include children and older adults,” Professor Giles-Corti said.“Neighbourhood factors that influence active living are likely to differ for different target groups. In able-bodied adults we findthat living in more walkable environments such as neighbourhoods where there are places for people to walk to, connected street networks and higher density are important if we want people to walk for transport.“But it may well be that for an ageing population and children, there are some anomalies we need to understand before advising government on policy. For example, areas where there are more shops and services, such as Subiaco, also tend to have more traffic,so for children it’s likely that parents would be worried about allowing them to walk around the neighbourhood without an adult.“Equally for older people, a neighbourhood where there is a lot of traffic may discourage older people from getting out and walking.

MeDeFacts UWA Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health SciencesMarch 2007

We need to understand the various influences on behavior sowe can make recommendations for interventions designed to maximize active living across the life course.” While at Stanford, Professor Giles-Corti will also explore the potential for establishing a whole-of-university, multi-disciplinary institute at UWA focused on research and education regarding sustainable development. Based on Stanford’s Wood Institute for the Environment, such an institute would have strong links to the Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences, she said. “The work we are doing identifying factors that make more walkable neighbourhoods ties directly to a sustainability agenda,” Professor Giles-Corti said. “Where neighbourhoods are designed with connected street networks, higher densities and access to shops, residents can drive less and walk or cycle more, and clearly in turn use less energy.“There is a growing recognition that increased driving has important health impacts, including an increased risk of overweight and obesity as well as respiratory problems associated with air pollution, so there are many good reasons for academics working in the Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences to collaborate with academics working in areas related to sustainability, transportation planning and urban planning and design.”Professor Giles-Corti was invited last month to the National Institute of Health in Maryland to discuss the implications of her research for cancer prevention.

(from left) Professor Billie Giles Corti strolls down a Subiaco street with School of Population Health PhD

student Hayley Cutt, former researcher Tya Smith

and pooch Willow. (Photo courtesy of Healthway)

Professor Billie Giles Corti

-By Cathy Saunders

School of Surgery and Pathology


Clinical Professor in Immunology Martyn French, of the School of Surgery and Pathology, firstdescribed a new phenomenon, immune restoration disease (IRD), in HIV patients at Royal Perth Hospital in 1992 and in 2000. He and Associate Professor Patricia Price later undertook research at RPH and the Faculty showing IRD is a complication of combination antiretroviral therapy (ART) and occurs as the immune system recovers from HIV-induced immunodeficiency. Formany years, the work was not acknowledged but in the last few years it has been widely accepted– particularly since the complication has become a common problem in developing countries with the introduction of ART. Professor French was recently in Kampala, Uganda to attend an international workshop on an IRD that is common in Africa. At the workshop, the diagnostic criteria for IRD that he proposed in 2004 were modified for use inresource-poor countries.

Immune restoration disease (IRD), which is being seen commonly in Africa and South East

Asia, is also found in Australian patients.It results when the immune system, weakened by HIV and unable to control infection by the many different pathogens that cause opportunistic infections in AIDS patients, starts to recover with antiretroviral therapy.“When you start treating the HIV infection and the immune system recovers, you get a rebound

WHEN RECOVERY IS NOT ALL IT SEEMS

– A MEDICAL PHENOMENON

see box page 9

Clinical Professor Martyn French with Dr Judy Orikiiriza Tatwangire outside the Infectious Diseases Institute of Makerere

University, Kampala, Uganda. Dr Tatwangire is undertaking studies on IRD in children and Professor French has agreed to help her

with her project by e-mail.

