SEPTEMBER / OCTOBER ISSUE 2017

PRESIDENT'S WORD Rural and regional opportunities Investment in rural and regional training is starting to pay dividends, but more needs to be done. I recently had the pleasure of visiting the Central West of NSW, and spent some time talking to both junior and senior colleagues at Orange and Dubbo Hospitals about the issues affecting [...]

FROM THE CEO Mandatory reporting – looking to the future The recent COAG announcement to adopt a nationally-consistent approach to mandatory reporting is a step in the right direction, but it pays to understand how we got here in the first place. While 2017 has been a year of big issues, without a doubt one [...]

FEATURE Bad reviews Negative feedback online is a difficult pill to swallow, particularly when it attacks your skill as a medical professional.So what’s the best response? Hotels, restaurants, auto services, hair salons, schools – even playgrounds – are all subject to online reviews. Many Australians have turned to the collective wisdom of the internet to [...]

FEATURE Protecting your turf Establishing a strong online presence will help protect your professional reputation from internet trolls. ONE WAY to minimise the impact of online harassers is to claim enough online real estate that you crowd them out of the first page of search results when someone looks for you online. Research shows that [...]

FEATURE The power of your online presence Coffs Medical Centre makes a strong case study for building an engaging website and Facebook page to improve your patients’ perceptions of your practice. The first question many doctors ask themselves when it comes to expanding their online and social media presence is ‘why bother?’ It can seem [...]

PROFILE The cost of a good reputation After enduring years of harassment from a former patient that included verbal threats and cyber bullying, A/Prof Munjed Al Muderis was awarded $480,000 in a landmark defamation case. But is it really over? “I believe strongly that the vast majority of people are good. There’s goodness in everybody [...]

FEATURE Changing the face of cancer care Using their experiences as oncology doctors, Dr Nikhil Pooviah and Dr Raghav Murali-Ganesh have created an app that is helping cancer patients and their families navigate through their cancer journey. The NSW Doctor finds out how they became an international success. Doctors are used to being under pressure. [...]

FEATURE Improving health literacy The Water Well Project, which has been promoting better health outcomes in refugee and asylum seeker populations in Victoria since 2011, has recently expanded to NSW. Born in Australia to refugee parents, Dr Linny Kimly Phuong recalls acting as an interpreter for her family during doctor visits. “It was quite funny [...]

FEATURE The right answers to the wrong questions AMA (NSW) DIT Committee Chair, Dr Tessa Kennedy examines gender and pregnancy discrimination in recruitment and workforce policies. “SO WHEN ARE you planning to have children?” a.) While I may wish to have children at some time in the future, I would never interrupt my training as [...]

DIT DIARY Check your privilege Despite the challenges doctors-in-training face, it’s important to step back and look at the many rewards this career offers. Contemporary medical training has many challenges. I won’t list them here because these hardships have, quite rightly, dominated media and community discourse for the last six months. But in the midst [...]

STUDENT VIEW Through the looking glass Returning to the same hospital where his mother passed away, medical student Gerald Riordan reflects on the care she received and his own emotional journey. A week after my mum died I went back to the same hospital she passed away in. But this time, I went back as [...]