Creative Careers In Medicine Podcast

For the last 20 years, Dr Lucy Cooper has been working as the clinic GP at the St Vincent de Paul Society's Matthew Talbot Hostel in Woolloomooloo Sydney. After initially feeling a little out of place in the medical profession, Lucy eventually managed combine her interests, personal values and faith, and her desire to really help people into a rewarding career. In this interview she discusses the monumental task of caring for homeless and vulnerable people during the outbreak of a pandemic and the many research projects she's contributed to as part of her desire to help improve access to care and service delivery models for those living rough.

In this chat, Louise discusses the way she balances all the competing commitments in her life, the importance of finding your own professional path by following your interests, and achieving what she describes as "flow".

Dr Chris Moy is the current Vice President of the Australian Medical Association. In this conversation, the Adelaide GP discusses how he "accidentally" got into medicine and ultimately discovered the anger which initially drove him into medico-politics. He also discusses the recent mini-lockdown in his state of South Australia and what it has been like to work closely with health authorities and governments to manage public health in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Dr Neela Janakiramanan is a Melbourne based reconstructive plastic surgeon specialising in hand and wrist surgery and skin cancer. Neela is an incredible communicator with a passion for public health advocacy, social justice and equity. In this interview she discusses everything from experiencing Victoria's extended lockdown restrictions as a clinician, to being inspired by her grandfather performing surgery in rural India, the culture changes going on in the medical profession and of course her experiences as a public health advocate for asylum seekers. Neela will be speaking as part of the CCIM 2020 conference.

Dr Fiona Lander is an engagement manager with consulting firm McKinsey & Company, specialising in healthcare strategy and transformation. After studying both medicine and law concurrently, she's worked as both a doctor and lawyer, forging an impressive career while working and living in Australia and abroad. In this interview she discusses how following her passions and blazing her own path resulted in incredible opportunities including working for the United Nations and helping to inspire and empower other young women to make positive changes in the world.

Dr Brandon Carp is a Melbourne-based doctor who transformed his medical career into a very successful business career as the founder of Unified Healthcare Group. In this interview Brandon talks about the changing attitudes around how people view the commercial side of medicine, and how these kinds of medical careers are becoming increasingly recognised and validated as important professional pathways for doctors. He also opens up on what it's like to ultimately walk away from clinical medicine in pursuit of a different kind of health career and the journey that took him to that point. Brandon has a lot of interesting perspectives to share about how he got started in business, the lessons he's learned and why it is easier nowadays to do the kinds of things he was doing in the 90s.

Dr Kate Kloza is currently preparing to spend her 5th winter on an Australian Antarctic research base. With a truly inspiring passion for Antarctica and for the work she does for the Australian Antarctic Division, Kate has served as the sole doctor on different expeditions on each of Australia's 4 permanent Antarctic and sub-Antarctic research stations, for periods of around 12 months at a time. In this interview, she explains what gives her the confidence to able to take on that kind of challenge in such inhospitable environments, and she describes the wonder and beauty of the region that keeps drawing her back. With her next voyage due to set sail in January 2021, she spoke to CCIM from her home in WA.

Associate Professor Marie Bismark turned her medicine and law degrees into a successful medical, medicolegal and research career. She's currently retraining and working as a consultation liaison psychiatry registrar with Melbourne Health. This year, a team she's leading at the University of Melbourne received $1m in NHMRC investigator grant funding to research why health practitioners in Australia have higher rates of burnout, depression, and suicide than other occupations. The project hopes to identify new ways to better support doctors to thrive in their professions. Marie also talks about managing her own personal struggles, and ways that doctors can support their colleagues throughout their shared journeys.

Hugh is an experienced clinician and health technology advisor, with a focus on leveraging big data and artificial intelligence. He is a board certified consultant radiologist and academic, trained in the NHS and Europe's leading cancer research center, the Institute of Cancer Research, where he was twice awarded ICR Science Writer of the Year. In this conversation he discusses all these roles as well as his involvement in startups and what it's like trying to help manufacture PPE for health professionals during a pandemic-induced supply shortage.

Dr Jill Gamberg is a Sydney GP and one of Australia's first certified lifestyle medicine physicians. Originally hailing from Canada, Jill had always wanted to eventually become a doctor but took a very interesting pathway to get there. In this conversation she talks about her background as an athlete and athletic therapist, the future of lifestyle medicine, her forays into media and commitment to public health education, and why she believes in making the most of every opportunity life might throw her way.

Professor Kidd has more than 30 years' experience working as a general practitioner in urban and rural locations across Australia, with special interests in the care of people with HIV, mental health and Indigenous health. He served two terms as the elected president of the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners from 2002-2006. Professor Kidd completed his research doctorate with the Monash University Department of General Practice and has research expertise in primary care policy, digital health, chronic disease management, communicable diseases, preventive care, mental health, medical education, and safety and quality. Since 2017, he was Professor and Chair of the Department of Family and Community Medicine at the University of Toronto providing strategic leadership to the world's largest academic department of general practice and family medicine, and also leading the World Health Organization Collaborating Centre on Family Medicine and Primary Care. He has worked for many years as a consultant

Alongside her work at Sydney's St Vincent's Hospital, Dr Jacqueline Strudwick-Day is also a medical advisor on the Channel 9 TV series Doctor Doctor which, just aired its 4th season. In this chat she discusses how she came to be working on the show, the experiences she's had as a result and how it was that her creativity and writing ambitions led her - ultimately - into a career in medicine.

