Dean's Newsletter - March 2009

Congratulations to…

Professor Colin Sullivan was awarded an AC earlier this year. I was delighted to learn that Colin has now received the Sir William Upjohn Gold Medal 2008 awarded by the University of Melbourne and for the first time awarded jointly, with Professor David Cooper, to two distinguished Australians outside the University of Melbourne. The Medal is awarded for "distinguished services to Medicine in Australia".

Joshua Burns PhD, B App Sc (Pod) Hons, NHMRC Australian Clinical Research Fellow at the Institute for Neuromuscular Research, and Senior Lecturer at the Children's Hospital at Westmead 2009 on having been awarded a Fulbright Postdoctoral Scholarship to carry out research in the US later this year. Joshua will spend three months at Wayne State University School of Medicine working with the Neurology/Molecular Medicine and Genetics Department to undertake research on Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease (CMT). CMT is the most common genetic nerve disease causing progressive muscle weakness, painful foot deformities and walking difficulty. Click here for the story from the Fulbright website.

Associate Professor Merrilyn Walton
NSW Health has just awarded Merrilyn a $105,000 grant to study assessment methods for junior doctors. Merrilyn has also been appointed by Health Ministers, acting as the Australian Health Workforce Ministerial Council, to the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency Management Committee which is to oversee the introduction of national health practitioner registration and accreditation.

Dr Ian Blair and Professor Garth Nicholson from the University's ANZAC Research Institute have identified a new gene abnormality that causes the fatal paralysis, motor neuron disease (MND) in families with multiple members affected by the disease. Until recently the cause of MND was unknown. This is an important step towards developing effective screening and prevention for this fatal disease as well as finding treatments that prevent or reduce the inexorable progress of this so-far untreatable disease. See the news story here.

Professor Phyllis Butow who has received the International Psycho-Oncology Society Bernard Fox Memorial Award for her work on psycho-oncology. The Award recognises outstanding contribution in education, research or leadership to the field of psycho-oncology which in Phyllis’ case has centred on research and health communication and specifically doctor-patient communication. Details available here.

Associate Professor Chris Roberts, Dr Emily Hibbert and Associate Professor Gustavo Duque on their success in the University’s TIES scheme (Small Teaching Improvement and Equipment Grants):

• Chris Roberts: Introducing interactive Whiteboard Technology into Medical Education
• Emily Hibbert: A multi-media based training in dermatology for medical students
• Gustavo Duque: Implementation of a web-based integrated clinical attachment in geriatric medicine

Associate Professor Jenny Reath and Professor Tim Usherwood on their contribution to medical education in Nepal. Jenny, an Associate Professor in Indigenous Primary Health Care at the Poche Centre for Indigenous Health and Tim, Professor of General Practice at Westmead, recently spent two weeks at Patan Academy of Health Sciences (PAHS), Nepal. They were invited by the Vice-Chancellor of PAHS, Dr Arjun Karki, to work with PAHS staff on their curriculum and faculty development program. PAHS was established in January 2008 as an autonomous not-for-profit public institution of higher education dedicated to training clinicians who are committed and competent to providing health care to disadvantaged communities in remote and rural areas of Nepal. PAHS is currently developing an undergraduate medical program, which will be one of only two not-for-profit medical schools in the country: www.pahs.edu.np.

PAHS plans to accept its first intake of medical students later in 2009. The curriculum aims to reflect best practice in medical education, and many innovative strategies are being developed to prepare and support PAHS graduates for practice in remote communities. Jenny and Tim have commented that they learned much from their visit and were impressed by the vision and commitment of the many Nepalis who have achieved extraordinary outcomes in research, health outcomes and curriculum development despite severely limited resources and in the context of a civil war that ended only last year. PAHS is keen to develop international links to support its goals. Tim and Jenny are working with the Medical School's Office for Global Health to explore possible links between PAHS and the University of Sydney.

Professor Ron Trent and colleagues for the continued development of the Sydney Forensic Medicine Science Network which has recently been launched and aims to unite researchers and workers to enable cutting-edge delivery of forensic science. See the news story here.

Associate Professor Tony Brown who has just taken on the role of Associate Dean and Head of our School of Rural Health. Tony replaces Joe Canalese who has done an outstanding job in leading the School of the last few years. Joe will not be disappearing from the scene however, as he will maintain a research role within the School. Tony is well known in the School community having most recently been a public health physician at Dubbo Base Hospital. We are delighted to have him with us.

It was a pleasure to visit the School in Dubbo on 5 March to attend the official opening by the Chancellor of the new student accommodation complex. The Vice-Chancellor was also present and he and Professor Bashir delighted our students by spending almost an hour with them and were visibly impressed by the students’ enthusiasm and pleasure at being in Dubbo.

Ms Kay Winton as Director of Student Services in the Dean's Office. Helen Triantafyllou will have been well known to many of you and has done a very fine job of leading this important area of the Medical School’s activities for a number of years; Helen has now been appointed Faculty Manager in the Faculty of Architecture. I am delighted for her as I do believe this will be a good career move for her. I am equally delighted that Kay has taken over as the new Director. She has already made a significant contribution to a number of matters in the Dean’s Office. Kay can be contacted on 9351 5473 or .


Program Grants commencing in 2010
Congratulations to two members of our Medical School involved in new NHMRC Program Grants:

• Professor Mac Christie: Venom peptide modulators of pain pathways ($ 6,360,000)
• Professor Adrian Bauman: Sitting less and moving more: Population health research to understand and influence sedentary behaviour ($ 5,390,000)

Russell Drysdale Rowan Nicks Fellowship
Congratulations to the three researchers in the field of indigenous health and welfare who have been the recipients of awards through the Russell Drysdale Rowan Nicks Fellowship scheme. The Fellowships are funded by a bequest from the family of the late artist, Russell Drysdale, and regular donations by now-retired Sydney cardio-thoracic surgeon, Dr Rowan Nicks. Please click here for information about the scholarship. Details of the latest awards are available from here.


Bruce Robinson
Dean