We’ve submitted a proposal to the federal government to build a new medical school in WA. This week’s update is from our Pro Vice-Chancellor, Health Sciences, Jill Downie, and brings the latest news on our initiative to address Western Australia’s looming doctor shortage.

Show the government you support more doctors for WA at http://www.doctorsforthefuture.com.au.

Making the best use of limited health resources will become an even greater challenge in the decades to come as our ageing population and the growing incidence of chronic diseases increase and widen the demands on health services.

Compounding the situation are predictions that Australia is heading for a significant medical workforce shortage.

There is already a shortage of doctors. A 2009 report in the Medical Journal of Australia has indicated that, if current medical intake numbers are maintained, the nation will need to import a quarter of its medical workforce by 2025.

Doctor shortages have been a significant issue in Western Australia for some time, especially in rural and remote areas, where more than half of all doctors are overseas-trained.

The growth of metropolitan hospital services – including the completion of the new Fiona Stanley Hospital and expansion of facilities in Midland, Rockingham and Joondalup – will further stretch these resources.

The head of Curtin University’s Faculty of Health Sciences, Jill Downie, says that recruiting doctors from other countries is only a bandaid fix.

Professor Downie says that importing doctors will not address Australia’s longer-term health workforce needs, which are growing more complex with the ageing population and the increase in lifestyle-related chronic conditions.

Curtin hopes to open its own medical school in 2014 – subject to Australian Government approval.

The school would train a new type of doctor, more focused on primary care and better equipped to operate beyond the city limits.

“We need to build greater capacity in our local workforce to respond quickly and effectively to the changing healthcare landscape,” Professor Downie said.

“This issue isn’t just about numbers, but about ensuring that we have the right skills in the right places.

“While we will provide the same biomedical training as other medical schools, we will actively recruit students who are interested in areas of practice that are currently underserviced – primary care, chronic disease management, aged care, mental health and Indigenous health – and who are willing to work in regional and remote areas.”

The teaching approach at Curtin would also be different, with a focus on interprofessional education to place quality and safety of patient care front and centre.

This year, in an Australian first, the Faculty of Health Sciences introduced a common interprofessional first year for all its undergraduate students.

That means students from a range of disciplines – including nursing, physiotherapy, pharmacy, occupational therapy, nutritional science and psychology – work side by side from day one, learning what each discipline can offer and what can be achieved through collaboration.

“Experience shows that many of the errors we see in hospitals are the result of poor communication between health professionals, or a lack of key information being shared, rather than medical incompetence,” Professor Downie said.

“All of our courses now develop skills in communication, teamwork, conflict resolution and reflective thinking as core competencies.”

Professor Downie said the aim wa to develop health professionals who understand patients’ needs are rarely one-dimensional, and that several people – including patients themselves – need to work together in the planning of their care.

“No single profession, working in isolation, has the expertise to respond adequately to the needs of clients with complex issues,” she said.

“This approach will start to shift traditional notions of professional identity, but all for the better, for the patients who are being served.”

While this new breed of doctor may be some years away – the medical school plans to graduate its first students in 2019 – the faculty is already reinventing other healthcare roles to respond to emerging needs.

Its new Postgraduate Certificate in Medication and Disease State Management, for example, is giving pharmacists new skills to help patients manage chronic disease.

Meanwhile, the Master of Nursing (Nurse Practitioner) qualification is expanding the role of experienced nurses, equipping them to prescribe drugs, order tests and refer clients to specialists.

“This reinvention of traditional roles can help to alleviate pressure on the system and prevent medical bottlenecks in settings where doctors are in short supply,” Professor Downie said.

“Our healthcare needs are changing rapidly, and our workforce can’t afford to stand still.”

Story adapted from one in CITE by CLAIRE BRADSHAW

Photography: JAMES ROGERS

17 June 2008

Professor Moyez Jiwa has been appointed as the first of five Professors of Health Innovation with Curtin University of Technology’s new and innovative health research institute.

Professor Jiwa assumed the role of Professor of Health Innovation in Chronic Disease from mid June 2008. He was formerly a Professor of Primary Care at Curtin and also the Co-Director of the Western Australian Centre for Cancer and Palliative Care (WACCPC), a joint partnership between Curtin and Edith Cowan University.

Led by Professor Jiwa, the key portfolio area of Chronic Disease under the health research institute will target chronic diseases through the promotion of healthy lifestyles, disease prevention, and nutritional strategies, and new evidence-based models of care for the prediction, prevention and management of chronic disease.

