MAY 2013 NEWSLETTER
AWARDS
Sydney Medical School Nepean had three awards presented at this year’s Sydney Medical School Celebratory Dinner held in McLauren Hall on 9th April.
L-R Sandra, Gustavo and Rhonda
Professor Gustavo Duque - Professor of Medicine
Head, Division of Geriatric Medicine, Department of Medicine & Director, Ageing Bone Research Program - received the prestigious inaugural Professor Philip Sambrook Award from Osteoporosis Australia and the Australian and New Zealand Bone and Mineral Society
Ms Sandra Bermeo - PhD student in the Aging Bone Program – received the Young Investigator Award and the prestigious President’s Poster Competition Awards from the American Society for Bone and Mineral Research.
Ms Rhonda Willis – Executive Assistant for Nepean Clinical School – received the Sydney Medical School Award for Exceptional Performance by General Staff.
Summer Student Finalist
Allison Grech
We congratulate Allison Grech for being a finalist for the Deans Award for her Summer Scholarship project entitled "Hormones and the Risk of Barrett's Oesophagus and Oesophageal Cancer: A Meta-analysis” in the discipline of surgery under the supervision of Associate Professor Guy Eslick.
This is a great achievement to be selected from 80 students. Well Done!
Summer Students Reports
RANZCOG Women's Health Award prize for 2012
Nepean Medical Graduate Ms Priyanka Dixit from won the RANZCOG Women's Health Award prize for 2012 for her Honours project entitled “How common is pelvic floor muscle atrophy after vaginal birth”
The RANZCOG Women's Health Award was established in 2005 by the offer of an annual donation from The Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists. It is awarded for the best Honours project in Obstetrics and Gynaecology.
The RM Gibson Scientific Research Award and A Rebecca Cooper Medical Research Foundation equipment/research grant
Dr Christopher Vidal
Dr Christopher Vidal PhD, Research Officer Ageing Bone Research Program, won The RM Gibson Scientific Research Award from the Australian Association of Gerontology for his project entitled: “Development of a new biomarker for the diagnosis of frailty in older persons”
Chris also received a Rebecca Cooper Medical Research Foundation equipment/research grant for his project entitled: “The role of the nuclear envelope in age-related bone loss”
Stages1-4 Academic Merit Prizes
Mun Kit (Aaron) Wong, Phylannie Kiu Fung Cheung and Paul Khoi Dinh Nguyen
STUDENTS
Also see our Student Webpage - Students
The NMSS
We have a new group of leaders for the NMSS:
Left - Right
Mohamed Halabi – Secretary
Anna Duggan – Education Officer
Clint Smith – President
Alex Holmes – Social Officer
Raleene Gatmaitan – Education Officer
Jonathan Chua – Treasurer
Stephen Do – Sponsorship
Click on photo for larger view
Sydney Nursing Schools Students
2013 Student Nurses
On the 8th of March, Sarah Whereat on behalf of the Sydney Medical School, Nepean welcomed the Sydney Nursing Schools students. They will be placed within the Nepean hospital for a period of eight weeks and will be using the Nepean Clinical School facilities for regular lectures during this placement.
Click on photo for larger view
RESEARCH NEWS
Sydney Medical School Nepean Research
PAEDIATRICS
Dr Girish Deshpande
“Probiotic gives new hope to premature babies”
Dr Girish Deshpande from Sydney’s Nepean Hospital and Nepean Clinical School
Probiotics are friendly bacteria which are naturally present in the digestive tract and fight against harmful bacteria.
Most premature babies are born with premature gut and cannot be fed milk right from birth, so their premature gut could be colonised by harmful bacteria and can develop the deadly bowel disease known as necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC). “Bad” bacteria in the gut have been associated with the development of NEC.
We were the first in Australia to offer Probiotics, which are “good bacteria”, as a routine prevention for premature babies against NEC in the Nepean Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) in December 2011.
This project aims to prove that Probiotics is the silver bullet for the prevention of this deadly disease.
