Hoc Mai

australia–viet nam medical

foundation

TheHoc Mãi Foundation

annual rePort2 0 1 4

chairman’s rePortProfessor Bruce robinson

This year’s annual report HigHligHts tHe geNerous coMMitMeNt oF tHe MANy doNors ANd VoluNteers wHo eNAble tHe Hoc Mãi FouNdAtioN to coNtiNue tHe iMportANt work oF iMproViNg HeAltH outcoMes For tHe people oF Viêt NAM.

2014 saw a continued shift in devel-

opmentprioritiesand funding, inboth

ViêtNamandAustralia.Inthisclimate

ofchange,theFoundationhasbeenfor-

tunate to receive increaseddonor sup-

port, providing the financial capacity

for the continuation and realization of

essentialhealthcapacitybuildinginitia-

tivesinViêtNam.

The advanced medical education

and research Program, increased

momentum in2014with the receiptof

fundingfromtheDepartmentofForeign

Affairs and Trade in Round 14 of the

AustraliaAwardsFellowshipsProgram.

Auxiliarytothissuccessfulprogramwas

theMedical English Course,madepos-

sible through the generosity of donor

support and 31 volunteers who gave

their time and expertise in workshops

inHanoi.

The Practical clinical research

workshoP Program also saw ex-

pansion,with4Foundationfundedclini-

cal research projects in Hanoi and Ho

ChiMinhCityand theadditionof new

clinicalresearchgroupsfromPhamNgoc

ThachUniversityinHoChiMinhCityand

HueUniversityofMedicineandPharma-

cy Hospital and DaNang Hospital for

WomenandChildren,twoofthemajor

referral hospitals in Central Viêt Nam.

Thisinnovativeprogramdependsonthe

ongoingsupportofdonorsandin2014

waspropelledby the10volunteers, in-

cludingProfessorTheHon.DameMarie

BashirADCVO,whotravelledtoHanoi

andHoChiMinhCity inNovember to

sharetheirleadershipandexpertisewith

ourViêtNamesecolleagues.

Our longest running initiative, the

hoc mãi Foundation student ex-

change Program exemplifies the

collaborationsandgenerositythathave

made 2014 a success. Support from

donors, Sydney Medical School, Fac-

ultyofHealthSciences,SydneyNursing

SchoolandAsiaBoundShort-termMo-

bilitygrantsprovidedscholarshipsto28

students fromViêtNamandAustralia.

In 2014, this program also expanded

with new student placements at Hue

University of Medicine and Pharmacy

andtheWoolcock Institute forMedical

ResearchinHanoiandCaMau.

These important programs and the

manyothershighlightedon the follow-

ing pages simply would not be pos-

sible without the incredible support of

donors,volunteersandourpartneror-

ganisations. Iwouldliketoexpressmy

utmostgratitude toall thosewhohave

given to and sharedwith the Founda-

tionin2014.

Iwouldalsoliketoextendmythanksto

theExecutiveand theHocMãiBoard,

for their continued support and guid-

ance. Together, the partnership and

friendshipbetweenViêtNamandAus-

traliawillcontinuetogrowin2015and

theyearstocome.

Professor Bruce roBinson

chair

Hoc Mãi Foundation

dean, Sydney Medical ScHool

univerSity oF Sydney

AnnuAl RepoRt 2014

Hoc Mai

Funded by the ubS OptimuS FOundatiOn, thiS prOject haS been implementing and teSt-ing the eFFectiveneSS OF a child abuSe and neglect (can) clinical training and capacity building prOgram FOr StaFF at the chil-dren’S hOSpital 2, hO chi minh city Since march 2014.

the pilot program has engaged 127 doctors and nurses in inter-disci-plinary learning and collaborative decision-making for recognising and managing abusive head trauma and other child injury presentations. can program materials and resources have been developed and tested to ensure

safe children viêt nam:a c H i l d a b u S e & n e g l e c t c l i n i c a l t r a i n i n g & c a p a c i t y b u i l d i n g p r o g r a M

associate Professor Jennifer Fraser, S y d n ey N u r s i n g S c h o o l

their social validity and cultural appro-priateness. there is a focus on linking the longer-term management of the children and families to appropriate community organisations.