phenomenon as the immune system goes from being unable to control infection to controlling it excessively and that causes inflammation,” Professor French said.In Australia, there are not high numbers of HIV patients who develop IRD because most are treated before their immune system is very deficient.However, flare-ups of hepatitis, shingles and genital herpes are occasionally seen once ART is initiated.The most common IRD in Africa is Tuberculosis Immune Reconstitution Inflammatory Syndrome (TB IRIS), whichoccurs in up to 40% of HIV patients who commence ART. “Patients who are very immunodeficient and have subclinical or recently treated tuberculosis are most susceptible to TBIRIS, which causes substantial morbidity and occasional mortality,” Professor French said. “Co-infection with HIV and TB is very common in resource-poor countries – the World Health Organisation estimates there are 14 million cases worldwide - and the great majority of patients in these countries are very immunodeficientwhen ART is commenced. Consequently, it is predicted that TB IRIS will affect many millions of people worldwide as ART roll-out programs for resource-poor countries are introduced.”In Uganda, 10% of the urban population and five per cent of the rural population are infected by HIV and about half ofthese also have TB. The clinic of the Infectious Diseases Institute of Makerere University sees an average of 18 new cases and 340 follow-up cases each day.Another IRD common in Africa is provoked by infection with Cryptococcus, a fungus that commonly affects the nervous system in AIDS patients and causes meningitis. In South Africa, about one third of patients with cryptococcal IRD die.Other IRDs include Kaposi’s sarcoma and flare-ups of hepatitis B and C and the shingles virus.Treatment, usually with corticosteroids to control the excessive inflammation and medication to treat the infection thatprovoked the IRD, such as valacyclovir for shingles, was usually effective. But in some cases, such as inflammation ofthe spinal cord, there was permanent damage, including paralysis.“The answer really is to treat people before they are very immunodeficient,” Professor French said.He gave a presentation on IRD in Perth in November for the Faculty’s anniversary symposium and has since attended the first International Workshop on TB IRIS in Uganda, which has led to potential research collaborations.

-By Cathy Saunders

9MeDeFacts UWA Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health SciencesMarch 2007

“We think there is a certain value in the maturity they come with as 6th years but in terms of other interventions in earlier years, we are starting to build on that,” Dr Auret said. For example, students now learn about medications for palliative care in pharmacology and about communication with palliative care patients, such as how to break bad news, in medicine in 4th year.Dr Auret said the number of medical students in the palliative care attachment would jump from 140 UWA students this year to 160 UWA students plus 80 Notre Dame students next year and a total of 320 students from the two universities by 2009.

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 8

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 4FOCUS ON QUALITY OF LIFE

NINE STATIONS OF PALLIATIVE CAREAs part of their palliative care course, 6th year medical students attend a half-day workshop in which they rotate through nine stations with modules on symptom complexes in terminal patients.Using “props”, they learn about topics such as management of pain, bowel obstruction, and shortage of breath.They go in groups of three to each of the stations, which are headed by tutors, including palliative care specialists, the Royal Perth Hospital palliative care registrar, senior nurses and a pharmacist.

SEARCHING FOR SUBCLINICAL DISEASE

First year m e d i c a l s t u d e n t s examine a chest X-ray of a patient with metastatic renal cell cancer while learning about the palliative management of

dyspnoea.

Students draw up the correct dose of “morphine elixir” (actually water) that they have calculated for a young man with severe pain from pancreatic cancer. The workshop station teaches how to initiate oral morphine therapy.

A study into TB-IRIS among 350 patients in Cambodia starting ART could help detect subclinical tuberculosis.The study, devised by Clinical Professor French and interstate colleagues, will measure the patients’ immune response

against TB before and during treatment. It will use the Quantiferon-TB Gold in-tube assay, adapted for use in the diagnosis of IRD.“The first way in which this might help is that we may be able to use the Quantiferon-TB assay as a diagnostic method todemonstrate subclinical TB,” Professor French said.At present, when patients started on ART became sick it was not certain whether it was due to the toxic effect of the drugs or the development of IRD.“If it is the toxic effect of the drugs, we should stop the drug but if it is IRD we should keep the drugs going,” he said.Such a diagnostic method, which was a simple test-tube assay, would be well suited to low-income countries, he said.The study could also give a better understanding of the pathogenesis of IRD and lead to new forms of treatment to dampen down the excessive immune response.Professor French is also collaborating on a study of a large cohort of patients starting ART in South Africa and will advise in a study into IRD in children in Uganda.

