Dean's Newsletter - September 2008

Congratulations to.....

Associate Professor Stephen Twigg who has just been elected President of the Australian Diabetes Society. ADS is a society for research, medical practice and education in Diabetes Mellitus. It also awards scholarships and travel assistance, the latter for younger members to present at ADS and other international meetings.

Peter Bancroft Prize winners
The Peter Bancroft Prize is awarded annually on 31 May to the PhD graduate in Sydney Medical School “whose thesis has been passed by all three examiners without requiring any emendations or amendments. In the event of two or more graduates being deemed to be of equal merit, the prize may be shared.”

Congratulations to the following new PhD awardees each of whom is receiving a prize of $750:
Dr Victor Anggono, Dr Louise Dunn, Dr Bon San Bonne Lee, Dr Liana Oganesian, Dr James Padley, Dr Carolyn Quan and Dr Penelope Spring.


The new Directors of the Poche Centre for Indigenous Health
Congratulations and welcome to Associate Professor Ngiare Brown and Professor Alan Cass, who have been appointed Co-Directors of the Poche Centre for Indigenous Health. In addition the Medical School has been able to recruit Associate Professor Jenny Reath as an Associate Professor working in the Poche Centre.

Ngiare Brown is one of the first Aboriginal medical graduates in Australia. Since graduating from the University of Newcastle in 1992, she has been a leading advocate for Indigenous health and social justice. During her career Ngiare has held a variety of positions and undertaken work in education, mentoring, clinical practice and advocacy. She played a key role in the establishment of the Australian Indigenous Doctors Association and has held a number of Ministerial appointments. In her previous position she was Assistant Director at the Menzies School of Health Research in Darwin, where she developed a program around child health and human rights within the Child Health Division. She has a Master of Public Health and Tropical Medicine (James Cook University) and is a Fellow of the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners and well advanced in her research towards a PhD.

In 2003, after five years in Darwin and Boston, Alan Cass returned to the University of Sydney as a senior researcher, and then Director, of the Renal Division of the George Institute for International Health and Associate Professor in Sydney Medical School. A Fellow of the Royal Australian College of Physicians, he is a national leader in the development of policy regarding the co-ordinated delivery of chronic disease prevention and management services for Indigenous Australians. He has considerable expertise as a clinical researcher, epidemiologist and community-based researcher. His research has repeatedly broken new ground, including Sharing the True Stories, which documented the extent of miscommunication in cross-cultural healthcare. After graduating BA MBBS from the University of Sydney in 1989, Alan trained as a specialist physician and nephrologist at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital. In 2003 he gained his PhD from the University for his thesis exploring the social determinants of chronic kidney disease among Indigenous Australians. He received an Australian Harkness Fellowship in Health Care Policy in 2002-3.

Jenny Reath has worked for 25 years in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health mainly as a General Practitioner in Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Services. Over the past fifteen years she has been engaged in program and policy development in this area and has particular interest and expertise in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health education. Jenny has completed a Master of Medicine based on research in Aboriginal women's health and is currently the GP Manager of the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Unit.

The Poche Centre will be formally launched by the Chancellor at 4.00pm on Tuesday 23 September (Women’s College).


Two new guides to assist postgraduate students
A recent Academic Board working party, chaired by Associate Professor Jillian Kril, explored examination times for doctoral theses and made a number of recommendations concerning the governance of research training aimed at improving the quality of theses submitted for examination and enhancing the overall experience of research higher degree (RHD) candidates. These recommendations included the development of:

• a manual of “best practice” with respect to the administration and monitoring of RHD candidacies for distribution to faculties, and
• the development of a training program for postgraduate coordinators and others responsible for monitoring candidacies and conducting annual reviews.

These two programs will be established in late 2008 by Jillian and Dr Sarah Brecknock from the Postgraduate Student Administration Unit (Faculties of Dentistry, Medicine and Pharmacy) drawing on the considerable experience of the PG Unit. It is envisaged that the manual will facilitate the sharing of expertise among the University community while the postgraduate coordinator training program will offer training and support to coordinators who play a crucial role in the supporting and monitoring the performance of RHD candidates and their supervisors at a local level.


A new COMPASS
The Office of Medical Education and the Medical School IT Unit have been developing an integrated information system, “COMPASS”, which includes learning objectives, teaching and learning resources, and scheduling information, linked to assessments. When students in the Medical Program log in and access the Events Calendar for their personalised timetable, they will be able to click on an entry, for example, of a lecture to open up the learning objectives, resources and scheduling. They will also be able to gain an overview of where learning topics are taught in the course and how they are assessed.

COMPASS will be rolled out in stages over the next year. Currently, learning objectives are being released through the Medical Program website, and for teachers an online submission form for learning objectives is being piloted.

For further information and/or demonstrations, please contact Associate Professor Tessa Ho or Daniel Burn .

Read more about Compass and our IT developments in the 3rd issue of Curriculum Matters (PDF), the OME newsletter.

Bruce Robinson
Dean