the clinical training program uses a train the trainer model to promote the long-term capacity (knowledge, skills and self-efficacy) of local health services to independently educate staff in identifying and responding to can. as a result, a locally developed and implemented staff clinical training program was held in december 2014.

the overall effectiveness of the pro-gram is being evaluated using a pre-post-post survey design with a qualita-

tive component (interviews and focus groups) to gain feedback from all stakeholders concerning the appro-priateness, utility and perceived ef-fectiveness of the program. two field trips to viêt nam during 2014, have supported the project to successfully complete the training workshops, col-lection of evaluation data and imple-mentation of a number of focus groups and interviews with health service staff. the project was presented at the international Society for the preven-tion of child abuse and neglect con-gress in tokyo in September. the pro-ject is due for completion by the end of march 2015.

The hoc mãi australia- VIêT NAM MEDICAl FOUNDATION

SUCCESSFUllY IMPlEMENTED AND

COMPlETED A BROAD RANgE OF

PROgRAMS IN 2014. DESPITE THE

CHAllENgES BROUgHT ABOUT BY

THEINCREASEDSCARCITYOFDEVEl-

OPMENT FUNDINg, THE FOUNDA-

TION CONTINUED ITS MISSION TO

IMPROVE HEAlTH OUTCOMES FOR

THEVIêTNAMESEPEOPlE THROUgH

EDUCATION.

Selectedhighlightsof2014include:

Building research caPacity Prac-tical Clinical Research workshops for

Viêt Namese health professionals were

conducted on 30-31 October 2014 at

HanoiMedicalUniversity (HMU) inHa-

noiandon3-4November2014at the

University of Medicine and Pharmacy

(UMP) in Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC).

Researchgroupswerejoinedforthefirst

timebypartner institutionsfromCentral

ViêtNam -HueUniversity ofMedicine

and Pharmacy and Da Nang Hospital

for Women and Children. In HCMC,

executive summaryH o c M ã i F o u n d a t i o n , o F F i c e F o r g l o b a l H e a l t H

Jason dibbs & esmond esguerra M a n a g e r s , I n t e r n a t i o n a l R e l a t i o n s

research groups from Hung Vuong

Hospital and Pham Ngoc Thach Uni-

versityparticipatedinnewandongoing

researchinitiatives.Inaddition,agroup

of young psychiatrists from HMU and

HCMCPsychiatricHospital participated

in the workshop under the mentorship

of HocMãi Patron, Professor TheHon.

DameMarieBashirADCVO.

research in viêt nam ImprovingHos-pitalDeathDataCollectioninViêtNam

ledbyProfessorMerrilynWaltoncontin-

uedthecollectionandanalysisofcause

of death data from BachMãi andViêt

DucHospitals.Aftermorethanayearof

data collection, the research team from

the Sydney Medical School conducted

a technical evaluation of the project in

December2014.

saFe children viêt nam led by A/Professor Jennifer Fraser of Sydney

NursingSchooltrained127doctorsand

nursesattheChildren’sHospitalNo2in

HoChiMinhCity,intheevaluationofthe

effectivenessofChildAbuseandNeglect

clinicaltrainingforhospitalstaff.

the role oF viêt namese dentists in conducting raPid hiv Testing

ProjectisacollaborationbetweenWest-

ernSydneySexualHealthCentre,West-

meadCentreforOralHealthandHanoi

Medical University Faculty of Dentistry.

Focusgroupdiscussionswereheldwith

41dentistsinSeptember2014toassess

thewillingnessofViêtNamesedentistsin

providingHIVtesting.

advanced medical education and research and medical english courses led by Emeritus ProfessorsKerrygoulstonandKimOates,theAd-

vancedCourseinMedicalEducationand

Research continued to build the capac-

ityoffutureleadersfromHanoiMedical

University,andin2014receivedsupport

from the Australia Awards Fellowships

program of the Department of Foreign

AffairsandTrade.

Additionally,inFebruaryandSeptember

2014, Professor goulston and Profes-

sor Kim Oates, together with Professor

OwenDentcoordinatedacontingentof

31AustralianvolunteerstoconductMed-

ical English Courses with Viêt Namese

healthcareprofessionalsinHanoi.

student exchange The Hoc MãiFoundation provided scholarships to

Viêt Namese medical and nursing stu-

dents to travel to Australia for a four-

week clinical education placement in

2014. These included three medical

studentsfromHanoiMedicalUniversity;

two medical students from PhamNgoc

ThachUniversityofMedicine;twomedi-

calstudentsfromUniversityofMedicine

and Pharmacy Ho Chi Minh City; and

twonursingstudentsfromHanoiMedical

University.