-By Cathy Saunders

10

School of Population

Health


A Faculty researcher will spend two years in the UK at the Imperial College of London studying possible links between

occupational and environmental factors and poor fetal growth after gaining a prestigious Australian fellowship.Dr Adeleh Shirangi, of the School of Population Health’s occupational and environmental epidemiology group, won a $374,000 Sidney Sax Fellowship awarded by the National Health and Medical Research Council.Her research project will form part of an internationally renowned study into child health, the “Bradford Babies” study, which will recruit 10,000 babies and their parents in the English city over the next two years and track them through pregnancy, childhood and adulthood. The overall study will focus on many potential risks including social, ethnic, nutritional, genetic and environmental risk factors for fetal growth and birth outcomes.

BIOTHERAPEUTICS RESEARCH BOLSTEREDA collaborative Australia-China Biotherapeutic Research Centre is on the cards and a research conference has been organised, following discussions by Professor Ian Puddey during his Chinese visit.In the tentative program, 10 Faculty members will speak on topics ranging from cell therapies and tissue engineering, spray-on skin, cancer biotherapy, chondrocyte implantation, and liver cell regeneration to gene therapy at the Australia-China Biotherapeutic Approaches Summit.Ten Chinese academics will also speak at the summit, to be held at the Zhejiang University Medical School in Hangzhou from 8-10 June. “That will start to form a basis of a Biotherapeutics Research Centre for the future,” Professor Puddey said.Director-General of the Zhejiang Health Bureau Professor Lanjuan Li, whose research focus was on T cell biology engineering, and her husband Hospital President Professor Shushen Zheng, President of the First Affiliated Hospital, were keen to collaborate, Professor Puddeysaid.The Hospital, which is run by the Zhejiang University, specialises in infectious diseases, transplantation (liver, heart, kidney, bone marrow), cardiology and plastic surgery, and has an artificial liver support system for treatment of severe hepatitis cases and those awaiting donors. Itis the c“The advantages of any research links relate to the large numbers of patients and the well resourced and equipped laboratories,” Professor Puddey said. Zhejiang Province has a sister state link with WA.

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 2

Dr Shirangi said she would investigate the relationship, if any, between occupation and chlorination disinfection byproducts (DBPs) in drinking, showering, bathing or swimming water and intra uterine growth retardation (IUGR). Previous studies had suggested a link between drinking, showering, bathing or swimming in chlorinated water and bladder cancer. “The findings suggested that chlorine and other chemicals used in water can be harmful when they are inhaled orabsorbed through the skin, as well as when they are ingested,” she said. “More recently the interest has shifted from cancer to reproductive outcomes. “As part of my PhD studies, I found an association between exposure to unscavenged anaesthetics gases in veterinary practice and premature birth in Australian female veterinarians which was a novel finding. I also found associationsbetween certain occupational exposure types in veterinary practice and spontaneous abortion and birth defects.” A number of studies had suggested that occupation and chlorination byproducts in drinking water might be associated with low birth weight/IUGR, she said. Low birth weight (<2500g) was a result either of premature birth or IUGR and was strongly associated with increased infant mortality and morbidity and an increased risk of developing various diseases in later life, she said.If a link was found, steps could be taken to reduce the amount of DPBs in water used for drinking, bathing, showering and swimming, for example, by reducing the amount of chlorination, removing already formed by-products from the water, home treating the water with activated carbon or using ozone instead of chlorination.Drinking bottled water was not the solution because of expense and the lack of minerals it contained. “We need a solution for the whole of the community, not just those who can afford it,” she said. After her two-year project in the UK, Dr Shirangi will return to the Institute of Child Health in Perth for a further two years of follow-up research.

