The President's Message – 7 February
I would like to acknowledge the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation as the traditional owners and custodians of the lands I am speaking on today. I extend my respect to all Aboriginal, Torres Strait Islander, and Māori people. Together, we restate our shared commitment to advancing Aboriginal, Torres Strait Islander and Māori health and education as core business of the RACP.
Welcome back to 2023, a significant year in the life of our College. This year, the RACP marks its 85th anniversary. We have plans to celebrate this auspicious milestone, and in coming weeks I’ll give you more detail, and outline how you can participate and be part of our celebrations.
Throughout those eight decades, RACP physicians have made enormous contributions to medicine and medical science, both in our two nations and internationally. I was unaware that we count five Nobel Prize winners amongst past and present members and honourable members – Sir John Eccles, Sir Howard Florey Professor Barry Marshall, Sir Frank MacFarlane Burnet and Ian Prior. We have many other nationally and internationally eminent physicians among us.
Over the past 12 months, our members have continued to go above and beyond in making contributions to healthcare. Thirty of our Fellows in Australia have been recognised with Australia Day Honours. The full list of Fellows honoured is in the text that accompanies this message. Warmest congratulations to you, these are wonderful achievements and your College is extremely proud of you all.
One of our Board’s areas of strategic focus is the physician and practice of the future; an important priority within that area of focus is growing our Indigenous workforce.
I’m delighted to welcome the following Indigenous trainees into the RACP Indigenous Health Scholarship Program for 2023 and onwards. Dr Kayla Ramires, Dr Jordana Stanford, Dr Amy Hughes, and Dr Kimberley Male. We can be proud that as our Indigenous trainee membership grows, we become more diverse to better represent the communities we serve. We have a range of Indigenous scholarships and prizes, and also support our Indigenous trainees through initiatives such as our Indigenous training fee refund, networking and coaching, and fee reimbursement.
I also want to make special mention of the achievements of two of our paediatricians. Dr Angraj Khillan was nominated for Australian of the Year 2023 and Professor Frank Oberklaid AM was nominated for Senior Australian of the Year 2023. Both have made extraordinary efforts in community medical education and increasing mental health and wellbeing.
I have looked up to Frank over more than two decades and valued his decisive and insightful articulation of the importance of early childhood, the enduring impact of trauma, and the opportunity we have to make a difference in the early childhood years.
Your health and wellbeing as physicians remain front of mind for us this year. The extraordinary pressures on our health systems continue in both countries. Many of us are living that experience and those pressures day-to-day. Our College recently approved a new member Health and Wellbeing Plan. Its vision is to ensure you, as members, flourish and achieve your full potential in all aspects of life. To support you in doing so, our College will advocate for and enable evidence-based practices to promote wellbeing.
Individual Fellows and trainees, our College, and the environments we practice in have a collective responsibility for member wellbeing. Wellbeing must be embedded into all College activities and culture and modelled by leadership. I will continue updating you on our health and wellbeing initiatives throughout this year. I have been struck by the responses I have received after speaking out about the College community and the importance of caring about each other.
I wish those who are about to start their exams all the best. Our standards are high and know that you all will have prepared the best you can. Each of you are already making important contributions to your patients’ health and wellbeing and I congratulate you for that. And remember, learning continues throughout our careers.
We welcome Professor Inam Haq to the College as our new Executive General Manager of Education Learning and Assessment. Inam is a rheumatologist and Fellow of our College, and will be a key leader in the College’s focus on Education, Learning and Assessment this year.
This is particularly for our Basic and Advanced Trainees as they progress through physician training. We know that training can be a long and challenging journey. You might want to look into the new Flexible Training Policy to accommodate your training, other professional, or personal needs. Together, we look forward to significantly improving your training experience and meeting your expectations.
Dr Jacqueline Small
RACP President
To contact Jacqueline, please email president@racp.edu.au
Congratulations to the 30 RACP Fellows recognised in the 2023 Australia Day Honours List. These awards highlight the outstanding work RACP members do and the importance of that work in local, national, and international communities. Well done to everyone involved.
Read the List
The RACP Indigenous Scholarship Program supports medical graduates and current RACP trainees who identify as Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander, Māori or Pacific Islander on their chosen career path to becoming a Physician.
Congratulations to this year's recipients of the Indigenous Health Scholarship Program:
- Dr Kayla Ramires: College Indigenous Health Scholarship -Adult Medicine
- Dr Jordana Stanford: College Indigenous Health Scholarship -Paediatics and Child Health
- Dr Amy Hughes: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Scholarship – Adult Medicine
- Dr Kimberley Male: RACP Indigenous Health Scholarship in Paediatrics and Child Health.
Nominations are closing on Monday, 13 February 2023 for the vacant Member Director position on the RACP Board. Don’t miss this opportunity to become a next generation College leader, involved in shaping the health outcomes for our communities and future of the RACP.
If you would like to nominate, please email your completed Nomination Form and Candidate Code of Conduct to elections@racp.edu.au
The elected member will start their term at the conclusion of our Annual General Meeting, to be held on Friday, 5 May 2023.
Members are encouraged to be involved in this process and take part in shaping our College’s future. We remind all members of the importance that they be guided by and comply with the College Code of Conduct, Candidate Code of Conduct, Nominations and Elections By-laws, and any applicable privacy laws that may apply to members. This includes where email addresses are used in communications to other members have been obtained during the provision health services.
Please also note the requirement that all non-College endorsed communications must have a clear statement at the top that it is not an endorsed College communication and be clearly differentiated from College communications.
