Opening titles of the Canadian series, Hard Rock Medical

It was lights, camera and action in Gippsland in late February, with a film crew from Canada in the area to gather information and some visuals for a documentary on rural clinical schools.

The documentary, tentatively titled ‘Rural, Remote and Revolutionary: The real story behind Hard Rock Medical’, is designed to accompany a 13-part dramatic TV series loosely based on the Northern Ontario School of Medicine (NOSM) in Canada, where Professor Roger Strasser, one of the main drivers in development of the School of Rural Health model, is now based.

The series, ‘Hard Rock Medical’ is a joint Canada-Australia production and will include an Australian dimension, so it made sense that the production team comes to Gippsland where the rural health model was originally developed.

The first series of the program will be shown on NITV (SBS 3) beginning in June/July.

The aim of the trip , according to Thunderstone Pictures Inc producer Dave Clement, was to “help flush out the story of the pre-NOSM Australian work that informed the innovative approaches he [Roger Strasser] implemented in Northern Ontario.”

The film crew spent a couple of days in Gippsland with Professor Strasser, with some filming at the Gippsland Regional Clinical School and at MUDRIH in the old Latrobe Valley Hospital in Moe, where the Centre for Rural Health which later became the School of Rural Health was based.

While in Australia the team also visited Alice Springs to gain information on training of rural physicians for remote Australia.  They will spend time at NOSM in Canada, where Professor Strasser is the Dean, to develop the documentary.

The audience was attentive to every word delivered by Associate Professor Darryl Maybery.

Associate Professor Darryl Maybery,  Director of MUDRIH, has delivered the first of Mildura’s 2013 lecture series to a wide audience of medical and local community members.

Darryl’s topic was ’Breaking the generational cycle of mental illness’, and coincided with the launch and promotion of a new DVD titled Family Focus.

One in five children has a parent with a mental illness; the aim of the Family Focus program is to empower families to start a conversation about the problems, with the intended outcome to reduce the risk of children getting the same illness as their parent.  The chance to talk about these illnesses helps children realise that the depression and anxiety they see in their parents is not their fault.

Information about the event was circulated through flyers to health organisations and individuals, radio announcements, and advertisements in local newspapers.  Consequently 70 registrations were received from a mixture of health clinicians and public, which packed the lecture room to capacity. Read the rest of this entry »

Professor Marlene Drysdale, well known to many in the School through her long association with MUDRIH, will be one of the guest speakers at a forum on Indigenous Health in March.

Run by the Bass Coast and South Gippsland Reconciliation Group with support from the two local councils, the event is on Tuesday 19 March in Inverloch in South Gippsland.

See the poster for details of the forum.

Director of the East Gippsland Clinical School Dr David Campbell (right) with guest speaker at the Bairnsdale student welcome dinner, Geoff Wigney and his wife Lynice.

Representatives from Bairnsdale Regional Health Service, local medical general practitioners and specialists, members of the Indigenous community and representatives from Secondary Schools in the area were among those who took part in a welcome dinner for East Gippsland Regional Clinical School (Bairnsdale campus) Year 4C medical students.

Each of the nine students gave a short talk outlining their background and their expectations of the year spent in the Gippsland area and at their respective local medical practices.

The students and guests also heard a fascinating talk by guest speaker, Mr Geoff Wigney, who spoke of his work in many countries, including Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia and Africa, offering assistance for women affected by sexual, substance and alcohol abuse as well as trafficking of young girls. Many of these women are suffering from AIDS.

Geoff and his wife Lynice have built, with the help of volunteers, a factory in Thailand for women to manufacture products such as handbags, picture frames and trinkets.

In addition they are building a kitchen in Cambodia for the local women to run cooking classes for the many tourists who visit their area.  Geoff and Lynice wife run a local business in Bairnsdale called Empower International, which buys and sells all the produce from these countries.

The successful evening was an opportunity for students to get to know each other and the staff from their practices. All students are now looking forward to immersing themselves in their respective communities.

Research staff at the NVivo workshop

Research staff have enjoyed a two day workshop learning about NVivo, a program that assists researchers in organising and analysing qualitative research data such as interviews, literature reviews and focus groups.

The workshop in Bendigo bought together 14 staff from the Office of Research, Centre for Research Excellence in Rural and Remote Primary Health Care, the Education Unit and PhD students.

The attendees really enjoyed having the training provided locally and have gone away with lots of ideas on how to use the program for their research projects.

Scholarship recipients, from left Fiona Tipping (Sunraysia Community Health Service, Mildura), Diane Roberts (Kyabram and District Health Service, Kyabram) and Carole Meade (Brooke Street Medical Centre, Woodend) during their research workshop at Bendigo.

The recipients of scholarships accessed through a capacity building program spent several days in Bendigo recently working on their research projects.

The Centre of Research Excellence in Rural and Remote Primary Health Care Research Capacity Building Program aims to build both individual and organisational capacity to undertake research that will benefit primary health care services in rural and remote Australia.