OCCUPATION AND ENVIRONMENT– THEIR ROLE IN LOW BIRTHWEIGHT

Dr Adeleh Shirangi

Mini Medical

School


A behind-the-scenes glimpse into the Medical School was a sell-out earlier this year when the Faculty and University

Extension combined to offer a Mini Medical School.Forty people from all walks of life, including nurses and other allied health professionals, teachers, students and retired people, had an insight into the latest research, technology and future directions for health and medical training through interactive sessions with leading experts.Held to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the Medical School, the Mini Medical School enabled participants to have direct access to current thinking on general and specialist medicine and some hands-on work.The topics included an in-depth exploration of diet, health and disease with Faculty Dean Professor Ian Puddey and a discourse from Professor John Newnham, Professor of Maternal Fetal Medicine and Head of the School of Women’s and Infants’ Health, on maternal health, pre-term birth and the fetal origins of adult disease.Professor Charles Oxnard, Emeritus Professor and Senior Honorary Research Fellow in the School of Anatomy and Human Biology at UWA, gave an insight into the controversial studies on the Island of Flores’ 18,000 year old fossils dubbed the ‘Hobbits’, and Professor Paul McMenamin, the Faculty’s Associate Dean (Teaching and Learning), facilitated hands on learning with modern musculo-skeletal techniques.The success of the Mini Medical School means it now will be offered at least once or twice a year, with new topics such as neurosciences and psychiatry likely to be included.

It’s not often anyone welcomes a flood but the Faculty would welcome an inundation of photos from medicalalumni for this year’s reunions in celebration of the Medical School’s 50th anniversary. The aim is to present a background PowerPoint presentation of photos for each event.If you have any photos you are willing to share, please email them to Anniversary Project Co-ordinator Derrick Webley at [email protected] or mail hard copies to him at the Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences, UWA, N Block, QEII Medical Centre, Nedlands, WA 6009. Wherever possible, please identify everyone in the photos. And please give a return address if you would like them returned.

The dates for the 50th anniversary medical decade reunions, to be held from 6.30- 8.30pm at the UWA Watersports Complex on the banks of the Swan River, are:

1958 to 1969 Wednesday, July 11, 1970 to 1974 Wednesday, July 181975 to 1979 Wednesday, July 25, 1980 to 1984 Wednesday, August 11985 to 1989 Wednesday, August 8, 1990 to 1994 Wednesday, August 151995 to 1999 Wednesday, September 5, 2000 to 2002 Wednesday, September 122003 to 2005 Wednesday, September 19

The Sydney reunion will tentatively be held on 2 July and the Melbourne reunion in December.

MINI MEDICAL SCHOOL

Professor John Newnham elucidates the fetal origins of adult disease, preterm birth and prenatal diagnosis.

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TIDE’S IN?

Professor Ian Puddey explains the Dash Diet as a pathway to good healthProfessor Paul McMenamin adopts a novel approach to teaching musculo-skeletal factsProfessor Charles Oxnard talks about the “Hobbits” and the recently-discovered 18,000 year old fossils from the Island of Flores.

?WITS ABOUT YOU

Answers page 14

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THE WORD IS OUT - FACULTY IN THE NEWSQuoted

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Saying

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Our medical quiz is back, kindly supplied by Emeritus Professor Bernard Catchpole, the second Professor of Surgery appointed to the Faculty.

Questions:

1. Why was the surgical instrument “a sound” so called?2. What causes a rim of calcification to be seen on a plainX-ray of the bladder?3. Who was Gigli and what was his saw first used for?4. What was the name of the “ground-breaking” drug which produces pillar-box red urine?5. What was the greatest advance in surgical instrumentation ever made?


In the West Australian:Associate Professor of Maternal Foetal Medicine Jan Dickinson, of the School of Women’s and Infants’ Health, is QAS pre-eclampsia affects 5-8 per cent of women and is the most common and elusive of serious complications in pregnancy. She was commenting on a study in which a team of British scientists report that a protein, inositol phosphoglycan P-type, could act as an indicator for pre-eclampsia as it was present in much higher levels in pregnant women with the disease compared with those without the disease.

