I was fortunate to be born in the best place in the world. I have had a wonderful experience growing up and living in this beautiful place. Always intending to live here, my professional ambition is to practice world-standard orthopaedics in paradise.
My medical degree was obtained in Brisbane in 1971; my early resident years were shared between Perth in 1972 and Cairns 1973-75, where I returned after the death of my father, an iconic general practitioner who settled in Cairns after the war.
I completed my orthopaedic training in Perth from 1976-79, where I started my hand surgery training, and travelled to England to complete a hand surgery fellowship at Pulvertaft's Unit. I travelled from there to Switzerland to complete an AO International Trauma Fellowship before returning to start hospital and private practice in Cairns in late 1980.
I was accepted as a member of the Australian Hand Surgery Society, the first non-metropolitan member, in 1983, and the focus of my early practice was on hand surgery and trauma, but I was practicing a full range of orthopaedic procedures at that stage.
I was present in the theatre in Perth when Robert Jackson performed the first knee arthroscopy in Australia back in 1975, and serendipity once again steered me into knee surgery. I travelled to America in 1983 for a hand surgery educational tour for three weeks, and during that time in Boston I visited an orthopaedic surgeon called Dinesh Patel. He was performing arthroscopic knee surgery, as we do today, at a stage when most people believed it was like Philippine faith healing.
This encouraged me to obtain the equipment, and I taught myself arthroscopic knee surgery in 1983-84, and from then more and more of my practice turned to the full range of knee surgery. I was admitted as a member of the Australian Knee Surgery Society in 1986, and I have remained active in the Knee Society since, being fortunate to have been present during the development of modern knee surgery through to the present day.
Shoulder and elbow surgery has been a later player in the field of development, and the development of exciting new techniques in this area of orthopaedics has held my interest for the last 10 years. More recently in 2003 I spent three months sabbatical leave in Perth extending my exposure and experience in arthroscopic and open shoulder surgery with Dr Peter Campbell and Dr Peter Hales, who have travelled extensively since then, both learning and teaching in shoulder surgery.
My current practice focus is on the upper limb, knee, ankle, and foot, however with a particular interest in the ankle and foot on arthroplasty of the ankle. I have attended the European Foot and Ankle Society meeting in the last two years in Toulouse, France, and have worked with Pascal Rippstein, the co-developer of the Mobility ankle arthroplasty, which is a significant advance in ankle arthroplasty technology, with a prospect of making this area of joint replacement as reliable as the knee.
In all areas of my practice I practice a full repertoire of arthroscopic reconstructive and replacement surgeries, with techniques which are ideally adapted to sports medicine.
I am very grateful for the wonderful support I receive from my staff. My practice manager, Ann Remedio, has been with me for some 15 years. She is expert at her job and in the logistical tasks associated with patient arrangements and organisation.
In the clinical role, I am very ably assisted by Fiona Anderson, a highly experienced theatre nurse, who assists me at all my operating sessions in both the hospitals that I work in, where she is responsible for the maintenance of equipment, as well as the theatre standards and skills, and she also works in the office assisting with clerical duties, but also in patient education and post-operative nursing duties. This arrangement allows excellent continuity for the patients, both in the office, operating rooms, and on their return visits.
At every operating list, I have a designated specialised assistant who helps with the surgeries, and the anaesthetic staff are all highly skilled, and have had a long association with me, and are also very expert in peri-operative pain control.
Our practice philosophy and systems are audited regularly by the United Medical Protection, and we support our patients by ready availability for discussion of any problems which arise during their treatment.
I have always maintained a high level of interest in the issues involved in hospital medicine, being on medical advisory committees and infection control committees in all the hospitals where I have worked, and whilst I have recently taken a break from the Medical Advisory Committee of both Cairns Day Surgery and Cairns Private Hospital, I maintain my role on the Infection Control Committees of both hospitals. The infection control policies which I helped introduce at Cairns Private Hospital some eight years ago have been extremely effective, and we continue these protocols in both hospitals, with a dramatic decrease in our infection rates, which currently run at about 0.35%.
Outside of medicine, I have a particularly enjoyable life, enjoying what this beautiful area has to offer. I enjoy boating, fishing, camping, hunting, tennis, swimming, bike riding, and Tai Chi. The only thing I willingly leave Cairns for is my regular skiing trips and orthopaedic educational adventures.
I am blessed with three beautiful children, who remain the focus of my life as they spread their wings and embrace life.
I am proud of my achievements with the Trinity Bay and Inlet Society, a community conservation organisation which was instrumental in the protection and conservation of 55km_ of Trinity Bay and inlet mangrove ecosystem, achieving the role of keeping it for our kids, which occupied a lot of my energies through the late 1980's and early 1990's.
We try our utmost to make our practice compassionate and caring, and to achieve the highest possible standard of patient outcome that we can in a happy, friendly environment, and we welcome enquiries, criticisms, and suggestions.