FromNovember2014toJanuary2015,

students from the University of Sydney

travelledtoViêtNamtocompleteschol-

arship placements organised by Hoc

MãiFoundation.Thiscohortconsistedof

8medicalstudents,3nursingstudents,4

healthsciencestudentsand4Masterof

InternationalPublicHealthstudents,sent

toabroad rangeofpartner institutions

acrossViêtNam.

2

Hoc Mai

AnnuAl RepoRt 2014

Hoc M

ãi Forever Learning H

oc The Practical clinical RESEARCH WORKSHOP PROgRAM

CONTINUED IN 2014 WITH TWO

MãINCOMPONENTS:

• The provision of seed funding for the imPlementation oF 4 clinical research ProJects in viêt nam

• pracTical clinical research workshoPs in hanoi and ho chi minh city, novemBer 2014

Following the successful 2012/13

Workshopseries,ViêtNameseresearch-

ers were invited to submit the research

protocolstheyhaddevelopedduringthe

programtotheHocMãiFoundationina

roundof competitive seed funding.Ap-

plications were assessed by a panel of

academicsfromSydneyMedicalSchool

andSydneyNursingSchool.4research

protocolswere selectedby thepanel to

each receive $2,000 seed funding, in-

cluding one project from Hanoi Medi-

calUniversity,Hanoiand threeprojects

fromHungVuongHospital,HoChiMinh

City. Hoc Mãi Foundation volunteer

mentorsagainmetwith these4groups

Practical clinical research WorkshoPs 2 0 1 4

inNovember,2014toadviseontheim-

plementation and progress of research.

A highlight of the program has been

the announcement of the award of the

2015AsiaPacificHandHygieneExcel-

lenceAwardfortheHocMãiFoundation

seed-fundedhandhygienecampaignat

HungVuongHospital.

In November 2014, volunteer mentors

returnedtoHanoiandHoChiMinhCity,

and in addition to the aforementioned

ongoingresearchprojects,offeredguid-

ance to new practical clinical research

groups fromPhamNgocThachUniver-

sity, Ho ChiMinh City; HanoiMedical

University,Hanoi;DaNangHospitalfor

Women and Children, Da Nang; and

HueUniversityofMedicineandPharma-

cy,Hue.Mentorswere this year joined

by Professor TheHonorableDameMa-

rieBashirADCVO,wholedclinicalre-

searchsessionswithyoungpsychiatrists

from HanoiMedical University and Ho

ChiMinhCityPsychiatricHospital.

Theongoingaimsof thePracticalClini-

calResearchprogramareto:

• supporT viêT namese healTh pro-Fessionals to undertake clinical research

• esTablish collaboraTive parT-nershiPs Between australian and viêt namese researchers to Foster the develoPment oF research caPa-Bility

• idenTify healTh issues perTinenT To viêt nam that can Be addressed By clinical research

Theprogramwill continue in2015with

further workshops planned, including

a Central Viêt Nam Practical Clinical

Research Workshop in the first half of

3

the year and Practical Clinical Research

Workshops in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh

Citytowardtheendoftheyear.

2014TeamMembersincluded:Professor The Honorable Dame MarieBashirADCVODrDindyBennAssociateProfessorManuelaFerreiraAssociateProfessorKirstyFosterDrChristophergordonAssociateProfessorCatherineHawkeProfessorJonathanMorrisAssociateProfessorChristineRobertsProfessorBruceRobinsonDrChristineSmythMsSarahWinterSupportedby:MrEsmondEsguerra

4 AnnuAl RepoRt 20144

Hoc Mai

Hoc

Mãi

Fore

ver L

e arning H

oc The hoc mãi advanced

COURSE IN MEDICAl EDUCATION

AND RESEARCH IS DESIgNED TO

PROVIDE A SElECT gROUP OF OUT-

STANDINg RECENT HANOIMEDICAl

UNIVERSITY (HMU)gRADUATESWITH

THETOOlSTOINTRODUCEANDlEAD

CHANgE IN MEDICAl EDUCATION

AND RESEARCH, THEREBY CONTRIB-

UTINg TO THE DEVElOPMENT OF

VIêTNAMESEHEAlTHCAREFORTHE

FUTURE.

