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News July - September 2009

Professor Steve Leeder awarded PHAA Sidney Sax Medal for 2009

30 September

In winning the Sidney Sax Medal, Professor Steve Leeder joins a small and very distinguished group of people who have made a significant contribution to improving the health of the population.

"Steve has been a lifelong pioneer, crusader and advocate for improving the health of our population. It is impossible to do justice to Steve's long and distinguished career but it would be fair to say that his abiding passion for better education of doctors and public health professionals, for the importance of research in promoting good health policy, for improving health care for those who need it most, his commitment to the people of Western Sydney and our Indigenous population, his generous mentoring of people and his forthright approach to engaging in intellectual debate all make Steve who he is - a friend, great colleague and lifelong public health intellectual and stirrer," said Professor Glenn Salkeld, Head of School.

Congratulations Professor Leeder!

About the Sidney Sax award:
The PHAA bestows this competitive award on a person who has provided a notable contribution to the protection and promotion of public health, solving public health problems, advancing community awareness of public health measures and advancing the ideals and practice of equity in the provision of health care. More

Time to rebirth Medicare?
by Melissa Sweet

30 September

One recent Sunday afternoon, after several weeks of feeling poorly, I made the uncomfortable transition from being an observer of the health system to a user of it.

As I took off my clothes, put on the green gown provided by the hospital, and followed the instructions for having an X-ray, I felt terribly vulnerable. Was this going to be one of those moments in which everything changes?

Fortunately, my fears were groundless, and I was soon restored to my usual sense of self. But the unsettling experience was a timely reminder of why health policy - an area often obfuscated by impenetrable jargon and self-interested powerbrokers - matters so much.

Even if you find health policy debates mind-numbingly dull - as news editors have been complaining in the United States, where even the Obama factor is not enough to stop audiences switching off - there will come a time when they are suddenly, awfully relevant. More

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BMJ highlights Associate Professor Merrilyn Walton's work for the WHO

29 September

A recently published article in the BMJ highlights work by Associate Professor Merrilyn Walton, Director of Patient Safety here at Sydney Medical School.

The article relates to a WHO project she led in developing the Patient Safety Curriculum Guide for Medical Schools. Until now, safety issues have not been a high priority in medical training. The WHO will publish the curriculum guide next year and hopes that the curriculum will be incorporated by medical schools worldwide.
Read the full article here.

Associate Professor Walton has been working in patient safety for the last 25 years - the first 15 years was as Commissioner for the NSW Health Care Complaints Commission.

"Patient complaints were one of the first indicators that the system of health care was causing unintentional harm to patients. We now know the extent of harm in the system. My efforts since joining the Faculty nearly 10 years ago have concentrated on designing patient safety education programs for all levels of medical education and training. My PhD was a study of junior doctors and mistakes. In 2005 I developed the Australian Patient Safety Education Framework, that is now being used nationally and internationally for developing patient safety curricula at all levels. The Framework has been downloaded from the Australian Commission on Quality and Safety homepage 10,000 times," she said.

Merrilyn is a member of the National Health Practitioner Registration Agency and a member of the NHMRC Ethics Committee. In addition to her work in patient safety she coordinates the PPD program for the Sydney Medical School. She is also a board member of the NSW Institute of Medical Education and Training and in that capacity has made contributions to patient safety education at the pre vocational level.

Testing not a major factor in prostate cancer mortality

29 September

Death from prostate cancer does not vary greatly between men who undergo annual prostate-specific antigen (PSA) screening and those who do not, according to an investigation of PSA outcomes.

"A Model of Prostate-Specific Antigen Screening Outcomes for Low- to High-Risk Men" was published in the Archives on Internal Medicine today. Dr Kirsten Howard from the University of Sydney's School of Public Health was the paper's lead author.

PSA screening involves testing the levels of a prostate specific antigen with a blood test. Elevated levels of that protein can sometimes indicate the presence of prostate cancer. An elevated PSA level usually leads to more invasive investigation and treatment including biopsies, radiation and prostatectomies.

The paper compares diagnosis and mortality outcomes of men who undergo annual PSA tests with those who did not take the tests.

"Unsurprisingly, we found men who test for prostate cancer had a higher rate of diagnosis," says Dr Howard. "But mortality rates from prostate cancer don't decrease significantly for this group.

More

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Alison Evans wins ASPAH Career Development Award

Alison Evans, a PhD candidate at the School, has won a Career Development Award from the Australian Society of Performing Arts Healthcare (ASPAH).

Alison's award comprises payment of her registration fees (and associated travel expenses) for the ASPAH Third Annual Conference in Brisbane in October.

In addition, Alison will be presenting her paper - Velopharyngeal insufficiency in wind instrumentalists: A questionnaire study - at the conference.

Congratulations Alison!

Professor Jonathan Craig wins International Distinguished Medal

Professor Jonathan Craig has been awarded the National Kidney Foundation (based in the USA) International Distinguished Medal for 2010.

The award "honours the achievement of individuals who have made significant contributions to the field of kidney disease, and to those who extend the goals of the National Kidney Foundation"

"This is wonderful recognition of the superb work and impact that Jonathan has achieved as an academic clinician. We are very fortunate to have such a high calibre academic in the School," said Professor Glenn Salkeld, Head of School.

Dr Cynthia Hunter promoted

24 July

Congratulations to Dr Cynthia Hunter on her promotion as Senior Lecturer in International Public Health!
Dr Hunter's promotion is very well deserved and her high level medical anthropological skills are of great benefit to the School.

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Professor Louise Baur wins the PHAA (NSW Branch) Public Health Impact Award

Professor Louise Baur was awarded the PHAA (NSW Branch) Public Health Impact Award at their Annual General Meeting and dinner.

Professor Baur has been recognised for her work in Australian obesity research.

Contratulations Professor Baur!

Professor Les Irwig interviewed on the ABC's Health Report

20 July 2009

Professor Les Irwig was interviewed recently by Dr Norman Swan on ABC Radio National's Health Report.

The interview related to two studies recently published in the British Medical Journal that found:
(1) monitoring bone mineral density in postmenopausal women taking osteoporosis drugs is unnecessary and potentially misleading and
(2) long term monitoring in patients taking blood pressure lowering treatment should be done much less frequently than is currently the case. The studies had several co-authors from the School's Screening & Test Evaluation Program (STEP), including Katy Bell, Andrew Hayen, Petra Macaskill, Jonathan Craig, Kath Keenan and Les Irwig.

In the ABC interview, Les Irwig outlines the studies' findings and the implications they have for clinical care.

Listen or read the transcript of this interview here.

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