A Gigli Saw

Professor of Medical Genetics David Ravine, of the School of Medicine and Pharmacology, is QAS a process whereby Scottish scientists bred a flock of genetically modified chickens to lay modified eggs could have huge economic potential for reducing the cost of creatingpharmaceuticals.Researchers at the Roslin Institute have reportedly created chickens which produced complex human proteins in their eggs that could be extracted and developed into drugs to fight diseases such as cancer and multiple sclerosis.“While there appear to be no real benefits for scientists to use this process for research purposes, local biotechnology companies may well beinterested in the development for the creation of drugs in a more cost-effective manner,” Professor Ravine said.

WA Institute for Medical Research Director Professor Peter Klinken is QAS investigations into the possible genetic causes of moles and how they might link to melanoma were the main focus of the Scott Kirkbride Melanoma Research Centre at WAIMR. His comments came after results from a new HBF wellbeing survey showing 30 per cent of young men do not ensure adequate sun protection, despite the well-publicised risks.

Researchers from the WA Institute for Medical Research, Professor Nigel Laing and Dr Kristen Nowak, are QAS a protein which helps regulate the heart could provide an unexpected way to treat rare muscle diseases, or congenital myopathies, in children. They are heading an international team which has discovered a link between the protein heart actin and skeletal muscle movement. Children with the myopathies did not have any skeletal muscle protein actin crucial for muscle movement but were not completely paralysed. However, they did have heart actin in their skeletal muscles, and the more they had, the more movement they had.

Clinical Professor Graeme Hankey, of the School of Medicine and Pharmacology, is QAS hypertension is playing a far greater role in heart attack and stroke than previously thought. He said the findings of a new Australian study confirmed his fears that high blood pressure dramaticallyincreased the risk of cardiovascular events. The study revealed two-thirds of stroke in Australian women and 40 per cent of stroke in men is linked to hypertension, which was also identified as the cause of a significant proportion of deaths from heart disease.

Professor of Medicine Gerald Watts, of the School of Medicine and Pharmacology, is QAS his group at Royal Perth Hospital will take part in and international trial and test an anti-obesity pill on West Australians in the hope it will help them lose weight and also reduce their risk of heart disease by boosting HDL cholesterol.

Cancer Foundation Professor of Clinical Cancer Care Michael Millward, of the School of Medicine and Pharmacology, is QAS a lung cancer vaccine which could extend the lives of patients is set to undergo a trial in WA as part of a global study. “This is not a preventative vaccine… it is a treatment vaccine,” he said. “This is a new approach to dealing with lung cancer.”

In Australian Doctor:Professor Leon Flicker, Professor of Geriatric Medicine in the School of Medicine and Pharmacology, is QAS while the effect of folic acid on neural tube defects had been clearly shown, the jury remained out on the effects on vascular disease, cancer and cognitive function. He was commenting on a three-year study in the Lancet which suggests folic acid supplements can improve cognitive function in older people.

Clinical Associate Professor Harvey Coates, of the School of Paediatrics and Child Health, is QAS a new study that found delaying grommet insertion for up to nine months in otherwise healthy children did not cause developmental delays was reassuring for very mild or unilateral middle-ear effusions in normal children under three years.However, early referral for surgery should be considered in a number of instances, including if a child had more than three episodes of otitis media in six months, significant balance disorders or structural abnormalities or was atopic with accompanying sinusitis, obstructive sleepdisorder or apnoea.


