2. Guide to the faculty
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Faculty Administration
The Faculty of Medicine
Edward Ford Building, A27
University of Sydney
NSW 2006 Australia
Phone: +61 2 9351 5692 and +61 2 9351 4146
Fax: +61 2 9351 3196
Email: and
Website: www.medfac.usyd.edu.au
Student Services
Office hours: 9am to 5pm, Monday to Friday
Undergraduate programs (USydMP)
Medical Program Administration Unit
Edward Ford Building, A27
University of Sydney
NSW 2006 Australia
Phone: +61 2 9351 3132
Fax: +61 2 9351 3196
Email:
Website: www.medfac.usyd.edu.au
Postgraduate programs
Postgraduate Student Administration Unit
Edward Ford Building, A27
University of Sydney
NSW 2006 Australia
Phone: +61 2 9351 3132
Fax: +61 2 9351 8529
Email:
Website: www.foh.usyd.edu.au/postgrad
Schools in the Faculty of Medicine
Central Clinical School
Blackburn Building, D06
University of Sydney
NSW 2006 Australia
Professor Craig Mellis
Associate Dean and Head of School
Phone: +61 2 9351 7177
Fax: +61 2 9036 5474
Email:
USydMP enquiries
Ms Annette Burgess
Executive Officer
Phone: +61 2 9515 8172
Fax: +61 2 9515 8173
Email:
Research enquiries
Ms Dina Bowe
Phone: +61 2 9351 2405
Fax: +61 2 9351 4018
Email:
Children’s Hospital at Westmead Clinical School
The Children’s Hospital at Westmead
Corner of Hawkesbury Road and Hainsworth Street
Westmead
NSW 2145 Australia
Professor Kathryn North
Associate Dean and Head of School
Phone: +61 2 9845 1903
Fax: +61 2 9845 3389
Email:
USydMP enquiries
Diane Hanlon
Secretary
Phone: +61 2 9845 3382
Fax: +61 2 9845 3389
Email:
Research enquiries
Ms Denise Yuille
Postgraduate Research Student Liaison Officer
Phone: +61 2 9845 3435
Fax: +61 2 9845 3389
Email:
Concord Clinical School
Repatriation General Hospital, Concord
Hospital Road
Concord
NSW 2139 Australia
Professor Robert Lusby
Associate Dean and Head of School
Phone: +61 2 9767 6842
Fax: +61 2 9767 6894
Email:
USydMP enquiries
Val Peters
Executive Officer
Phone: +61 2 9767 7174
Fax: +61 2 9767 6785
Email:
Research enquiries
Ms Vicky Skleparis
Postgraduate Research Administration Officer
Phone: +61 2 9767 5378
Fax: +61 2 9767 7603
Email:
Nepean Clinical School
Nepean Hospital
Level 5, South Block
PO Box 63
Penrith
NSW 2751 Australia
Professor Michael Peek
Associate Dean and Head of School
Phone: +61 2 4734 3732
Fax: +61 2 4734 1817
Email:
USydMP enquiries
Denise Thornhill
Executive Officer
Phone: +61 2 4734 2171
Fax: +61 2 4734 3485
Email:
Research enquiries
Ms Susan Dowd
Research Support Officer
Phone: +61 2 4734 2682
Fax: +61 2 4734 1817
Email:
Northern Clinical School
Royal North Shore Hospital
St Leonards
NSW 2065 Australia
Professor Michael Field
Associate Dean and Head of School
Phone: +61 2 9926 7097
Fax: +61 2 9438 2170
Email:
USydMP enquiries
Kay Worrell
Executive Officer
Phone: +61 2 9926 4678
Fax: +61 2 9926 6188
Email:
Research enquiries
Ms Pauline Hodgson
Phone: +61 2 9926 7097
Fax: +61 2 9438 2170
Email:
School of Medical Sciences
Anderson Stuart Building, F13
University of Sydney
NSW 2006 Australia
Professor Chris Murphy
Associate Dean and Head of School
Phone: +61 2 9351 4128
Fax: +61 2 9351 4195
Email:
USydMP enquiries
Yvonne Smythe
Executive Officer
Phone: +61 2 9351 2841
Fax: +61 2 9351 4195
Email:
Research enquiries
Contact the Postgraduate Coordinator for the relevant discipline
School of Public Health
Edward Ford Building, A27
University of Sydney
NSW 2006 Australia
Professor Glenn Salkeld
Associate Dean and Head of School
Phone: +61 2 9036 9262
Fax: +61 2 9036 9019
Email:
USydMP enquiries
Alison Birt
Exective Officer
Phone: +61 2 9351 4367
Fax: +61 2 9351 7420
Email:
Research enquiries
Mrs Sarah Sullivan
Research Support Officer
Phone: +61 2 9036 5336
Fax: +61 2 9351 7420
Email:
School of Rural Health
School of Rural Health
Dubbo Clinical School
PO Box 1043
