The great ambition and risk taken by Flinders University to create Australia’s first integrated Medical School with a new clinical hospital was brought to life by a diverse yet cohesive group of Professors, whose work shook up medical education in South Australia.

The 50th anniversary of Flinders University’s medical program, celebrated in October 2024, shone a light on the unique nature of the brand-new Flinders Medical Centre being designed as a clinical hospital, research facility and medical school. It also highlighted the extraordinary efforts of the Flinders Medical School’s Foundation Professors to make this ambitious multipurpose facility a reality.

Emeritus Professor Peter McDonald AM is especially proud that Flinders was involved in transporting its curriculum and clinical advice to assist development of the 3rd Malaysian Medical School, and that Flinders’ clinical research in surgery, cardiovascular disease and healthcare systems was applied nationally and internationally to improve health outcomes.

“Foundation Professors also taught nurses in the Sturt College diploma course before nursing became a graduate degree, and Sturt implemented an independent curriculum,” he remembers. “Many Foundation Professors were also responsible for postgraduate Fellowship programs with Colleges of Physicians, Pathology, Radiology and others.”

Emeritus Professor Warren Jones AO, who was the Foundation Professor of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, remembers that the initial group of Flinders Medical department heads – many who had come to Adelaide from interstate – assembled in makeshift offices within the Flinders Medical Centre, which was still under construction.

He remembers countless meetings that spelled out the great responsibility they faced, to turn the empty shell of a building into a fully functioning clinical hospital, as well as a teaching and research facility that would transform medical education in South Australia.

“We all had experience from working in other medical schools, but starting a new operation from scratch was tricky,” says Professor Jones. “Still, we were all highly energised. South Australia was lagging behind the Eastern States in medical training, and we were in a position to change that. We were presented with an incredible opportunity, to rethink new things that should be taught in medical education.”

Professor Jones says everything fell neatly into place, mainly because of the latitude for the Foundation Professors of the new Flinders Medical Program to do things differently.

“It proved to be a brilliant experiment,” says Professor Jones. “The program was supported by idyllic funding in the first decade from Federal, State and the University, and we used those resources to propel medical education into the future.”

“The first students who went through the Flinders Medical Program, and got to do clinical work with hospital patients so early in their studies, benefitted from this great adventure. We all worked so closely together to succeed.”

Professor Jones remembers the Foundation staff of the Flinders Medical Program to be an especially cohesive group, notable for their extensive knowledge, experience and communicatory skills. “We worked with so many other experts and got so much good advice from elsewhere, which made the whole hospital work in lock-step with the Medical training that we were delivering.

“Flinders is to be applauded for employing so many tangential-thinking people at all levels, which meant Flinders was able to present many firsts through its Medical program.’

Emeritus Professor John Chalmers AC, who was awarded an honorary Degree of Doctor of Medicine in 1999, says much credit for success is owed to the Foundation Vice-Chancellor, Emeritus Professor Peter Karmel AC (deceased), and Dr Brian Shea (deceased), Head of the Hospitals Department in South Australia during the school’s early years. They agreed there should be Academic Headship across the Medical School and the Medical Centre, with a single integrated building complex housing the academic disciplines and the clinical and diagnostic departments.

“Much is also owed to our founding Dean, Emeritus Professor Gus Fraenkel AM (deceased), and to the inaugural Administrator of the Medical Centre, Mr John Blandford, who initiated the emphasis of integration, with a tripod of research and teaching being integrated into patient care,” says Professor Chalmers.

Many of the Flinders Medical School pioneers have now died, but the legacy of the innovative integrated course they established has provided a solid foundation on which Flinders University’s reputation for exemplary medical education has thrived.

The Flinders Medical School foundation professorial clinical department heads were:

• John Chalmers AC (Medicine)
• James Watts (Surgery)*
• Warren Jones AO (Obstetrics and Gynaecology)
• Garry Kneebone (Paediatrics)*
• Ross Kalucy AM (Psychiatry)
• Anthony Radford AM (Primary Care and Community Medicine)*

Pre-Clinical professorial heads were:

• Andy Rogers (Morphology)*
• Laurie Geffen (Physiology)
• Michael Berry (Biochemistry*

Other professorial heads were:

• Michael Cousins AO (Anaesthesia and Intensive Care)*
• Richard Whitehead (Pathology)*
• Don Birkett (Pharmacology)
• Geoff Benness (Organ imaging)*

The Associate Professors heading sub-departments were:

• Peter McDonald AM (Microbiology and Infectious Disease)
• Alec Morley (Haematology)
• John Bradley (Immunology)

 Foundation Associate Professors were promoted to full Professorship after establishment of full curriculum

*Deceased