Acting Dean's Newsletter - February 2007

This is the second of an occasional newsletter updating you with some of the activities under development within the Medical School. In this issue:

Review of relationship with research institutes

You will all know that a great deal of research is undertaken in institutes affiliated with our Medical School. In a process that I am confident will be to the benefit of both the Medical School and the institutes we have started to look at the linkages between Medical School and the institutes and hubs, as well as the strengths each brings to the relationships. Our first round of discussions took place at the Faculties of Health Research Conference at Leura in November. I look forward to continuing these discussions with the goal of defining how Medical School and the institutes can help one another to grow our total research endeavour.

Nepean Clinical School

To strengthen one of our newest Clinical School we are looking to appoint five new posts at Nepean. Some fine applicants - local and international - have applied; four positions have been filled and Michael Peek, our Associate Dean at Nepean, is optimistic that the fifth will also accept. We look forward to welcoming them to our ranks.

Concord Clinical School

The building of the new 175 bed Psychiatry wing of Concord hospital is well under way, and should be occupied next year. A new Medical Education Centre to cater for the needs of the staff of the new Psychiatry wing, the current Hospital and our University students is planned. It will contain a 300 seat main lecture theatre, clinical skills and cardiac resuscitation laboratories, PBL rooms and multipurpose examination rooms. An asbestos research building is going ahead which will triple the size of the ANZAC research area allowing for the continued growth of research on the Concord campus.

New postgraduate coursework programs

The Medical School is looking to develop a set of new Masters programs in

• Forensic Medicine – It has been encouraging to have offers to
  participate in discussions about the possibilities from across the
  Faculties of Health, Law, Science as well as from the Institute of
  Forensic Medicine, the NSW and Australian Federal Police.
• Health Policy and Management - We are fortunate that Dr Andrew
  Refshauge, former Minister for Health in NSW (as well as Deputy
  Premier with other ministerial responsibilities) has agreed to
  work with us to consult widely as part of a scoping study into the
  feasibility and demand for such a course.
• Biosecurity – Professor Alan Dupont, who is Director of the
  University’s Centre for International Security Studies, has agreed
  to work with us; there are also possibilities to link with a
  cognate and complementary group at ANU.

If you have an interest in these areas and are not currently on our list of contacts I would suggest you contact Tom Rubin -

East Timor

The Medical School is in the final stages of finalizing an agreement with the East Timorese government to provide scholarships for suitably qualified students to undertake Medicine with us. I hope to sign the agreement in Dili on 22 March. It has been gratifying to find out how many of our staff are already undertaking various activities in East Timor and I am sure that this scholarship scheme will be just one of the ways in which we as a Medical School can contribute to the development of this the newest of nations. I am grateful to Michael Kidd for taking an enthusiastic lead here.

Bruce Robinson
Acting Dean