Initially developed in consultation with

senior academics at HMU in 2009, its

successandgrowingreputationhasena-

bled the course to continue throughout

2010, 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2014.

Anotherisplannedfor2015.

TheCourseemphasisesskillsnotwidely

taught to Viêt Namese graduates, but

whichareessentialforfutureleadership:

change management, modern assess-

mentmethodsofmedicalskills,teaching

skills, statistics, evidence based medi-

cine,researchmethods,leadingandsus-

tainingchange,ethicsandprofessional-

ism, preparing projects for publication,

communicationskillsandpatientsafety.

Teachingisinteractiveusingsmallgroup

discussionsandone-on-oneinteractions,

andinEnglish.

the Program:• Identifiesthemosthighlytalentedre-centgraduatesfromHMU.OnthebasisoftheiracademicrecordatHMUandtheResidencyexamination,50areselectedbythePresidentofHMUProfessorHinhandareinterviewedbyususingastruc-turedformat toassess theircomprehen-sionof spokenEnglish,ability to speakEnglishandtheircommitment.The25tobeincludedinthecourseareselectedonthisbasis.

• EquipsthemtoteachatHMUintheirclinical departments in English, publishin English language journals and com-municate in English with international

colleaguesasteachersandresearchers,

• gives them an advanced educa-tional experience that equips them forleadership, management and innova-tive change in medical education andresearch,and

• Providessupportforthemwhentheyreturntotheirusualprofessionalrespon-sibilitiessothattheycanapplywhattheyhavelearnedandleadchangeinmedi-caleducation,researchandhealthcare.

1. teaching in hanoiFive visits of clinical academics from

SydneyMedical School (SMS) travelled

toHanoitoteachtheViêtNamesecom-

ponent of the course. Each team com-

prised two or more clinical academics

who taught components of the course.

Teaching is done in the evenings after

the HMU doctors finish work. During

the day the SMS academics have the

opportunity to visit HMU hospitals for

wardroundsortoteachintheirareaof

expertise.

2. the immersion comPonentAkeycomponentof the2014program

wasthe Immersioncourseheldbetween

JulyandAugust inSydney.This Immer-

sion Program is a five week intensive

course held at the Royal North Shore

Hospitalfor15ofthecourseparticipants

selected for their leadership potential.

The formatof the intensivecoursecom-

prisedoftwoweeksofinteractiveteach-

ing, followed by clinical placements in

eachViêtNamesedoctor’sareasofex-

pertise.Sevenparticipantsalsoattended

the2014AIDsConferenceinMelbourne

andhavepreparedapresentationtobe

giveninHanoi.

3. a virtual classroom to Pro-vide monthly teachingTo complement the face to face teach-

ing, an online component, added to

the course in 2013, was continued in

2014.UsingCitrixsoftwarethatcreates

avirtualclassroomovertheinternetthat

links Australia and Viêt Nam together,

an hour long lecture (during the doc-

tors’ lunchbreak) was scheduled once

amonthbetweenMarchandJuly.Each

lecturewas unique, covering a specific

topic from guest lecturers focussing on

topicssuchas‘Recognisingdepression’,

‘Preventionofhospital infection’, ‘Man-

aging the patient with cancer’, ‘Safety

behaviours in the clinical setting’, and

‘Radiologyin2030’.DrIanMcPheewith

the help of RebeccaMann coordinated

theclasses.Feedbackwasverypositive

andas such, theonline componentwill

continueandbeincreasedin2015,de-

pendingonfunding.

4. evaluationPreandposttestsaftereachcomponent

of thecourse showedastatistically sig-

nificant increase in knowledge. In final

evaluations,mostconsideredthecourse

tobeeitherhighlyrelevantorfairlyrel-

evanttotheirclinicalworkandteaching,

and all thought their clinical work and

teachingwouldchangeasaresultofthe

course. Furthermore, feedback showed

that the overwhelmingmajority consid-

eredthecourseverywellworththetime

theyhaddevotedtoit.

