Dean's Message

May 2008

The Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the Faculty of Pain Medicine was held at the Sydney Convention and Exhibition Centre on 4 May 2008 and the new Board met immediately afterwards.

Following on from the Dean’s Report submitted to the 2008 AGM, the new Board structure was implemented. Recognising the Faculty’s responsibility to Fellows, we have now formed four Portfolios:

- Relationships
- Trainee Affairs
- Fellowship Affairs
- Resources 

Dr Roger Goucke stepped down as Dean of the Faculty following his two year tenure, and I would once again like to express my gratitude to Roger for the time and effort he has given to the Faculty, and comment particularly on his aim to foster relationships with other groups.

At the new Board Meeting:

- David Jones was elected Vice-Dean
- It was agreed the Dean would Chair the Relationships Portfolio
- Brendan Moore was elected Chair of the Trainee Affairs Portfolio
- David Jones, the Vice-Dean, is to Chair the Fellowship Affairs Portfolio
- Leigh Atkinson was elected Chair of the Resources Portfolio

Other Board members were elected to chair the Faculty’s major committees except Examinations and Dr Ray Garrick was elected Chair. They are all currently in the process of forming those committees. I would certainly encourage Fellows to contact either myself or the Executive Officer if they wish to be involved with the Faculty by serving on one of the committees. 

Also at the AGM (following the Faculty’s Free Paper session at the ASM), the inaugural Dean’s Prize was awarded to Dr Paul Wrigley for his paper “Somatosensory cortical reorganization associated with neuropathic pain following spinal cord injury”.  The inaugural Best Free Paper Award was given to Dr Allyson Browne for “A prospective investigation of the prevalence of persistent pain following traumatic injury”.  I congratulate those two recipients.

Since the Annual Scientific Meeting, the Victorian Department of Human Services convened a Medical Specialist Training Forum at which the Faculty had representation and a letter has been written to the Victorian Minister of Health encouraging the continued funding of the new specialist training positions in the Victorian public hospitals.

As Dean, I would like to encourage Fellows to consider what you would like the Faculty to do for you, and contact either myself or David Jones with your suggestions.  Secondly, and I believe more importantly, ask yourself what you can do for the Fellowship.  Certainly as our Faculty continues to grow we need the support of the Fellows both to help us move forward and also to raise our profile in the wider community.
 

DR PENELOPE BRISCOE
DEAN