Dean's Newsletter - 6 June 2008

WHO Patient Safety Curriculum Guide for Medical Schools
Congratulations are due to Merrilyn Walton for her role in this project which focusses on three main issues:

• Producing a curricular guide for medical schools worldwide on patient safety.
• Creating a learning environment where teachers can access resources to teach patient safety to medical students.
• Supporting an evidence base for effective use of patient safety curriculum in medical schools.

This work is led by Professor Bruce Barraclough (formerly of our Northern Clinical School and now working with UWS) supported staff from WHO. Associate Professor Merrilyn Walton and her team from our Office of Postgraduate Medical Education (OPME) have been tasked with producing the first draft of the WHO Patient Safety Curriculum Guide for Medical Schools (see also: Patient Safety and Ethical Practice on the OPME website).


New Appointments Scheme
I am delighted at the Medical School’s success in the most recent round of the University’s New Appointments Scheme. This will see Professor Paul Martin, currently Director of Research at National Vision Research Institute in Melbourne, return to the Medical School. Paul is a distinguished scientist with excellent publication and grant track record and will make Save Sight a major international force. We will also be welcoming his wife as an NHMRC funded Senior Research Fellow.

The Medical School’s second success is a proposal from Professor Sally Andrews, Head, School of Psychology and Professor Max Bennett, Brain and Mind Research Institute which will see Professor Bernard Balleine, Professor in Psychology at UCLA invited to join the University. Her arrival will build on the strengths of Psychology and BMRI and would be an excellent mechanism to promote collaborations between Psychology and Medicine via the BMRI. Professor Balleine is a very strong researcher, and has large US grant support, much of which would be transportable.


Welcome to Professor Ming Wang
Ming will be taking up the Parker-Hughes Chair of Diagnostic Radiology at the Western Clinical School at Westmead Hospital on 1 July. This is the foundation Chair of Radiology at the University. Ming is a graduate of our Medical School: BSc(Med) 1978 and MBBS (Hons) 1981.

After completing his internship and residency at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, he trained in Diagnostic Radiology at Royal North Shore Hospital in Sydney, obtaining FRANZCR in 1987. He then took up a Research Fellowship in Magnetic Resonance Imaging contrast media at the Contrast Media Laboratory in the Department of Radiology at the University of California San Francisco in 1988.

Returning to Australia in 1989, he became Staff Specialist and then Senior Staff Specialist in Radiology at the Royal North Shore Hospital and was appointed Clinical Senior Lecturer in Radiology in 1994. Since 1997 Ming has been a member of the Diagnostic Radiology Department at the National University of Singapore (Associate Professor in 1999, Head of Department and Clinical Chief in 2000, and Professor in 2007). He stepped down as Clinical Chief in 2007, but remained the Academic Head until his return to his alma mater.

I look forward to Ming’s leadership of this increasing discipline and also warmly thank Noel Young for his enormous contributions to Radiology over the last couple of years (which I know will continue).


News from the Interactive Centre for Human Diseases (more commonly known as the Pathology Museum)
The Pathology Museum has recently introduced a number of initiatives to make it a more interactive facility. The monumental task of re-photographing/digitizing the entire collection to a very high standard, including the extensive collection of rare and historic medical artifacts and implements, has been completed. The pathology specimens will soon be incorporated into a new website that will become an invaluable teaching resource. Meanwhile, the collection of historic material is being incorporated into archival resource to allow for easy referencing of the material. The collection includes treasures such as a sealed flask of beef broth sent to Australia by Louis Pasteur in 1888, various medals of luminaries such as Anderson Stuart and Keith Inglis and a host of fascinating surgical instruments and microscopes dating back to the early 1800s. The credit for resurrecting this antique collection is due largely to the tremendous efforts of Dr Lise Mellor and Professor Yvonne Cossart.

To advertise the huge range of diseased specimens that the museum contains the Museum has recently introduced a ‘disease of the month” highlighting a particular disease in detail (gallstones currently and typhoid next month). In addition, thanks to Alfee Liau (Schools Liaison Officer), the Museum now runs increasingly popular workshops specifically tailored to the high school curriculum.

The Museum is in wonderful hands under the leadership of Dr Murat Kekic Phone: 9351 2411
Email: