I recently returned from the inaugural South Pacific Medical Student's Medical Camp in Malolo Island, Fiji. 120 medical students from Fiji, Tonga, Samoa, Papua New Guinea as well as New Zealand and Australia spent a week on a tribal area in the school grounds courtesy of the local chief. The dais was a single structure decorated with palm leaves and the audience sat under a similar structure 25 metres away. There were some fascinating lectures from plant biologists, climatologists,...

The use of ovarian tumour mark-ers, like those for other tumours, are used both to suggest the presence of a tumour as well as monitor its remission after de-finitive treatment. The problem is the lack of specificity which means that many non malignant processes can be associated with elevated values or that the malignancy is non-gynaecological. CA125. Cancer antigen 125 (CA 125) is used the most extensively. Approximately 60% of malignant ovarian tumours are associated with an elevate...

(as featured in O&G Magazine) Qui Tacet Consentire Videtur She who is silent appears to consent. We all appreciate consultations where the patient is accepting of the advice offered and has but few questions. However, silence during the process of consent may be no longer as 'golden' as it once was. It may be a dangerous prelude to a medicolegal action which was, in retrospect, totally preventable. Read more... ...

Dr O'Connor has been appointed as Professor of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at the University of Western Sydney effective 1 January 2016.

The Medical School at Western Sydney University was founded in 2007, offering the Bachelor of Medicine/Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS) degree. The Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS) program is fully accredited by the Australian Medical Council. Graduates will be eligible for registration as a medical practitioner by the Australian Hea...

To establish a case in Australian civil law for medical negligence there are 4 elements required for proof: The doctor owed a duty of care to the patient. The doctor breached that duty of care. The breach caused the damage/injury (more probably than not)-'Factual causation' and 'Scope of liability'. The damage was foreseeable. The key to proving a breach of the duty of care is to establish that the doctor's actions lay outside the norms of...