Dean's Newsletter - March 2007

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

Medical Program Curriculum Workshop
I would like to thank everyone who attended the Curriculum Review Retreat earlier this month for their enormously constructive contributions. The passion and commitment with which we examined our curriculum on that day bodes well for its future. I, personally, felt quite uplifted by the quality of the discussion and the collegial manner in which views were expressed. For that I am grateful to all participants.

The final recommendations will be discussed at an extraordinary meeting of the Medical School on 4 April at 5pm in the Professorial Board Room and I urge as many of you as possible to attend.

University Health Service
Since 1 February this year the University Health Service in the Wentworth and Holme Buildings has been transferred to the Medical School of Medicine. The Head of our Discipline of General Practice will have management responsibility for the UHS on my behalf assisted by a new Director, Dr Ian Johnston. They are both keen to expand its teaching and research role while delivering a high quality general practice service to staff and students of the University. This may be extended to members of the local community in due course.

Funds to UDRHs
We congratulate the Northern Rivers and Broken Hill University Departments of Rural Health for their success in securing funds from the Department of Health and Ageing to expand student accommodation. Funds of nearly $1 million have been allocated. Improved and expanded student accommodation facilities will enable our UDRHs to meet the growing need for rural experience for the next generation of health professionals.

Summer Scholars awarded
Last week I was privileged to have the opportunity to visit the Children’s Hospital at Westmead to hear presentations from the best of our Summer Research Scholars. The Summer Scholarship program, now running for three years, is designed to expose undergraduate students to research. I was greatly impressed by the standard of their work and the quality of their presentations. It was a pleasure for me to award the Dean’s Prize to a Bachelor of Medical Science student for her research work undertaken at the Sydney Cancer Centre.

I would like to commend our Summer Scholarship scheme to you. Please consider offering a research project next summer to an aspiring young researcher. More details on this project can be found at the Summer Research Scholarships page.

Long service
Sydney Medical School benefits enormously from the dedication of its staff. Recently we have honoured a number of staff whose longevity of service has been outstanding:
Associate Professor Arthur Everitt - Physiology – 65 years
Dr Robert Markham - Obstetrics and gynaecology – 50 years
Mr Peter Mills – Anatomy – 43 years
Long service awards were also recently awarded to:
Dr Jennifer Nicholls, Mr Christopher Jackson, Professor Norbert Berend, Professor Ben Freedman, Ms Karen Maxwell , Ms Dina Bowe, Professor Michael Field, Professor Carol Pollock, Ms Linda Frost and Professor Richard Kefford.

Bruce Robinson