5. FundingThis course ismostly supported by do-

norsandin2014wassupplementedby

acompetitivegrantfromtheDepartment

of ForeignAffairs and Trade (DFAT). It

isonlybecauseofthegeneroussupport

from A/Prof Chris Pokorny, Mr John

gerahty, The Hon. Craig Knowles, Dr

TessaHo,MrMichaelMann,MsNora

Shreiber,andTheSunwayHotelHanoi,

ViêtNamthatthecoursecouldbeheld.

2014 advanced course in medical education & research

ke r r y g o u l s t o n & k i m o a t e s

m

AnnuAl RepoRt 2014

Hoc Mai

5AnnuAl RepoRt 2014

Hoc M

ãi Forever Learning H

oc 2014 medical english course

P r o f e s s o r ke r r y g o u l s t o n , P r o f e s s o r k i m o a t e s, & P r o f e s s o r o w e n d e n t

In FeBruary and again IN SEPTEMBER 2014 A lARgE CON-

TINgENTOF AUSTRAlIAN TEACHERS

TRAVEllEDTOHANOIATTHEIROWN

ExPENSE TO TEACH MEDICAl ENg-

lISH TO VIêT NAMESE HEAlTHCARE

PROFESSIONAlS.

Once again, as in the previous three

years, the four-day course conducted

atBachMãiandThanhNhanHospitals

was over-subscribed. The program has

been expanded to incorporate teach-

ingatVinmecHospital and inSpecial-

istClinicalDepartments.Theinitiativeto

teachover100nursingstudents,which

beganin2013attherequestofProfes-

sorHinh (PresidentofHMU)and facili-

tatedbyProfessorChuc,DeanofNurs-

ing,wasalsowellreceived.

Asinprioryears,muchof the teaching

involved roleplaying,clinical scenarios

andgroupdiscussionswithanemphasis

on vocabulary, pronunciation, sentence

structureandgrammar.

The participants in the Medical Eng-

lish course comprised doctors, nurses,

medical students, allied health profes-

sionals, administrative officers, labora-

torytechniciansandmedicalengineers.

Agesandprofessionallevelsamongthe

doctorsvariedconsiderablyfromrecent

medical graduates to those who had

graduatedsomeyearsagoandarenow

inseniorpositions.Therangeofspecial-

tiesvariedwidelyandincludedtheusual

clinicalspecialtiesalongwithradiology,

haematology, biochemistry, pathology,

dentistry and traditional medicine. This

underlines thepopularityof this typeof

teachingwhichtranscendsboundariesat

levelsofprofessionalexperience.

Anonymousevaluationoftheprogramby

participantsand feedback to the teach-

erswas carriedout at the endof each

course.Overall,participantsagreedthat

the medical cases and topics covered

weremost interesting and helped them

toimprovetheirunderstandingofmany

Englishwordsinamedicalcontext.For

the doctors’ program, a largemajority

ofparticipantsagreed that the lecturers

and sessions were easy to understand,

withonehundredpercent inagreement

thattheywouldhappilyrecommendthe

course to their colleagues in the future.

Themajorityoffeedbackforthenurse’s

program was high and included some

recommendations such as havingmore

activities encouraging those to speak

Englishandmorerole-playingexercises.

Thesesuggestionswillbetakenintocon-

siderationforthe2015course.

Teachers in2014wereTheHon.Craig

Knowles, Ms Hilary Knowles, Assoc/

ProfessorChrisPokorny,MrHarleyHar-

wood,MsJenniferBott,DrChrisBauer,

Ms lynne Shailer,MrMurray andMrs

Susan Walker, Mr greg Kaufman, Dr

BobMiddleton,MrTomandMrsAyling

Rubin,DrAndreaMant,Mr JonBlack-

well, Professor Trevor Parmenter, Pro-

fessor Trevor Tejada-Bergers, Mr Jose

Torrealba, Professor Richard Allen, Dr

geoffandMrsJaneKlein,MsleeSan-

tow,MslouiseMatherson,MrRobinand

MrsJudyParkinson,Rorygallagher,Mr

IanDiamond,ProfessorKerrygoulston,

Professor Owen Dent, Professor Kim

Oates,MrsRobynOates.

InFebruary2015anothergroupof20

teachersarespendingaweekinHanoi

teachingMedicalEnglish.