Dr Jess Foley is an Adelaide-based GP registrar. After a decorated basketball career in which she captained the Adelaide Lightning, won a WNBL championship and represented Australia, Jess switched to playing Aussie rules and was an integral member of the 2019 Adelaide Crows AFLW premiership side that defeated Carlton in an historic grand final in front of a crowd of 53,034 cheering fans. Jess talks about the impact of COVID19 as both an athlete and GP, her own journey through sport and what it was like to play in that AFLW grand final, how she came to pursue a career in medicine later in life, and what her experience playing footy and basketball has done to balance and prepare her for a career in general practice.

GP Dr Tu Pham first got into hip hop music in his early teens and quickly went from fan to performer and has never looked back. His debut album Made of Jade, was released under his performing name Tu-P in 2013 and he continues to make new music including his latest track Save Our Seas which we discuss - and you'll here a snippet of - in this interview. Tu Pham discusses the very personal motivations and inspirations that fuel his two very different vocations, how rap and medicine intersect for him and what he hopes to do with his passion for music and public health. To hear more of his music or see the video clips for the tracks that he talks about in this episode, check out his youtube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCB1aMNlbyFocHdUdfpvV1wA

Dr. Mikaela Seymour graduated Griffith University in 2015, and has been participating in medical volunteering in Papua New Guinea ever since. As an unaccredited general surgery registrar, her passions are surgery in low resource environments and combatting communicable disease. Working with Queensland Rural Medical Education (QRME) she assists in the administration of the PNG health Project Orienteering Medical students to work in developing health care systems. In her spare time, she sits on the Qld council of doctors in training, and serves with the Australian Army as a reservist medical officer.

Sara is an Occupational and Aviation Medicine Specialist, kiwi born and bred but now living in the colder part of Australia (Snowy Mountains) with her husband and two teenage children. She is currently Group Medical Officer at Virgin Australia Airlines, but previously has held roles as Senior Medical Officer at Air New Zealand, and Senior Medical Officer at CASA. She has lived in the hotter parts of Australia (Broken Hill) on two occasions, early on as a doctor with the Royal Flying Doctor Service. It was here she began working hand in hand with pilots and so began a career in and love of aviation medicine. She has been a CAA/CASA pilot Medical examiner for nearly 20 years. Sara is lucky enough to have the support of her very patient husband and children to allow her to live in a rural community, but commute to work in Sydney and Brisbane for Virgin, and follow her passion for the airline industry.

Dr Michael Bonning is a practicing GP who works in Sydney for Loxley Health and is Chief Medical Officer for Inspired Adventures. He is also Medical Director of a US tech start-up, Dermasensor and has split his time between Australia and Sydney since 2017. Prior to that he was a medical officer in the Royal Australian Navy deploying overseas to the Middle East, South East Asia, the Mediterranean and off Australia's northern borders. He is the current Chair of the AMA (NSW) and a Director of GP Synergy. He has previously led the Australian Medical Students' Association and the AMA Council of Doctors in Training and been a Director of Beyond Blue. Once, just for fun he was a partner in a healthcare consulting firm.

After gaining his medical degree in 2008, Vyom Sharma completed specialist training and currently works as a General Practitioner. However alongside his clinical work, he has carved out a career in show business. As a magician and mentalist, he has performed live stage shows at the Sydney Opera House, Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Melbourne International Comedy Festival, and was a grand finalist on Australia's Got Talent. He enjoys engaging in health and science communication. He is a regular Guest Lecturer at Monash University's school of biological sciences, writes op-eds on health issues and is a regular host on RRR radio station.

Dr Preeya Alexander is a GP based in Richmond, Melbourne with a passion for all things 'prevention' in medicine. She also works as a medical educator at Eastern Victoria GP Training where she assists in the education of training GPs. Preeya is a regular commentator on lifestyle publications, Mamamia and The Grace Tales and is often called in as an expert for Channel 7's morning program, Sunrise.

Recorded live on the CCIM 2019 stage, this episode features the conversation between CCIM Chief of Pod, Andrew Bracey and Dr Philip Nitschke that kicked off Day 2 of the event. Philip Nitschke is a passionate activist, author, former physician and founder and director of the pro-euthanasia group Exit International. He campaigned successfully to have a legal euthanasia law passed in the Northern Territory and assisted four people in ending their lives before the law was overturned. He was the first doctor in the world to administer a legal, voluntary, lethal injection, after which the patient activated the syringe using a computer. In 2015, Philip burned his medical practising certificate in response to what he saw as onerous conditions that violated his right to free speech, imposed on him by the Medical Board of Australia. This conversation focuses less on Philip's belief around an individual's right to die and more in depth at an interesting medical career that went against the largest governing bodies.