Dubbo
NSW 2830 Australia
Adjunct Associate Professor Joe Canalese
Associate Dean and Head of School
Phone: +61 2 6885 7977
Fax: +61 2 6885 7979
Email:
USydMP enquiries
Lyndsay Lowe
Student Placement Coordinator
Phone: +61 2 6885 7972
Fax: +61 2 6885 7979
Mobile: 0428 650 294
Email:
Western Clinical School
Westmead Hospital
Cnr Darcy Rd and Hawksbury Rd
Westmead
NSW 2145 Australia
Professor David Harris
Associate Dean and Head of School
Phone: +61 2 9845 8938
Fax: +61 2 9891 3749
Email:
USydMP enquiries
Amanda Burke
Executive Officer
Phone: +61 2 9845 7661
Fax: +61 2 9891 3749
Email:
Research enquiries
Ms Naomi Muir
Research Administrative Officer
Phone: +61 2 9845 6303
Fax: +61 2 9891 3749
Email:
History of the Faculty of Medicine
The beginnings
The University of Sydney was founded in 1850 and is the oldest university in Australasia. Its Faculty of Medicine formally came into being in 1856, becoming the first faculty of medicine in Australasia. The Act of Incorporation of the University of Sydney provided for the awarding after examination of degrees in Medicine as well as in Arts and Law. The initial Board of Examiners for Medicine consisted of Professor John Smith, Professor of Chemistry and Experimental Physics, and eight medical practitioners from the city of Sydney.
Growth and diversity
Despite lack of funding in its early decades, the faculty has grown during its more than 150 years to include a world-recognised medical school with an award-winning curriculum, postgraduate courses that attract students from around Australia and overseas, approximately 100 teaching hospitals and affiliated research institutes, and academic researchers who win tens of millions of dollars worth of competitive grants every year.
The diversity of its staff and students has increased, particularly in the last two decades, and research, teaching and learning are now conducted at academic departments and clinical schools in urban and rural New South Wales and in the Northern Territory.
Early obstacles
Strenuous efforts were made from the beginning to start a medical school at the University and support was especially strong from medical members of the governing body of the University, its Senate. In 1859 the Senate adopted a scheme of medical teaching which was intended to commence in 1860. The University's architect, Edmund Blacket, was instructed to prepare plans for an anatomy school. However, the plan was opposed on the grounds that "the constitution of such studies and the establishment of a medical school would retard the completion of the curriculum in the Faculty of Arts".
A royal memorial
Two major events helped to bring about the establishment of a medical school. First, in 1868 there was an attempt upon the life of H.R.H. Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh, during his visit to New South Wales. The Duke recovered, and in commemoration the community raised the sum of £30,000 for a suitable memorial.
The Duke wished the money to be allocated for the erection of a hospital and a public meeting resolved that a Prince Alfred Memorial Hospital should be built on the site of the Sydney Infirmary.
That proposal encountered legal difficulties; the University resolved the problem by granting the use of twelve acres of University land, provided that a portion of this was reserved for a school of medicine.
The Prince Alfred Hospital Act of Incorporation, which was passed in 1873, stipulated that the hospital's medical staff be appointed by a conjoint board consisting of the Senate of the University and the hospital's Board of Directors sitting together, and that it be open for clinical teaching to students of the medical school when established. The hospital was opened for patients in 1882. In the same year the government agreed to finance a medical school.
