Life in Medicine

Anita Boecksteiner is an Orthopaedic surgeon who has balanced the issues of sub-specialisation and general orthopaedics in a major city. She has taken on the challenges of complex orthopaedic problems in the format of using ilizarov frames and has spent time at the home of the these frames in Russia. 

Ruban Ambikaipalan is recently graduated orthopaedic surgeon who is currently undertaking a fellowship in the UK. Unfortunately the timing has meant that his fellowship is during the pandemic in the UK which has altered his the experience he was hoping for. However he is upbeat about it.

Jit Balakumar is a Melbourne based Orthopaedic surgeon who specialises in pelvic work. However we discussed things like the Pandemic and also how diversity of opinion in these times is so important. The pandemic has lead to some good things leading people to take stock of what is good in our lives during these difficult times. 

Richard Kjar is a orthopaedic surgeon based in rural Victoria. I have known Richard for nearly 20 years and I am always amazed at how he can balance a healthy outdoor life with a busy orthopaedic practice. 

James Churchill is a orthopaedic surgeon who has recently set up a practice in regional Victoria. He discusses some of the challenges associated with that. He also talked about the returning to Australia during a lockdown and having to quarantine for two weeks in a hotel. 

Marinis Pipiris is a Orthopaedic surgeon who I have known now, for about 25 years. He has moved from one challenge to another throughout his career. We talk about COVID and its effects on the community and move onto other things like the roles of mentors. 

Professor Brett McDermott is an Australian medical graduate who trained in Psychiatry. He has an appointment at the James Cook University but, he holds other academic appointments: By-Fellow at Churchill College, Cambridge University; Adjunct Professor at QUT; Professorial Fellow at Mater Research.  From 2006-2016 he was a Board Director of beyondblue: the National Depression Initiative. Research...

I welcome Assoc Prof Ruth Stewart, currently residing on Thursday Island, and who has recently been appointed National Rural Health Commissioner. She has spent a life working in regional and remote areas of Australia. She now spends time careing for people in these areas and also trying to improve the availability of healthcare. https://www1.health.gov.au/internet/main/publishing.nsf/Content/Natio...

Annabelle Brayley is nurse by training but in the later part of her career she has become an author. She wrote "Bush Doctors" and has also been the author of other books about a medical life in the outback and rural areas. She has written on previous guests from this podcast including Paul Duff. 

James Cattermole is the first guest I have had on the podcast who does not directly work in the healthcare sector. He does have keen interest in exercise and fitness. He also has experience in start up and  entrepreneurship. It is interesting to get a different perspective on these things from someone outside of medicine. 

Nick Marson has been my registrar over the last 6 months before he moved back to Tassie for ongoing training (including 2 weeks quarantine). Nick has been a enthusiastic, engaged and a generally good person to work with. It is always good when a consultant learns from a registrar as much as they learn from consultant. 

Harvinder appears on this podcast for the second time and there is a good discussion about teaching, Robots and other issues.

Gary Fettke is well known Orthopaedic Surgeon from Tasmania who has taken up an interest in how diet can help improve the health of his patients. He talks about how the education of doctors in regard to diet and nutrition can be improved in order to help with preventive medical care. 

Paul Duff is a very experienced GP who has set up a practice in Rural Australia and in the snow fields of Australia. He has a keen interest in maintaining his knowledge in order to offer the best care for patients that he treats at the snow.  

Liz McCleod is a paediatric surgeon who has managed to find a good balance between work in major hospital and also work in adventurous environments that most other doctors would only dream. It was also interesting to hear her take on what it is like to be a patient. 

Greg Keane is an Australian trained Psychiatrist. He now works full time for MSF and is based in Paris. This episode is a little late to publication as I was not sure how to address the internet drop outs that we had. The recordings are not perfect but the stories are certainly interesting. 

Axel Sylvan is a entrepreneur who has left clinical medicine in order to pursue the challenge of creating a start up in medicine. He has developed with his business partner an App that patients can use to help guide them though the journey of a surgical procedure. 

Liam West is a Sports medical registrar and has managed to find a way use his medical skills to his and societies benefit.  

Sue Liew is a spinal surgeon who has has dedicated her work toward both patient care and medical teaching. She is well known for her excellent teaching and also her administrative roles. 

Paulo is a orthopaedic surgeon who specialises in treating patients with cerebral palsy. He has very pragmatic way of looking at life. He has now worked in 3 countries and with that he brings his unique way of approaching problems. 

Hugh Cattermole is the first guest on the podcast who is an administrator. He works for a company that provides a variety of care needs including aged care. He has had to help co-ordinate the locking down of nursing homes in order to protect the clients in those centres. This has been distressing for family and friends but is being done in order to protect the health of those people. 

Leo Donnan is a paediatric orthopaedic surgeon who has specialised in limb deformity corrections. He has also created a well known limb reconstruction fellowship that attracts people from all over the world.  He touches on the role of a good mentor and how important they are in difficult times. During the time of the COVID 19 the role of mentors and friends seems even more important. 

Rudy Ambikaipalan is a Junior consultant on a busy orthopaedic unit. There is no doubt that he will quickly become a senior consultant. He offers insight to how he approached the training programme and how he would do it differently if he were were to have his time over. I think this episode is of particular interest to junior trainees as given he recent graduation there is some insight that is ve...

Tony Dunin is orthopaedic surgeon who has fostered an interest in mindfulness over the last decade or even more. He comes at this from a very personal point of view and now feels that he can help people with what he learned. I agree with him. We talk about some things that people may be able to do during the next few months to help themselves.

Simon has been a good friend of mine ever since we meet when he came to Australia in 2009 to do a fellowship. Since then, he and his family have emigrated to Australia and set up home in Wagga Wagga where is now the head of unit. He has interests in ultra marathons amongst other things and has taken on an rural and Australian way of life with great enthusiasm.