Chiron 2013.Pdf

MELBOURNE MEDICAL SCHOOL | TWENTY THIRTEEN CONTENTS 01 EDItoRIAL 20 ALUMNI stoRIES James Best Maithri Goonetilleke 21 Neil Johnson 22 Areta Podhorodecki 02 STRENGTH OF MIND Jane Gunn 03 Merrilyn Murnane 23 SNAKE GERMS 05 Mary Belfrage Peter Hobbins 07 Jacqueline Healy 27 REUNIONS 08 MEDICAL SCHOOL NEWS 09 New Chairs Appointed in 2013 31 THANKSGIVING SERVICE 32 OBITUARIES 12 FINAL MBBS GRADUATION Susan Elliott 36 IN BRIEF 13 FROM THE STUDENTS Melissa Lee Jason Hsu 14 Jada Kapoor 15 Thomas O’Donnell 16 ALUMNI HONOURED Katrina Watson 17 THE HEALTH OF A NATION Richard Smallwood Chiron is published by the Melbourne Medical School. Contributions Executive Editor: Liz Brentnall ISSN 0814-3978 and correspondence from alumni, students and staff are most welcome Managing Editor: Elizabeth © THE UNIVERSITY and should be sent to: Brumby OF MELBOURNE Design: 22% more chicken Chiron Editor, Advancement and Communications Unit, Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences COVER: The More We Know by 4th Floor, 766 Elizabeth Street The University of Melbourne, 3010, Australia Michael Meszaros, commissioned by a group of 1972 MBBS T: +61 3 9035 7869 graduates, commemorates 150 E: [email protected] years of Melbourne Medicine W: www.medicine.unimelb.edu.au and stands outside the Medical Building on Grattan Street. EDITORIAL THE SHOULDERS OF GIANTS JAMES D BEST for the MD from St Andrews University in Sir William Upjohn Medal (named after Scotland, were awarded an MD ad eundem another distinguished alumnus) to Professor gradum. Emeritus Richard Smallwood, whose address is presented in this issue of Chiron. We plan to Another event of great significance during recognise further distinguished alumni in this 2013 was the celebration of 125 years of way in 2014. women in medicine at the University of Melbourne. Although the 125th anniversary We are always very grateful to receive financial was actually in 2012, we thought a more fitting support from alumni and others who value tribute to those pioneers who fought for entry the work of the Melbourne Medical School. to the medical course, and the thousands of Mrs Pamela Galli has been a remarkable women who have followed in their footsteps, philanthropist, endowing the Lorenzo and would be paid by separating this major Pamela Galli Chair in Melanoma and Skin On Saturday 14 December 2013, the final celebration from the 150th anniversary. The Cancers in 2012 and then, in 2013, another Melbourne MBBS class received their degrees ‘strength of mind’ shown by these remarkable Chair, the Lorenzo and Pamela Galli Chair in from Chancellor Elizabeth Alexander women is recorded in this issue of Chiron and Developmental Medicine. This level of support in Wilson Hall, and graduated from the was the title of a wonderful exhibition in the is truly inspiring and a mark of the wide University of Melbourne. I found the MBBS Medical History Museum, and a published esteem in which the University and its Medical hood, in which I had graduated 41 years collection of 60 stories written by and about School is held. earlier, and wore it to the ceremony, which alumnae of our Medical School. Over the past two years, alumna and anatomist I always find a very moving event. The The other major exhibition and catalogue Associate Professor Jenny Hayes has convened graduation address, given by Professor Susan produced during 2013 was ‘Venom: Fear, a wonderful tribute to those who have Elliott, herself a Melbourne MBBS graduate, Fascination and Discovery’. Copies of both donated their bodies for the study of anatomy. architect of the MBBS course introduced catalogues have been popular with alumni Supported by medical students and academic twelve years ago, and now Pro-Vice Chancellor and the general public alike and are available teaching staff, the families of these exceptional (Engagement), is reproduced in this issue of through the University’s Co-Op Bookshop. We donors are involved in a ceremony with music, Chiron. are fortunate to have an exceptional collection poetry and candles lit for each donor. Having After receiving their degrees the graduating in the Medical History Museum which our the event in Wilson Hall, where our students class stand and recite the World Medical curator, Jacky Healy, uses to produce fabulous graduate, lends added significance to this Association Declaration of Geneva. The exhibitions and publications. We have plans important acknowledgement of those who declaration includes the statement, ‘My to expand the Museum, enhance its role make our excellent anatomy teaching possible. colleagues will be my sisters and brothers’, a in medical education, and produce more It was Isaac Newton who acknowledged that sentiment that infuses all our annual alumni extensive displays of the collection. We always he had been able to see further by ‘standing reunions and, over recent years, our meetings welcome visits from alumni and invite your on the shoulders of giants’. During 