6. acknowledgementsWEWISH TO THANK THE FOllOWINgTEACHERSWHODONATED THEIR TIMEAND SKIllS IN 2014: Professor OwenDent,ProfessorCraigMellis,ProfessorDa-vid Isaacs, Dr Tessa Ho, Dr IanMcPhee,Dr Evan Rawstron, Professor MichaelNicholas, ProfessorWendyHu,MrgregBrown, Professor Michael Field, Assoc.Professor Anthony gill, Mr Dimitry Tran,Assoc. Professor Chris Dennis, Profes-sorDiCampbell,DrgeorgeKotsiou,MsKaren garlan, Professor geoff Tofler, DrRobert Read, SimMead, TheHon. CraigKnowles,DrViêtPhan,DrChrisBauer,DrPaulNicolarakis,AssociateProfessorBru-noguiffre, Associate ProfessorMargaretSchnitzler,AssociateProfessorTrevorTeja-da-Berges,ProfessorTomHugh,ProfessorJohn Dwyer, Associate Professor ChrisPokorny,DrRupertEdwards,Assoc.Pro-fessorSarahHilmer,DrBronwenDalziel,DrSriMahadev,DrJonathanPage,Profes-sorDavidHandelsman,ProfessorRichardAllen,DrBobMiddleton, ProfessorPierreChapuis, Professor Jill White, ProfessorMichael Morgan, Dr Amanda goldrick,Professor Michael Frommer, Dr Karengarlan, Professor Judy lumby, Dr Kategerahty,Dr JohnBuchanan,DrTimHar-rington, Dr Tony Joseph, Dr SallyMcCa-rthy,ProfessorMerrilynWalton,aswellasaspecialthankstoRebeccaMann.

AnnuAl RepoRt 2014

Hoc Mai H

oc Mãi F

orever Le arning Hoc

Hiv and other sexuallyTRANSMITTED INFECTIONS ARE OF-

TENUNDIAgNOSEDORDIAgNOSED

lATE BECAUSE OF THE STIgMA AS-

SOCIATEDWITHTHEM,THEFREqUENT

ASYMPTOMATIC NATURE OF THEIR

ClINICAl PRESENTATIONS, AND THE

lIMITEDNUMBEROFTESTINgPROVID-

ERSANDVENUESFORMARgINAlIzED

ANDAT-RISKPOPUlATIONS.

SomepeoplelivingwithHIV(PlWH)are

not aware of their infection, and thus,

possiblytransmittingthevirustotheirsex-

ualpartners.PlWHaremostinfectiousto

othersintheimmediateperiodfollowing

initial acquisition of the virus, and thus

easyaccesstoregulartestingisincreas-

inglyrecognisedasanimportantpartof

public health responses. Dentists, with

theirrecognisedtrustandexpertise,close

linkstolocalpopulationsandwidespread

geographicaldistributioncanpotentially

provideahighquality,safeandreadily

accessiblelocationforHIVtesting.

RapidHIVtestsareperformedusingei-

therapinprickororalfluidsamplesand

provides results within 20minutes. The

windowperiodcangenerallybea little

longerinrapidHIVteststhanlaboratory

tests.MostrapidHIVtestsdetectHIVan-

tibodies.Areactiveresultisnotadiag-

nosisofHIVinfection,asrapidHIVtests

produceasmallnumberoffalsepositive

results.Forthisreason,areactiverapid

HIV test result always needs to be con-

firmedbylaboratory/bloodtests.

TheHIVepidemicinViêtNamisconcen-

tratedamonginjectiondrugusers,com-

mercialsexworkersandmenwhohave

sex with men. There are an estimated

293,000 PlWH. HIV cases have been

documented in virtually all provinces

anddistricts.ViêtNam’sVoluntaryHIV

counselling and testing (VCT) program

hasbeenscaledupinrecentyears,with

thenumberofVCTsitesandVCTclients

increasingfrom157sitesin2005to317

sitesin2011.

This project was developed in part-

nership between the Western Sydney

SexualHealthCentre,WestmeadCentre

forOralHealth,andtheHanoiMedical

UniversityFacultyofDentistry.

The objectives for this project are two-

fold.First,weseektoincreaseawareness

of the role of dentists in providing HIV

testing inViêtNam.Second,wewould

liketodeterminewillingnessintheprovi-

sionofHIVtestingbyViêtNameseden-

tists.Achievingtheseobjectiveswillhelp

achieve public health goals of routiniz-

ingHIV testing;especiallyamong those

athighestriskandmostvulnerable.