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Probiotic gives new hope to premature babies
ABC News Report - 2 case studies
OBSTETRICS AND GYNAECOLOGY
Prof Peter Dietz
Pelvic Floor Unit, Sydney Medical School Nepean
Professor HP Dietz, Dr KL Shek, Dr I Kamisan Atan, Dr R Guzman Rojas, S Langer RN RM, L Bourne, J Cauldwell- Hall, V Wong, L Skinner
Over the last eight years, Urogynaecology has become one of the most prominent subspecialties at Nepean Hospital, both from a national and an international perspective. Since commencing here in late 2004, Professor Dietz has developed a research unit that focuses on maternal birth trauma and its consequences in later life of pelvic organ prolapse, urinary and faecal incontinence, an area of investigation that until recently had attracted very little attention.
The growth of the unit is primarily due to an increasing awareness of maternal birth trauma. At least half of all women suffer substantial damage to their pelvic floor when they give birth to their first child.
In addition, the unit hosts between ten and fifteen ‘visiting scholars’ of the University of Sydney per year who act as observers and usually undertake simple research projects involving offline analysis of imaging data.
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Pelvic Floor Unit Research
GP Seminar Series
Tuesday 26th March – “Understanding the burden on litigants in Family Court Proceedings”
Justice Le Poer Trench – Federal Family Court Judge
Tuesday 9th April –“Breathe Easy or Die Hard Trying”
GP Presentation – Dr Mark Graydon and Dr Travina Dahanayaka
Tuesday 23rd April –“Privacy and Confidentiality the Vital Ingredients”
Dr Julian Walter - Medical Defence Australia
Upcoming Seminars:
Tuesday 7th May – GP Presentation
Tuesday 21st May – “Getting published”
Dr Martin Van Der Weyden - Past Editor MJA
NMRF (The Nepean Medical Research Foundation)
OZWAC (Australian Womens and Childrens Research )
Upcoming Events
Fun Run – "Keep the date! Sunday 22nd September 2013
NEW PEOPLE
Jennifer Canderle - Clerical Coordinator Nepean Clinical School Outpatients
The clinics started off with two clinics; a High Risk Antenatal clinic and a Perinatal Ultrasound clinic and have now grown to accommodate clinics for, Paediatrics, Endocrinology, Urogynaecology, Aging Bone Densitometry Research, Continence, Physiotherapy, Gynaecology and Midwifery, with more to come as Doctors become aware of the area.
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Jennifer Canderle
Robyn Lewis
Robyn Lewis - Administration officer for the Professor of Medicine, Professor Jack Wall, Dr Stephen Fuller, Dr Bernard Champion, and Associate Professor Emily Hibbert.
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Robyn Lewis
Mani Viswasam
Mani Viswasam B.Soc.Sc.(Psychology), M.Hlth.Sc. (Child & Adol),MAPS
– Research Assistant, Department of Psychiatry
Mani's role entails assisting with various research projects and related issues within the Department of Psychiatry.
Mani is also involved with the Maternal Fetal Bonding Study being done at the Department of Perinatal Ultrasound in collaboration with the Department of Psychiatry.
VISITING SCHOLARS
Visiting Scholars
Daniela Ulrich (Austria) 4th Feb-8th March
Li Tan (China) 4th March-5th May
Victoria Handa (USA) 18th March-29th March
Rodriego da Costa (Brazil) 1st-30th April
Elmo Bittar (Brazil) 1st-30th April
ELECTIVE STUDENT REPORTS
Elective Student Reports
Claudette Adele Phillips - University of Edinburgh in Scotland
Fanny Quandt – Germany
Floor Messeyne - Belgium
Florian – Germany
Fui Chen ONG - Monash University, Malaysia
Saskia Schoonbrood and Simone Stahl - Germany
Joy Staniforth - -University of Cambridge, UK
ACTIVITIES
Coastrek 50km Challenge
On Friday 1st March four of the SMS Nepean staff took on the Coastrek 50km Challenge. Narelle Brown, Sarah Whereat, Rhonda Willis and Ann Quinton finished the 50km course up and down headlands and across beaches from Palm Beach to Balmoral Beach in 15 hours to raise money for Coastrek’s chosen charity the Fred Hollows Foundation.
Read MoreCoastrek