• Footscray, Yarraville, Braybrook Star

By Charlene Gatt

27th July 2010 11:06:08 AM

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A WESTERN Health director has turned teacher to train the West’s next generation of doctors.

Director of cancer services Michael Green has been appointed a clinical professor of medicine at the University of Melbourne, meaning he will be taking groups of medical students and doctors on ward rounds to observe interaction between patients.

“They learn by seeing me in action, and then I’ll take them aside and will then spend time discussing patients, discussing hypothetical problems and practical problems,” he said.

“It (the appointment) acknowledges one’s contribution in those areas of teaching and research, it acknowledges trying to attain the highest standards of professional endeavour.

“It’s really important because if you don’t maintain standards then the standards of care of patients, the standards of teaching and the standards of everything else slips. Having a university teaching hospital in the West is a guarantee of high standards of care.

“The traditional doctor appointment at a hospital is just looking after patients, but we obviously need to do more than that, we need to train our next generation, we need to do some research, we need to continually improve our services.”

Prof Green was appointed to Western Health in 1990 as the first director of Oncology and Haematology and Palliative Care.

Professor Green, who is based at the Western Hospital in Footscray, has contributed significantly to laboratory research and clinical trials in the treatment of patients with breast cancer.

He chairs the management advisory committee of the Western and Central Metropolitan Integrated Cancer Service in Victoria and is a board member of The International Breast Cancer Trials Group and Cancer Trial Australia.

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