In September 2014, four focus groups

were held with 41 dentists. Two were

inHanoiandtwowereinHoChiMinh

City.Transcriptsarebeinganalysedand

resultswillbepresentedinMarchatthe

International Association of Dental Re-

searchconferenceinBoston.

W e recently viSited ha-

nOi tO wOrk with the pharma-

ciStS FrOm Several hanOi hOS-

pitalS and the department OF

clinical pharmacy, hanOi univer-

Sity OF pharmacy, On StrategieS

FOr imprOving the SaFety and

quality OF medicineS uSe, particu-

larly thOSe medicineS aSSOciated

with a high riSk OF harm.

the first event was a two hour sym-

posium on the safe use of intravenous

potassium held at bach mãi hospital

on tuesday 18 February 2014. the

symposium was opened by profes-

imProving the safety & quality of medicines use in hanoi hosPitals

m a r g a r e t d u g u i d Pharmaceutical advisor at australian commission on safety and Quality in health care, nsW

m e r e d it h ve r g e education and training Pharmacist, royal north shore hosPital, nsW

sor duong duc hung, head of gen-

eral planning department of bach

mãi hospital and chaired by profes-

sor ngo quy chau, deputy director

of bach mãi hospital. the symposium

had been organised by ms nguyen thi

hong thuy, the director pharmacy at

bach mãi hospital and was attended

by 112 medical, nursing and pharma-

cy staff as well as staff from the hanoi

university of pharmacy.

ms nguyen thi le minh from the phar-

macy department of bach mãi hos-

pital presented on the use of potas-

sium chloride at the hospital, including

usage by individual wards. professor

ngo quy chau led the discussion that

followed the presentations. it was ac-

knowledged that incidents did occur

with potassium chloride ampoules

at the hospital. the symposium was

followed by a visit to the pharmacy

department at general hospital e

and discussions on delivery of clinical

pharmacy services with the director of

pharmacy nguyen trung nghia and

his staff.

a second symposium was held on

wednesday 19th February at bach

mãi hospital. this was a full day sym-

posium attended by directors of phar-

macy and clinical pharmacists from

nine hospitals in hanoi and the head

of the department of clinical pharma-

cy and staff from the hanoi university

of pharmacy.the focus of the morn-

ing’s program was the use of drug us-

age evaluation (due, drug use review

(dur) and other tools to improve the

quality and safety of medicines use in

hospitals. dr huong, head of the de-

partment of clinical pharmacy at ha-

noi university of pharmacy presented

on due/dur studies conducted by

undergraduate and masters’ students.

the role of viêt namese dentists in conducting raPid hiv testing

6

Hoc Mai

AnnuAl RepoRt 2014

The hosPital death dataPROJECT IN VIêT NAM PROVIDES,

FOR THE FIRST TIME, RElIABlE AND

MEANINgFUl DEATH INFORMATION;

DESIgNED TOAID EFFECTIVEHEAlTH

PROgRAM PlANNINg AND SERVICE

DElIVERYATTHEHOSPITAllEVElAND

ACROSSTHECOUNTRY.

The project first started in May 2013

and has been fully implemented. A to-

tal 2812 death reports had been col-

lectedasatSeptember2014.BachMãi

Hospital has 1610 death reports on its

database and Viêt Duc Hospital1202.

Feedback was provided monthly by

theUniversity of Sydney research team

to respective in-country partners. Our

ViêtNamesepartnersareresponsive to

feedbackrelatingtocompleteness,accu-

racyandconsistencyofdataprovidedin

themonthlydeathreport.

Theprojectconcludesmid2015.InDe-

cember2014weperformedatechnical

evaluationof theprojectatbothhospi-

tals, which included a retrospective re-

viewofrandomlyselecteddeathreports.

An independentViêtNamesedoctor to

assist with translation and explanation

of medical terms accompanied asses-

sors from the Sydney team. A total of

282 (10% of all death reports) death

reportswereexaminedagainstthemedi-

calrecordsofthedeceasedpersons.The

aim of the review was to validate the

reports,specificallywhetherthecause(s)

of death recorded in the formmatched

thecause(s)ofdeath in themedical re-

cord. This process allowed the team to

checkforaccuracyandcompletenessof

thedata. Inadditionweheldinterviews

with key doctors and administrators to

assessthequalityandutilityofthedata

collection,practicalityofusingthedeath

reportform,anddeathdatastorageand

access.Wealsoaskeddoctors to com-

pleteasurveyabouttheirexperienceof

usingthehospitaldeathreport.

