Point-Of-Care Testing team presents at WHO webinar
For the past five years, the International Centre for Point-of-Care Testing (ICPOCT) within the College of Medicine and Public Health has been a principal investigator in a large multi-faceted, multi-country validation study of point-of-care (POC) testing for sexually transmitted infections (STI) led by the World Health Organization (WHO).
The ProSPeRo study – the first of its kind to be undertaken globally – comprised several arms including a comparison of the performance of molecular-based STI POC testing for chlamydia, gonorrhoea and trichomoniasis in clinic-based settings with that of reference laboratories in 4 different countries (South Africa, Guatemala, Morocco and Australia), and the establishment of a training and quality management program for STI POC testing for these pathogens in 8 countries (the four mentioned plus Italy, Malta, China and Peru). ICPOCT was involved in both of these arms, which formed part of the Centre’s work as a designated WHO Collaborating Centre.
The results of the study were presented by Professor Mark Shephard (Co-Director of ICPOCT) at a WHO Global Webinar on 29 February, which also featured speakers from Switzerland, UK, Italy and USA. The webinar coincided with the publication of selected results of the ProSPeRo study in a special Supplement of BMC Infectious Diseases. The ICPOCT team, led by Professor Shephard and Co-Director Dr Susan Matthews, was the principal author in two publications in the Supplement.
Dr Igor Toskin, lead researcher in the ProSPeRo study from the WHO, expressed gratitude to Professor Shephard and the ICPOCT team for the “outstanding technical/scientific support, contribution and collegial attitude you have continuously provided and demonstrated throughout the implementation of this project.”
Forensic analysis of Defence Force abuse in new book
Professor Ben Wadham, expert in Sociology (Defence and Veteran Studies), has a new book published by Melbourne University Press, which is now available for pre-order online. The book – Warrior Soldier Brigand: Institutional Abuse within the Australian Defence Force, written by Ben Wadham and James Connor – provides a forensic analysis of how institutionalised abuse in the Australian Defence Force has affected its personnel. Questions of institutional abuse have been at the centre of numerous royal commissions, inquiries and reviews of the clergy, the police and defence forces over the past decade, and this scrutiny has highlighted how those organisations foster forms of violence and violation. One of their principal characteristics is that the culture of abuse and its perpetration is largely the work of men, and this new book investigates causes and reasons for these problems. Please be advised that the contents of Warrior, Soldier, Brigand depict first person accounts of institutional abuse that readers may find distressing.
Recognition for a lifetime of outstanding work
Congratulations to Heather Keighley for being nominated as a finalist for the NT Administrator’s Medal for Lifetime Achievement in Nursing/Midwifery. Heather, a Nursing Lecturer at Flinders University and a Senior Policy Advisor CRANAplus, is both a registered Nurse and Midwife who has provided more than 40 years of distinguished service to the NT as a clinician, educator, manager and health leader. She is an active advocate for remote health care and an inspiration to all nurses and midwives. The awards will be presented at a ceremony in May.
History month highlights graduates
Among the busy calendar of South Australian History Month events during April, Flinders archaeology graduate Dr Angela Gurr, who published extensively on the St Marys Cemetery project, is part of a History Council of SA Fellows lecture night in the Hetzel Lecture Theatre (within the State Library of SA, North Tce) at 5.30pm on Tuesday 23 April. Tickets can be booked online via Eventbrite.
Other relevant History Month events include the launch of the book Irish Women in the Antipodes: Foregrounded – edited by Flinders academics Susan Arthure, Stephanie James and Dymphna Lonergan – at the Adelaide Irish Club in Carrington St, city, from 2-4pm on Sunday 14 April. Tickets can be booked online via TryBooking.