Dean's Newsletter - June 2007

This monthly newsletter aims to update you with some of the activities within the Medical School. In this issue:

Queen’s Birthday awards
I would like to take the opportunity to congratulate the three members of Sydney Medical School who received Queen's Birthday Honours this year. They are Professor Judith Black AO, Adjunct Associate Professor John Gullotta AM and Adjunct Associate Professor Leanne Rowe AM.

Each year our staff and alumni receive recognition of their hard work and dedication via the Australia Day awards and the Queen’s Birthday Awards; we are certainly fortunate to have such high calibre people working with us.

Rural Health Initiatives
A Faculties of Health Rural Committee has been established to assist the individual Faculties and to advise the Faculties of Health on rural matters. A number of initiatives are being discussed with Inter-professional Learning (IPL) being a major focus. At a recent meeting held at the School of Rural Health in Dubbo many local dentists, pharmacists, allied health professionals and medical practitioners expressed enthusiasm for assisting with our teaching programs. IPL may be particularly suited to the rural experience of our students.

Plans to expand the accommodation facilities at Dubbo, Orange, Lismore and Broken Hill will allow greater opportunity for students from across the Faculties of Health to be exposed to rural health issues.

Curriculum Review
The Working Parties have been meeting regularly and are nearing the completion of their final reports. These will be submitted at the end of the first week in July and presented to a Medical School meeting on Tuesday 24 July 2007 at 4.00pm in the W P Young Room of the Veterinary Science Conference Centre for discussion and ratification.

Once again I would like to sincerely thank all staff involved in the curriculum review for their dedication to purpose.

Update on new postgraduate courses - Health management
Andrew Refshauge, a graduate of ours and former Deputy Premier and Health Minister, has led detailed consideration of the prospects for us to run a postgraduate coursework program to provide some management training for administrators in our health systems, both public and private. We have had much cooperative discussion with the Graduate School of Government. At this stage, however, we feel the best way forward is to start relatively small and test the market by running clearly defined short courses rather than degree or graduate certificate or diploma programs.

Forensics
We have had also had further discussions about forensics with an amazing range of diverse talents and interests emerging from within our University and from others associated with us. These include Law, Psychology, Dentistry, Pharmacology, Archaeology, the Electron Microscope Unit, Genetics, NSW Police, Legal Aid Commission, NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research and more. The first public evidence of our potential will be a symposium being planned for October which may well be the launch of a University of Sydney "Centre for Forensics" showcasing to the community the range of skills in and associated with the University of Sydney.

If you would like to contribute or would like to know more, please contact Professor Ron Trent on 9515 7514 or .