A major bequest
The second event that influenced the Senate in its determination to proceed with the medical school was the death of John Henry Challis in 1880, which resulted in the bequest of the residue of his substantial estate for the benefit of the University. Applications were subsequently invited for a chair of anatomy and physiology and Sir Thomas Anderson Stuart came from Edinburgh to fill the chair and to establish the medical school.
The Faculty of Medicine owes much of its early development to the genius of Anderson Stuart, a man of great ability, determination and energy, who presided as its Dean until his death in 1920.
The Scottish connection
The medical school commenced teaching in March 1883 with four students in a four-roomed cottage built between the Great Hall of the University and Parramatta Road. Anderson Stuart pressed for the construction of a more suitable medical school and in 1887 a new building, subsequently known as the Anderson Stuart Building, was commenced; it was completed in 1922.
To strengthen the faculty's teaching staff, Anderson Stuart turned to the Edinburgh Medical School and recruited Robert Scot Skirving, JT Wilson and DA Welsh. Wilson became professor of anatomy in 1890 when Anderson Stuart relinquished the position to concentrate on his other duties and Welsh was appointed to the new chair of pathology in 1902.
Changes in the medical program
Initially the medical curriculum was of five years' duration, the first year being spent in the Faculty of Arts. In 1890 the medical course proper was lengthened to five years and in 1926 it was extended to cover six years. New subjects were introduced, including pharmacology, biochemistry, psychiatry, obstetrics and gynaecology, jurisprudence and public health.
New buildings
In addition to occupying the Anderson Stuart Building the faculty expanded into other new buildings. The Blackburn Building, named in honour of Sir Charles Bickerton Blackburn, who was then dean of the faculty and later Chancellor of the University, was opened to clinical students in 1933. The Medical Library opened in Blackburn Building in 1934 – the first branch of the University Library.
The Bosch Building was erected on a site adjoining the Blackburn Building in two stages: lecture theatres in 1965, and a second building including a medical library and animal houses in 1968.
New chairs
The Bosch Building is named in honour of George Henry Bosch, a Sydney businessman who was one of the faculty's greatest benefactors, and through whose generosity full-time chairs in histology and embryology, medicine, surgery, and bacteriology were established between 1927 and 1930.
The first occupant of the full-time chair of medicine was CG Lambie, who held the position from 1930 until 1957. The first appointment to the full-time chair of surgery was Sir Harold Dew, from 1930 to 1956. At the same time the School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine was established, funded by the federal government and controlled jointly by the government and the University.
More new disciplines
In 1933 the chair of obstetrics became full-time and was occupied by JC Windeyer. In 1958 the Queen Elizabeth II Research Institute for Mothers and Babies was established to investigate causes and prevention of illness and deaths of mothers and infants.
In recent years the faculty has, frequently with the assistance of the NSW Health Department and its area health services and hospitals, established chairs and other senior academic positions in an ever expanding range of disciplines.
The School of Public Health
The School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine closed and was replaced by the School of Public Health, established in 1987 with funds from the then Commonwealth Department of Health and Family Services. The school continues to receive substantial support from the Commonwealth Government through the Department of Health and Ageing. Among the highly regarded courses offered by the school are biostatistics, international public health and health policy.
Clinical schools
During the 1990s the faculty's clinical schools took on increased responsibility for the delivery of educational programs, the management and stimulation of research and financial and administrative matters. The clinical schools include all publicly funded health care institutions within the area health service with which they are associated, together with approved private institutions.
Six of the faculty's clinical schools are in Sydney: Central Clinical School, Concord Clinical School, Nepean Clinical School, Northern Clinical School, Western Clinical School, and the Children's Hospital at Westmead. Another is in the central west of New South Wales (School of Rural Health based in Dubbo, Orange and Bathurst). The Australian National University’s Medical School developed out of the Canberra Clinical School, which was part of the University of Sydney from the early 1990s until the end of 2006.
Each clinical school is headed by an associate dean. The faculty's two University Departments of Rural Health (one at Broken Hill and one at Lismore) and the Australian Centre for Agricultural Health and Safety at Moree supplement the faculty's rural education activities, adding a strong population health focus.