2013, with international alumni, which we see as support for the Museum. as in each year, we lost some giants whose ‘family’ reunions. As an alumni journal, Chiron Our many thousands of alumni continue to contributions have helped to build the is the ideal setting to report these events more make a remarkable contribution to medicine reputation of the Melbourne Medical School. widely amongst the family. and to society, in Australia and internationally With over 300 graduates each year there are The new Doctor of Medicine (MD) course – arguably as great as those from any many stepping up to continue their work, is into its fourth year and our first class will medical school in the world. Over the past ensuring that the Melbourne Medical School graduate this December. In a sense this is a two years we have recognised some of the will endure as one of the finest medical schools ‘back to the future’ change as the first medical most outstanding contributors amongst our in the world. degree awarded by the University, as early as alumni with the award of honorary degrees. Professor James D Best 1856 (before the medical course started in A highlight of 2013 was the awarding of five Head, Melbourne Medical School 1862), was the MD. Medical graduates from Doctor of Medical Science honoris causa to MBBS 1972 the UK, such as our founder Anthony Colling distinguished alumni. This ceremony was Brownless, who had taken the examination held in conjunction with the award of the 01 STRENGTH OF MIND JANE GUNN Today, just over half of the graduates of the Melbourne Medical School are women. The past 125 years of the Medical School have seen women contribute and achieve so much. In 2013 we celebrated the outstanding contribution of women doctors, a contribution that began in 1887 with the first seven female medical students: Clara Stone, Margaret Whyte, Grace Vale, Elizabeth and Annie O’Hara; Helen Sexton and Lilian Alexander. It was my great honour to Chair the Steering Committee for the celebrations supported by the wonderful committee members: Jacqueline Healy, Katrina Watson, Judith Savige, Lorraine Baker, Sue Sleep, Melissa Lee and Liz Brentnall. Our celebrations began with the public launch of a major publication and exhibition Strength of Mind: 125 years of women in medicine at the Medical History Wilma Beswick (above) is the subject of Kim Yeoh’s article in Strength of Mind Museum. The evening event attracted large numbers of alumni, University staff and seven women. Being accepted as a woman members of the public. The Melbourne doctor took time. The catalogue provides Medical School Student Ambassadors an insight into how women took charge were on hand to greet the attendees and of their own future, identified supportive to make them feel an important part of networks, grasped opportunities and then this significant event. The Medical History worked extremely hard, often against the Museum was alive with conversation and odds, to ensure that women doctors were reminiscences prompted by the magnificent able to make their contribution to medicine displays carefully brought together by our and to the health of the community. Curator, Jacqueline Healy. The more contemporary stories highlight The exhibition and catalogue include key just how far women have come, with historic and contemporary individuals inspiring stories from every facet of and events that track the changes over medical endeavour. Yet, this is not the 125 years. Over 100 women graduates of time for complacency, as despite the fact the Medical School participated in the that women outnumber men as medical publication as subjects or as authors. students, women are grossly under- Each woman participant, whether subject represented in senior clinical, academic Generations of medical women attended the or author, is inspiring in her own right. and policy positions. We hope that the Strength of Mind launch The exhibition and catalogue can only catalogue and exhibition will serve as a provide a fleeting snapshot of our rich and focal point for considered reflection on Professor Jane Gunn inspiring history. women’s place in medicine and prompt Professor Jane Gunn (MBBS 1987, PhD 1998), all of us to work towards ensuring that any Every female graduate has faced the Chair, 125 Years of Women in Medicine Steering remaining imbalance is overcome. challenge of gaining admission to the Committee; Chair, Primary Care Research; Head, University to study medicine, but none General Practice and Primary Health Care so great as the challenge faced by the first Academic Centre, Melbourne Medical School 02 125 YEARS OF WOMEN IN MEDICINE MERRILYN MURNANE In the early 19th century in Australia, The University of Melbourne’s medical school, After graduating, Constance went to London universities refused the admission of having opened in 1862, did not admit women, and attended lectures at The London School women to medical schools.

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