If you have any questions, please contact us.
The Divisional Examination readiness online learning resource has been designed to help Basic Trainees understand what to expect and how to prepare for the Divisional Written and Clinical Examinations. It provides information, resources and study tools, as well as demonstration videos of Paediatrics & Child Health Medicine and Adult Medicine short and long cases.
Consultation is now open on the new Rehabilitation Medicine Advanced Training curriculum. This is an opportunity for trainees and supervisors to comment on proposed changes to rehabilitation medicine training and provide feedback.
What’s in the new curriculum
How to provide feedback
Complete the online feedback form by 5pm AEDT, Monday, 27 February 2023 or attend the information session and provide feedback verbally. The information session will be held on Friday, 10 February 2023 from 1pm to 1.30pm AEDT. RSVP is not required. Please join the session at the event time directly through the meeting link: Join the Zoom meeting.
Additional information
Watch a short video to find out more about the curriculum development process and how members can contribute to the consultation of the new specialty curricula. Visit the website for more information about the Advanced Training Curricula Renewal Project and online information sessions on how to provide your feedback.
Please spread the word and encourage your peers to participate in the consultation. If you have any questions, email us at curriculum@racp.edu.au or contact Member Services.
The Independent Health and Aged Care Pricing Authority (IHACPA) has published the Pricing Framework for Australian Public Hospital Services 2023–24 (the Pricing Framework), which has been informed by a number of submissions including the RACP submission.
Read more
Bringing together leading experts in the field of addiction medicine from around the world, the International Medicine in Addiction 2023 Conference comes to Melbourne from 17 to 19 February 2023. A combination of keynote speakers and workshops explore a wide range of topics related to addiction, including the latest research, treatment options and best practices for addressing addiction in clinical settings. This conference should not be missed by anyone wishing to broaden their knowledge in these areas.
Find out more and register
Leaders across the medical professions from Canada, Aotearoa New Zealand and Australia come to Sydney for the Tri-nation Alliance International Medical Symposium (IMS) 2023, to be held on Friday, 10 March 2023. In its ninth year, this symposium aims to address big-picture subjects impacting the globe.
With a focus on this years’ theme of, providing equitable care to all our communities, this day promises substantive sessions with experiences, solutions and a way forward coming from not only specialists, but across multiple disciplines and countries.
Find out more and register
In the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, several international studies showed there was increased risk of adverse outcomes in hospitalised patients comorbid for diabetes. Odds ratios for mortality conferred by pre-existing diabetes ranged from 1.5 to 3.6. What this relationship might be in Australia was not known until researchers in Melbourne retrospectively examined electronic medical records from the two waves of COVID-19 in that city.
The prevalence of diabetes among Melbourne inpatients is around 35 per cent and in 2020 over 70 per cent of all Australia’s caseload was in Victoria. This presented an opportunity to observe the relationship between the conditions with substantial statistical power. But while ICU admission and mortality were more common in those with diabetes than those without, neither diabetes nor hyperglycaemia were independently associated with in-hospital mortality. In this podcast, the authors speculate as to why there was this deviation from patterns observed internationally. A possible explanation involves the receipt of dexamethasone therapy in patients with hyperglycaemia, which was found by other researchers to be preventative for COVID-19-associated mortality.
Listen now
Guests
- Associate Professor John Wentworth FRACP (Royal Melbourne Hospital, Walter and Eliza Hall Institute)
- Dr Rahul Barmanray FRACP (Royal Melbourne Hospital; the University of Melbourne)
- Dr Dev Kevat FRACP (Western Health; Monash University)
- Dr Mohamed Ashraful Islam (Goulburn Valley Health)
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To be among the first to find out about the latest Pomegranate Health podcasts, subscribe to email alerts. You can also search for ‘Pomegranate Health’ in Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Castbox, or any podcasting app. For a transcript and further references, please visit the Pomegranate Health webpage. You can also log in to MyCPD to record prefilled learning activity.
Last year we notified you that your Continuing Professional Development (CPD) requirements will be evolving. This is a reminder that as of 1 January 2023, all Australian medical practitioners need to select a CPD Home.
You belong to a quality accredited CPD Home
Did you know that your RACP Fellowship means you already belong to a quality and accredited CPD Home? There are plenty of benefits of completing your CPD through us, including access to the RACP MyCPD platform, access the MyCPD 2023 Framework and interactive handbook, and other useful documents, templates, and quality resources on the RACP Online Learning website. Plus, get specialist support from our CPD Team, and use the ROC to connect with peers.
You have never stopped learning. We’re here to make sure that continues.
Learn more about MyCPD Home
Professor Ian Scott has released an Evolve lecture on the rational use of investigations. This lecture outlines how to begin thinking about:
- the provision of higher quality care
- minimising risks
- costs of indiscriminate testing practises
- the cognitive and systems biases which underline these.
The lecture covers how physicians can use clinical and communication skills, reasoning, and knowledge of evidence-based medicine to order tests that will maximally benefit patients.
This lecture is accessible to members via RACP Online Learning, College Learning Series: Adult Medicine. Alternatively, you can view the lecture on the Evolve website homepage.
Following the March 2022 Federal budget decision, NPS MedicineWise ceased its operations on 31 December 2022. Since 1 January 2023, the responsibility for core quality use of medicines functions has transitioned to the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care. RACP Evolve is a member of the Choosing Wisely® in Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand program with all Evolve Top-Five recommendations a part of the Choosing Wisely campaign. RACP Evolve will continue to partner with the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care for the Choosing Wisely program.
For more information, please visit the below websites:
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