As part of the program, two-year scholarships were awarded to eight health services across the country. Three from Victoria were awarded through the School of Rural Health, to Carole Meade (Brooke Street Medical Centre, Woodend), Diane Roberts (Kyabram & District Health Service, Kyabram) and Fiona Tipping (Sunraysia Community Health Service, Mildura).

Carole, Diane and Fiona spent several days in Bendigo working closely with Dr Bernadette Ward, the Victorian Research Capacity Building Program Coordinator, on their research projects.  They attended a workshop aimed specifically at developing research skills, including academic writing for publication, quantitative analysis and data collection. They also participated in NVIVO training organised by the Office of Research in Bendigo.

The workshops will assist them as they plan the next stages of their research project.

Their visit to Bendigo also provided an opportunity for them to learn more about the CRE and the Office of Research and to be part of a rural health research environment.

‘How fair is Medicare?’ will be the item for discussion at the next Journal Club, scheduled for Wednesday 13 March.

All education, clinical, research staff and students are invited to join the discussion on the article ‘How fair is Medicare? The income-related distribution of Medicare benefits with special focus on chronic care items.’

Participants can be assured of a lively discussion on this integral aspect of the Australian health system, particularly primary health care. The article investigates the income-related distribution of Medicare benefits for chronic disease management items.

Facilitator is Deb Russell and it will run from 12 noon to 1pm on Wednesday 13 March.

It is in the Meeting Room 3 (Level 2), School of Rural Health, 26 Mercy St Bendigo or by videoconference (IP 130.194.213.113) or teleconference (9903 5988) from other sites.

Please inform Rachel Tham if you are able to attend.

All students have enjoyed their 2013 Orientation Weeks at Bendigo Regional Clinical School, although not in the rooms in which they will spend most of this year.

Year 3 students commenced on 4 February and Year 4 students the following week. As the school was undergoing significant renovations to its building, which saw nearly all class rooms out of action, a significant amount of work was put into finding alternative venues to hold the orientation programs.

The Year 3 students were based in the new La Trobe University clinical teaching building adjacent to Bendigo’s and the clinical school was very grateful that colleagues at La Trobe were able to help out.  The Year 4 students had most of their programs delivered at the previous Monash University building at Lister House.

Renovations are now almost complete and everyone is looking forward to not having to move between buildings for lectures.  A welcome dinner was held on Tuesday 12 February where all students from Year levels 3 – 5 were welcomed to the region and had the opportunity to meet some of their lecturers and staff for their year.

Monash University has purchased a licence for Research Professional, an exciting online, searchable database that provides information about national and international funding opportunities for researchers based in Australia, including grants, fellowships and prizes, plus a compendium of worldwide research news.

All Monash University staff can access the tool, while researchers have had accounts automatically created. Users can customise and save searches and set up email alerts.

To get started, please visit the webpage Research Professional where you can activate your account and have immediate access to online help.

See Helen Chambers at MUDRIH and Cathy Ward at Bendigo for assistance in creating your own search for funding.

Following are examples of the current funding opportunities from bodies, other than ARC and NHMRC, that might be of interest within the School of Rural Health and identified from the system using the search term “Rural Health”.

NSW metropolitan allied health clinical placement grants

NSW Ministry of Health
Closing date: 29 March 2013
Award type: Directed grants for individual investigators, Travel for research purposes, Personal development, Financial aid for postgraduate students
Award amount max: $750

Clinical placement scholarships

Australian Department of Health and Ageing
Closing date: 9 April 13
Award type: Directed grants for individual investigators, Financial aid for postgraduate students.
Award amount max: $11,000

Chris Silagy research scholarship

Royal Australian College of General Practitioners
Closing date: 30 April 13
Award type: Young investigator awards, Mid-Career fellowships, Predoctoral fellowships
Award amount max: $20,000

APHCRI indigenous health award

Royal Australian College of General Practitioners
Closing date: 30 April 13
Award type: Young investigator awards, Directed grants for individual investigators
Award amount maximum: $4,500
Award budget total: $9,000

Family medical care, education and research grants

Royal Australian College of General Practitioners
Closing date: 30 April 13
Award type: Postdoctoral training fellowships, Personal development, Directed grants for individual investigators, Young investigator awards
Award amount max: $15,000

RACGP/Osteoporosis Australia bone health research grant

Royal Australian College of General Practitioners
Closing date: 30 April 13
Award type: Directed grants for individual investigators, Directed grants to institutions, research groups
Award amount max: $30,000

Anyone out there who can help run an in-service session on camera use and photography?

Organisers are looking for someone to instruct School of Rural Health staff on the use of cameras, to increase confidence and the quality of documentation of events.

The instruction would be on basic use of the camera to best effect. If there is anyone interested and available, please contact Cathy Wheel on 5440 9061.