Efforts will also be focused on the development of diagnostic tools, in particular predictive modelling techniques, novel biomarkers and innovative imaging techniques, as well as innovations in therapeutic drug development and delivery.

Curtin’s Pro Vice-Chancellor of Health Sciences, Professor Jill Downie, highlighted the significant strengths Professor Jiwa brings to his new role.

“Professor Jiwa has had a strong background in clinical practice, research and innovation and these qualities will greatly benefit the work of the health institute,” Professor Downie said.

“The institute will be focused on developing effective, sustainable health delivery models for the future and we need professionals with the vision and determination to embrace these challenges boldly.”

Other key portfolio areas of the health research institute include mental health, indigenous health and ageing. Professors of Health Innovation will also be appointed in these areas.

The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare’s recent estimate puts recurrent expenditure on various chronic diseases and conditions at about $49 billion in 2000-2001.

Professor Jiwa is eager to begin his new role at the health institute.

“Curtin’s new institute will pave the way with a bold, integrated and relevant approach to tackling the ever increasing issues related to health care in Australia, and I am extremely excited to be a part of a team that will take on these issues,” Professor Jiwa said.

Professor Jiwa has substantial experience as a full-time clinician. He is widely published and is also the Chief Investigator on several State wide projects, including a study on photoageing as an anti-smoking intervention that has important implications for health promotion.  It is targeted at young people who are at a crucial stage in adopting unhealthy behaviours.

As lead investigator, Professor Jiwa has undertaken research into the further refinement of interactive referral pro formas for use in general practice. This research will inform policy supporting the role of the general practitioner in cancer care, and also add to the literature on how information technology can assist the clinician to improve outcomes for patients in other fields.

He is also particularly interested in evaluating the scope and expanding the role of different members of the primary care team in cancer care, including GPs, community pharmacists, allied health care professionals, hospital-based therapists, Indigenous health workers and nurses.

Modified: 17 June 2008

Curtin University of Technology’s Professor Michael Alpers has been elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society, the world’s oldest scientific academy in continuous existence since 1660 with some of the world’s most eminent scientists making up its Fellowship.

Professor Alpers’ appointment is a rare honour which recognises researchers who have made an outstanding contribution to science. He is currently a John Curtin Distinguished Professor at the University’s Centre for International Health

With this prestigious appointment, Professor Alpers joins only a handful of Australians who have received this award. They include Nobelists Howard Florey and John Eccles, and Australians of the Year Gus Nossal and Frank Fenner, who led the eradication of smallpox. Other noted Fellows include Isaac Newton, Christopher Wren and Charles Darwin.

Professor Jill Downie, Pro Vice-Chancellor of Health Sciences at Curtin, congratulated Professor Alpers on this important achievement.

“This honour recognises Professor Alpers as one of the leading scientists of the 21st century, and Curtin is privileged to have him as part of our Institution,” Professor Downie said.

“We congratulate him on this honour and applaud his many contributions to the advancement of tropical medicine.”

Professor Alpers was a major player in the unravelling of the mystery of prion disease. Prions are proteins whose abnormal forms cause a group of diseases including mad cow disease, Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) and kuru.

He has worked closely with Carleton Gajdusek on the kuru problem in Papua New Guinea (PNG) from the early 1960s, and they proved that the disease was transmitted by endocannibalism. Gajdusek was awarded a Nobel Prize in 1976 for this work. Professor Alpers later published with a second Nobelist, Stanley Prusiner, who uncovered the role of the abnormal prion protein.

Professor Alpers’ work on kuru in the eastern highlands of PNG began a lifelong association with infectious disease research in that country. He built the PNG Institute of Medical Research in Goroka into a national institution and remained its director for 23 years.

As well as his work on prion diseases, Professor Alpers’ major research interests include malaria, respiratory diseases (pneumonia, asthma), viral diseases of the tropics, and filariasis. He is the author of hundreds of articles, many of which have appeared in leading journals such as Nature and Science.

Since retiring from his role in the PNG Institute of Medical Research in 2000, Professor Alpers has worked as a research professor at Curtin.

Professor Alpers has a strong commitment to community health and is dedicated to the goal of equity in health in an international context. He has long been an advocate for the integrated study of human biology in the broadest sense as a basis for understanding human behaviour and human diseases. He is currently a Member or Fellow of 30 professional societies and associations.

In 2005, Professor Alpers was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia for his service to medical science in the fields of international tropical medicine and public health, research on the disease kuru and contributions to improving health, and economic development in Papua New Guinea.

Contact: Professor Michael Alpers; 08 9266 4733; m.alpers@curtin.edu.au