CONTINUED

FROM PAGE 1

The aim is to promote general practice as a positive career choice early in medical school and help boost the recruitment rates. It will have a spin-off of enabling the winners to improve their skills in GP informatics. The two inaugural winners of the three-year scholarship are third-year students Paul Hwang and Leanne Heredia (see boxes below). Professor Emery, of the School of Primary, Aboriginal and Rural Health Care, said two GPs from the Central City Medical Centre, Dr Robert Wolman and Dr Chris Denz, approached him with the idea of establishing the scholarships. As the practice is paperless and uses only electronic clinical records, Professor Emery suggested students should be asked to come up with a small scale research project on chronic disease management which could make use of the clinical data base. In addition, the students would do their third year clinical attachment in the practice.“There is also the potential for them to have an ongoing relationship in fourth and fifth year with the practice,” he said. “In fourthyear, there is no GP term but there is the potential to do a further research option in the practice and in fifth year to do their GP clinicalplacement there.”In order to consolidate the link between the practice and the university general practice unit, Professor Emery has been doing clinical work in the city one day a week. “It’s been a good way of getting to support the students,” he said. Although two scholarships were awarded this year, there is funding for a third next year. The winners each receive $1,000 p.a. for three years.Professor Emery said it would be nice if other general practices followed suit with scholarships. “It is a good way of allowing students to have large exposure to general practice in the curriculum,” he said.The city practice has also established a prize – the Central City Medical Centre/UWA GP prize- for the fifth year student who attainsthe highest score in the GP clinical assessment.

SELF-MANAGING HEALTHPaul Hwang will investigate ways in which self-management strategies can be encouraged and promoted to male patients with chronic diseases. He will then measure the effectiveness of the programs, techniques and incentives in a community based setting. The research had implications for the prevention and treatment of common health problems more prevalent in men, including ischaemic heart disease in men aged 40–74 years, lung cancer, erectile dysfunction, prostate disease and lower urinary tract symptoms, he said. “Self-management is providing to be a major area of research and the research may be extended into other segments of the local population crossing gender and cultural boundaries,” he said.He chose the topic because it is an under-researched area.“Barriers to effective preventive care for men in primary care include not only barriers to patients attending the practice but also barriers to primary healthcare practitioners providing the best care,” he said. “One way in which this could be overcome is by promoting and encouraging self-management.”Paul is a graduate entrant to medicine, having graduated in both commerce and law at Sydney University, and completing a Masters degree at Harvard and a PhD at Oxford.He said the scholarship would provide a well-grounded, solid understanding of medical practice at the community level.“I would highly encourage future students to apply for the scholarship,” he said. “You not only gain early clinical exposure but also exposure to the operation and administration of a very busy primary care practice.“On top of this, you have a long term association with the staffs at the medical centre, and this will undoubtedly provide an opportunity to make long lasting relationships.”

NOVEL SCHOLARSHIPS PROMOTE GENERAL PRACTICE

Paul Hwang receives the Nautilus prize, awarded for academic excellence, college

contribution and sportsmanship, from Professor Michael Earl, the Dean of

Templeton College at Oxford University, England.

PREVENTING CHRONIC DISEASELeanne Heredia opted to pick from the top 10 when deciding which of the chronic diseases to focus her research on for her scholarship project. She chose to study the prevalence of diabetes, cardiovascular disease and osteoarthritis in the Central City Medical Centre and the management of these conditions according to best practice. “I thought I’d take the big ones,” she said.“It will be a two step process. In the first part, I will survey the GPs and they will predict what proportionsof patients have the disease, the numbers of males and females, and the age groups it is most prevalent in.“The second part is to actually get those numbers, which will be recorded from the past few years and over the current year as the data come in. Then once I have collated all that, the medical centre can use it to focus its resources and attention towards health priority areas.“With chronic disease, it is primary prevention and early detection that is most important so they can say for example, ‘Right, we need to educate all patients within a certain age bracket on healthy lifestyle habits, as a means of preventing cardiovascular disease,’ based on what the figures come up with.”Leanne will also look at the drugs patients are prescribed to help determine the conditions they have.

Leanne Heredia

-By Cathy Saunders

FROM DOUBLE DUTCH TO FLUENT TEACHINGSchool of Dentistry


Oral and max i l lo fac ia l surgeon Dr

David Booth capped off a long

and illustrious teaching career at

the School of Dentistry recently when he was made a life member of the Australian College of Educators in recognition of his 30 years of service to the College.