The success of the USydMP
In 1992 the faculty took the major decision to move to a four-year, graduate-entry medical program with a completely new admissions process and a new curriculum based largely on problem-based and self-directed learning. The first students were admitted to the new University of Sydney Medical Program (USydMP) in 1997.
Having undergone a curriculum review in 2006-07 and a review of the admissions process in 2008, the USydMP continues to hold its place at the forefront of medical education world-wide. It has been made available under licence to numerous universities, both in Australia and internationally.
Postgraduate study
The faculty continues to develop new postgraduate courses to meet the needs of health professionals, including programs in Sleep Medicine, Indigenous Health (Substance Use), International Ophthalmology and Refractive Surgery.
Major affiliated research institutes include the Centenary Institute of Cancer Medicine and Cell Biology, the Children’s Medical Research Institute, the Heart Research Institute, the Save Sight Institute, the Westmead Millennium Institute and the newly established Poche Centre for Indigenous Health, made possible by a generous donation from philanthropist Greg Poche.
Indigenous health
The 17-year difference in life expectancy between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians is recognised by the faculty as an important issue and an area where it can make a positive contribution through research and education. The curriculum of the USydMP includes problem-based learning cases focused on Indigenous people.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students have graduated from the USydMP, research degrees, and postgraduate coursework degrees including the Master of Public Health and graduate diplomas in Indigenous Health Promotion and Indigenous Health (Substance Use).
The Poche Centre for Indigenous Health will work with local and community health services to improve Indigenous health in western New South Wales and the Northern Territory, conduct research into critical aspects of Indigenous health and educate medical and health students in matters concerning the health of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
An international environment
Ties with universities and institutes in Canada, China, France, Germany, Indonesia, Israel, Sweden, the USA and elsewhere enrich the student experience and provide research opportunities for staff.
The George Institute for International Health, affiliated with the faculty, collaborates with organisations around the world to carry out important health projects. The Hoc Mai Foundation is an educational partnership initiated by the faculty which fosters medical and healthcare education and knowledge in Australia and Vietnam. All USydMP students are encouraged to experience health systems in different countries through their elective term and options.
The student body
In 2008, approximately 17 percent of USydMP students and 18.5 percent of those in postgraduate study were international students. In the USydMP intake of that year, 51.5 percent of the medical students were female, 48.5 percent were male – a distinct contrast with 1910, when women made up less than 3 percent of the student body.
The faculty’s students have formed a number of associations: the University of Sydney Medical Society (MedSoc), founded in 1886, offers a meeting ground for all current and past medical students at the University of Sydney. MedSoc coordinates social events, has a bookshop for medical texts and paraphernalia, provides a printing service for students and produces online and hard copy publications of interest to students, teachers and graduates of medicine.
MIRAGE (Multi-disciplinary Interest in Rural and General Health Education) was founded in 1995 as a club for students from a wide range of disciplines who are passionate about improving health and health education in rural areas. With the intention to "Inspire and encourage medical students to promote health opportunities and medical equality globally", globalHOME was established by medical students in 2006.
Other student associations within the faculty include the North American Medical Student Association, the Australia-Singapore Medical Students’ Society, Sydney University Holistic and Integrative Medicine Society and the Postgraduate Society of the Faculty of Medicine.
Alumni
Since June 1856, over 25,000 students have graduated from Faculty of Medicine programs. Some of our alumni, like Graeme Clark and Sir Gustav Nossal, are almost household names. Others have left the practice of medicine or public health and are better known as leaders and politicians. Others are known in their field for their service to medical education. And many go unnoticed by the world at large but are valued by those in the communities they serve.
Our staff and alumni have made significant contributions to the understanding, prevention, and treatment of skin cancer, sleep apnoea, sudden infant death syndrome and the identification of genes related to prostate and thyroid cancer.
The faculty has also had a powerful impact on public health, addressing issues that affect large numbers of people world-wide and leading to a dramatic reduction in cardiovascular disease, tobacco use and traumatic injuries in Australia.