Health and Medical Sciences MeDeFacts www.meddent.uwa.edu.au Volume 23 | Number 3 | September 2017 Please be upstanding – a toast to the Medical School on its 60th anniversary and to all its alumni. From its jubilant beginnings in 1957, when 15 students completed their first year of medicine, to last year’s total of 253 graduands, the Medical School has flourished. Over the 60 years it has witnessed enormous talent and produced exceptional alumni, including a Nobel Laureate, ACs, AOs, AMs, Australian of the Year, Rhodes Scholars, world-renowned researchers, clinicians, teachers and administrators. Above all, it prides itself on its doctors who not only care for their patients, but about them, and give unstintingly of their time for their welfare in all arenas. It is well known that the Medical School only exists because of the generosity of the West Australian public who dug deeply into their pockets from 1955 to raise funds to establish it. These included community organisations, industry groups, professional groups, individuals and many others. Rural communities entered into the spirit and many farmers pledged part of their wool cut or crop – and now, of course, the Medical School boasts an enviable Rural Clinical School with 14 country sites. In this edition, we celebrate our alumni and the impact they have had on future generations of doctors, the health of the community and the progress of medicine. And UWA Pro Vice-Chancellor and Faculty Executive Dean, Professor Wendy Erber, casts a line into the future to see what the next 60 years might bring forth. Previous editions of MeDeFacts can be viewed online at www.meddent.uwa.edu.au/news/medefacts www.meddent.uwa.edu.au/news/medefacts Come on in - and enjoy your learning Students have been flocking with 20 dedicated PCs, after- hours meeting rooms and a into the newly revamped combined workspace for both Medical and Dental Library library and Faculty staff. New following its opening on coded locker facilities are 6 September. available on the ground and first floors. The vibrant and invigorated library welcomes UWA students and staff as On the second floor are the well as alumni and members of the Dean’s office and Faculty staff public. offices. The $7 million refurbished building Library Manager Ms Merrilee provides a modern, student-focused Albatis said students space for study, teaching and learning really valued a variety of and a new home for Health and learning spaces – thus the Medical Sciences’ Faculty and library collaborative spaces on staff in the heart of the QEII campus. the ground floor and the The renovation coincides with the individual study spaces on celebration of the 60th anniversary of the first floor. “We are getting the Medical School. more students into our libraries than ever before. The stylish design includes a feature The Reid Library has seen timber ceiling representing the a marked increase in the human spine and elements of number of visitors since its dentition-inspired collaborative refurbishment, proof that students are keen to meet, tables. The project was a collaboration between the study and collaborate with architectural firm Hames Sharley, each other in inspiring, the Faculty of Health and Medical technology-rich spaces.” Sciences, the University Library, Development and Alumni Relations, Campus Management, University IT, and student representatives. The new library ground floor offers Photo: Top - Pro Vice-Chancellor and Executive Dean Professor Wendy Erber (left) with Vice-Chancellor Professor a technology-rich collaborative Dawn Freshwater at the information desk of the newly-refurbished Medical and Dental Library. learning hub made up of a 120- Photo: Middle - The student PC area on the ground floor. seat e-learning suite, a seminar Photo: Bottom - Bookable group study booths on the ground floor. presentation room, bookable study booths and group study rooms. This level also includes new amenities, kitchen facilities and a student lounge. The main library service point MBBS reunions has been designed to facilitate better student-staff interaction through a MBBS 1987 - 30 year reunion, 21 October at side-by-side model of support. The Trustee in St George’s Terrace. The ground floor also houses an Alumni Lounge with exclusive MBBS 1967 - 50 year reunion, 28 October lunch at the meeting and work space for University Club in the formal dining room. graduates, donors and community Speaker: Clinical Professor Alex Cohen. partners who have played a huge role in first-rate teaching, research and practice. MBBS 1957 (intake year) - 60 year reunion, 11 November lunch at the University Club. The first floor has individual, silent study areas and access to the library’s core Health and Medical Please email UWA Alumni Relations at Sciences print collection. Also on [email protected] for more information. this floor is a computer training room 2 | MeDeFacts | Volume 23 Number 3 | September 2017 The Dean’s Diary By Professor Wendy Erber, Pro Vice-Chancellor and Executive Dean The UWA Medical School in 2050 On this 60th