When David Booth started out lecturing UWA dental students

and they did their first evaluation ofhis teaching, the area that let him down came as a surprise.It seemed his notes on the board were, to some, Double Dutch.“So after one lecture I went out and came in again a few minutes later to have a look at the blackboard,” he recalls. “What I had done was written key words all over it and unless the student had happened to see that key word, looking at the whole blackboard didn’t make sense at all.”He immediately began to make his jottings more comprehensible – and from that day forth a hallmark of his teaching was that he critically appraised his teaching style on a regular basis.“I would get one of the staff to take a movie of me doing a lecture,” he says. He then asked lecturers in education to tell him where he was going wrong.He also he sought feedback from university clinical staff. “I used to teach students how to give local anaesthetic injections and I would get the teachers

to assess whether the students were knowledgeable when they got to the clinic, and whether there were bits missing in the course,” he explains.He formally improved his teaching skills, completing a certificate,graduate diploma and a Masters in higher education from other Australian universities.His dedication was rewarded. When the Federal Committee for the Advancement of University Teaching sought nominations from all the Australian universities of their best teachers, the then Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry at UWA nominated him and he was chosen as being in the top five per cent of Australian academicshaving an exemplary teaching practice.Last year, he was made a life member of the Australian College of Educators in recognition of his 30 years of service to the College.Professor Paul Abbott, Head of the School of Dentistry, said it was unusual that Dr Booth had obtained higher degrees in education as most academics in dentistry and medicine had no real formal training in education.A graduate of UWA dental school, Dr Booth had been working in a private general dental practice with a lot of paediatric patients when two things happened in 1966 to make him decide to specialise - fluoridation wasintroduced and dental therapists began to treat children, so he thought he would be seeing fewer young patients.When he graduated as an oral surgeon in 1970, he had four children of his own and readily took up a position

as senior lecturer in oral medicine, oral pathology and oral surgery at the Dental School and also worked part-time at Royal Perth Hospital. It was unusual to keep the three specialisations current but it paid off. He was on call for surgery at RPH and taught repair of facial fractures to the registrar oral surgeons and registrar plastic surgeons.“Very often, if there was an unusual case, I would see the patient, do the biopsy and then one of the surgeons would do the major surgery if required,” he says. “Doing the biopsy meant I would also see the pathology down the microscope and it was very helpful to have seen the clinical side.” He remained with the Dental School for the next 32 years, during which time he was senior lecturer, Dean and Associate Dean (Teaching and Learning). Upon “retiring” in 2003, he went into private practice in oral medicine and oral pathology and now works part-time as an oral pathologist and is the tutor for registrars in oral pathology.

In a Vietnamese orphanage, the blind children adore the chief

Buddhist monk and, recognising him by his footsteps, always run up to give him a hug. When one such toddler was too frightened to have a dental examination, it

was the monk who persuaded him to let Dr David Booth check his

teeth. see page 15

Answers to Quiz on Page 12:

1. Before cystoscopes were available, surgeons introduced a curved instrument into the bladder to “feel” for stone. The sound or “clunk” made it possible for them to diagnose the composition of any stone detected.

2. Bilharziasis.3. Leonardo Gigli was an Italian

obstetrician of the 19th century who made his saw to cut through the symphysis pubis in patients with obstructed labour. Lives were saved as the ilia could be sufficiently separated to permitdelivery.

4. Prontosil rubrum – the firstclinical sulphonamide.

5. The ratchet invented by Charrière. Before the haemostat was devised, control of bleeding at operation was very slow; surgery of the toxic thyroid, for example, was declared unethical as patients’ bleeding was uncontrollable. The ratchet now is present on every sort of clamp.

MeDeFacts UWA Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences 15March 2007

Faculty dental students are making a difference to the dental health of children overseas.

