Highly beneficial Indigenous Health Scholarship

Inaugural RACP Indigenous Health Scholarship recipient Doctor John Wood is encouraging eligible trainees and medical graduates to apply for one of eight scholarships currently on offer.

“It’s a fantastic and rewarding opportunity,” Dr Wood said of the scholarship experience.

“I applied for the scholarship in my first year of Advanced Training in Townsville.

“I felt it would be a good opportunity to promote Indigenous health. At the time, I was working on a case series of statin myositis in Indigenous Australians and had encountered various barriers to doing research in the field.

“I was also interested in researching gout in the Torres Strait Islands where many of my relatives still live and where anecdotally, gout is quite common.”

Dr Wood says the scholarship also provided him with opportunities to network with other like-minded colleagues at RACP events.

Now working as a rheumatologist in Cairns, Dr Wood says he is focused on eliminating barriers preventing access to vital health care.

“A significant proportion of the population is Indigenous in Cairns and I am seeing a lot of inflammatory rheumatic diseases already in my short time here.

“I am quite passionate about making a difference where I can,” he said.

Applications for the scholarship close on 30 November 2018. Full details, and contact information for people who have questions, are online.