anniversary of the is therefore not at all impossible that “University Medical School” we reflect even at comparatively short intervals, new and valuable suggestions may be on where we have come from and made both with regard to subjects to be what we have achieved since it was taught and to methods to be employed established in 1957. I have been giving in giving the instruction.” More than a thought to the Medical School of the century on, these words remain true. The subject matter has changed, as future. have the methods of instruction and assessment (though examinations We began with 25 students at the remain to the student “a necessary “University Medical School” to train the evil”) but the principles remain. And first home-grown doctors for the State. so they will for medical students of At that time there were four medical the future. The style of teaching and schools in Australia and 860 medical learning may again change. In the students; 60 years on these numbers 19th century medical education was We are already moving to the use of have grown significantly and there are largely as an apprenticeship. In the telecommunication and digital tools now 20 medical schools nationwide 20th century this was supplemented by to remotely diagnose illnesses. Instant (three in WA) and 20,000 students! Our textbook education. In the 21st century communication and data transmission UWA medical program has changed with global access to information will increasingly have an impact in from a six-year undergraduate MB and teachers, the mode of delivery acute and life-threatening situations. BS degree with students entering will again change and the University Telemedicine will improve delivery directly from high school to a four- will need to review what education is of healthcare in rural and remote year postgraduate MD, admitting 240 provided locally, and how. parts of our State and could lead to students annually. This move to a internationalisation of medical care. graduate program has been a common Doctor-patient relationship is key trend nationally and internationally. And how will we practise medicine in By 2050 there will be 10 million Our curriculum includes the scientific 2050? Medicine must continue to be Australians over 65 years of age – basis of disease as well as clinical a very human interaction: the doctor- double the number of today. This training in hospital and community patient relationship will remain as a demographic change will have a major practices both in the metropolitan area key element of medical practice and impact on healthcare. There will be a and in many regional locations. health delivery. The care of the patient greater focus on maintaining a healthy and their family will remain paramount population and avoiding chronic Our Medical School has made some and be central to the practice of conditions. The medical curriculum of remarkable achievements over the medicine. The traditional methods of tomorrow will see a greater focus on first 60 years, graduating thousands of care, communication and compassion disease prevention, health promotion, doctors (including a Nobel Laureate), are important today and will continue rehabilitation and maintenance of making seminal medical discoveries so into the future. The growing costs wellbeing (both physical and mental) and teaching the next generation of delivering health care may well see for the increased ageing of society. of doctors. In that time society has medical practice move away from changed considerably – the population hospitals and into the community, with Clinician-researchers of tomorrow of WA has trebled, we live in a global doctors becoming members of inter- Our medical students will be the multicultural world and have seen professional care teams. Our patients clinician-researchers of tomorrow. a computer revolution. The average will be better informed through global They will make their own discoveries life expectancy has increased by access to information. and inventions that will challenge 13 years, we know the full human current dogma and potentially change genome, there is greater equality for We will see and need to work with how we practise medicine. Our women worldwide and there have demographic and sociological medical students will assist UWA in been changes in our environment. changes. Children of today will grow achieving its ambition to be a “top 50” None of these things could have been up with more and better quality health university in the world by 2050. Our predicted 60 years ago. knowledge and greater access to medical research is already world class information than their parents. Early and we are currently rated number 42 Future medical education exposure to medical knowledge could in the world in clinical medicine. What will medical education look like lead to more young people desiring as we ponder the future? There will be to study medicine, leading to entry Medical knowledge and the health change, but some things will remain to the program becoming even more care system of tomorrow will differ the same.