During an elective, some students have accompanied Dr David Booth and a team of WA dentists that travels each year to Vietnam to treat children in Buddhist and Catholic orphanages.“They saw cases that you wouldn’t see in Perth,” Dr Booth says. “The students taught the teachers what to teach the children about dental health care. They also examined the dental needs of one orphanage and made recommendations on how to improve the dental health care in the future.

Dr David Booth shares a joke with a patient during a voluntary dental trip to Vietnam.

“For the last visit, Como Primary School children prepared colourful cloth bags containing a toothbrush, toothpaste, soap and a personal gift. When the Vietnamese orphan children were told that the Australian children had made them especially for them, they hugged their bag for about an hour before opening it.”

The team mainly does emergency treatment. “But we also wanted to find out why someof them had teeth as bad as they did,” Dr Booth says. “In one of the orphanages, which was really a day care centre for handicapped children, the local people used to feel sorry for them so they would bring a carton of goodies for them.”On the day the dental team arrived, the children turned up for their oral examination sucking lollipops. Now the team is asking the orphanage to only produce the treats at meal-times.On the last visit the team, whose members pay their own way but receive donations of equipment from WA dentists and dental suppliers, saw 550 children and extracted 500 decayed teeth in a week.

The chief Buddhist monk at one of the Vietnamese orphanages

for handicapped children brings toddlers for a dental check.

THE FACULTY OF MEDICINE, DENTISTRY AND HEALTH SCIENCESThe University of Western Australia, 35 Stirling Highway, Crawley, WA 6009

Ph: (08) 9346 7323 Fax: (08) 9346 2369 Web site: http://cms.meddent.uwa.edu.au/Dean - Professor Ian Puddey - Deputy Dean - Professor Paul Abbott

Faculty Manager/Assistant Editor - Susan Henshall (08) 9346 2680 - email: [email protected]/Writer - Cathy Saunders (08) 9349 8190 or 0403 813 830 - email: [email protected]

CONTRIBUTIONS: We aim to make the newsletter relevant to as many members of the Faculty as possible, and to achieve this we welcome contributions of articles, photographs, letters, feedback, story ideas and humorous medical or dental anecdotes.

Please send your contributions to: the Editor at 10C Hindmarsh Avenue, Yokine, WA 6060 or email [email protected]

A UWA medical graduate, who has won a prestigious General Sir John Monash Award, has long-term plans to help tackle hearing loss, particularly in outback communities.Dr Rosie Dawkins, now of Carlton, Victoria, was one of eight Australians who received the award for

their excellent academic achievement and future leadership potential. Dr Dawkins, who has an MBBS and a Bachelor of Medical Science with first class honours, both from UWA,will use her award to study for a Masters of Public Health, most probably at Harvard University. She then plans to return to Australia in 2009 to specialise in otolaryngology.Once she has completed her specialist qualifications, she would like to do outreach work in remotecommunities. To this end, she is spending the next few months in Tennant Creek and other country areas to gain an understanding of rural medicine.Her interest was piqued when, as a 5th and 6th year medical student, she worked as a volunteer with the WA Rural Surgical Service, going out with senior surgeons in light planes to rural communities to perform minor procedures.She was further inspired by ENT surgeon Clinical Associate Professor Harvey Coates, of the School of Paediatrics and Child Health, she said. The fact that ENT was at the nexus of medicine, surgery and science also appealed.By adding public health administration to her research and clinical skills, she hopes eventually to better address health policy and programs for the prevention and treatment of hearing loss, particularly in rural communities and among Aboriginal children. “I hope to be a surgeon and involved in scientific research but I also hope to be involved in public policydecision-making about resource allocation,” she said. Award scholars are expected to become leaders in their fields and of the community and to make a significantcontribution to the Australian community. They receive up to $150,000 over three years.

Dr Rosie Dawkins receives her General Sir John Monash

Award from the Governor-General Major General Michael Jeffery at Government House in

Canberra.

medefacts - university of western australia · abbott said. provide treatment remain can have...

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