Local knowledge building is key to patient health

30/May/2019     HealthMission

Mater Gynaecological Oncologist Lew Perrin recently visited Papua New Guinea (PNG) to encourage and empower local medical specialists to develop their patient care techniques using the resources they have.

For a week, Dr Perrin presented guest lectures and held daily tutorials discussing gynaecology and cancer care for local patients.

Dr Perrin described his experience as confronting compared to the ease of process experienced at Mater.

“At Mater we develop patient treatment plans based on test results with an incredibly short turn-around, but in PNG doctors can wait up six months for their reports,” Dr Perrin said.

“Working together with the knowledge and experience we had together, we planned how we can improve patient outcomes,” he said.

Dr Perrin said the most important thing he did was teach confidence.

“The doctors are smart people who care deeply for their patients so I encouraged them to trust their training and improve systems with the resources they have,” Dr Perrin said.

“I was asked to see how my experience and knowledge could be used to enhance training practices,” he said.

Dr Perrin is a passionate advocate for knowledge building within local populations as demonstrated by his visits to other communities in the South Pacific.

“Places like PNG and Vanuatu are only about a three to four hour flight away and they are keen to see other specialists out there,” Dr Perrin said.

“Fresh faces add extra knowledge dimensions to problem solving and the work is rewarding.

“It’s amazing to see how these medical teams do so much with very little,” he said.

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