The technical evaluation was important

toprovidefeedbackaboutsomereMãin-

ingconcernsaboutcompletenessof the

data.Afinal reportwillbeprovided to

thetwoDirectorsofthehospitalsaswell

asa face-to-facemeeting todiscuss the

resultsandsustainability.

InDecember,weheldaseminaratBach

MãiHospitaltoconveytheresultsofthe

death data collection to health profes-

sionals and managers; attendees also

includedrepresentativesfromtheMinis-

tryofHealth(MoH)andotherhospitals.

The Administration of Medical Services

Department of the Ministry of Health

publically supported the relevance and

significance of the project. In support,

MoH visualises a wider roll out of the

project to the provinces. He envisages

modifying the current government A6

deathcertificatetoincorporatetheaddi-

each hospital provided a short report

on their clinical pharmacy activities

and any barriers they had encoun-

tered in introducing the new service.

this was the first time an inter-hospital

and university group met to discuss

clinical pharmacy developments in

hanoi.

a big thank you to our interpreters

ms duong thanh hai and ms tran thu

huong (pharmacy department, bach

mãi hospital), and dr trinh trung hieu

and dr hoang ha phuong (department

of clinical pharmacy, hanoi university

pharmacy) for their magnificent job in

translating all the presentations and

discussions.

thanks also to ms nguyen thi hong

thuy, ms do thi hong gam and ms

nguyen lien huong for their help in

organising the symposia programs

and for their kind hospitality during

our stay.

Hoc M

ãi Forever Learning H

oc imProving hosPital death data in viêt nam

i M p l e M e n t a t i o n & e v a l u a t i o nP r o f e s s o r m e r r i l y n w a l t o n

tionalitemscollectedintheprojectdeath

form(basedonWHOrequirementsand

adaptedtotheViêtNameseculture).He

alsodiscussedtheideaofestablishinga

hospitaldeathdatacentretobelocated

atBachMãiHospital.

ProfessorWalton met with DFAT while

shewasinHanoiinDecember2014and

discussedtheimportanceofthisproject.

AgPFD grant will be submitted focus-

singonworkforceeducation, infrastruc-

tureandinformationsystems.

Thenextstagewillbetoa)assisttheoth-

erMãinhospitalsinHanoitoimplement

thedeathreportsystem;b)Implementthe

projectintoallhospitalsintheRedRiver

provincestoenableproofofconcepton

alargerscale.

7

8 AnnuAl RepoRt 20148

Hoc Mai Hoc M

ãi Forever Learning H

oc Cancer remãins one oF tHe leAdiNg cAuses oF deAtH world-

wide, ANd AccordiNg to treNds experts

predict it will tAke tHe leAd by 2030

(wHo 2012). At A receNt iNterNAtioNAl

coNFereNce iN Viêt NAM, locAl AutHori-

ties reported A cANcer MortAlity Figure

oF ApproxiMAtely 73% or 82,000 pA-

tieNts witH AN ANNuAl Figure oF ArouNd

116,000 New cAses. tHis wAs HigHligHted

by deputy director proF. Mãi troNg kHoA

oF HANoi bAsed bAcH Mãi HospitAl, stAt-

iNg tHAt tHe Figure wAs AMoNg oNe oF

tHe HigHest ANywHere iN tHe world.

o n g o i n g d e v e l o P m e n t s

Sydney Radiation Oncologist, Prof.

graemeMorganfirstvisitedViêtNamin

2008,andsinceHocMãiFoundation’s

support in RadiationOncology projects

hascontinuedtogrowandexpandeach

year, with this year being no excep-

tion. HocMãi Foundation developed a

number of assignments in partnership

the Australiangovernment’s Australian

VolunteersforInternationalDevelopment

(AVID)Program.

This year Radiation Therapist Jill Cave-

nagh from Mater Hospital in Sydney

undertookan8monthassignmentatDa-

nanggeneralHospital.

r e F l e c t i o n s F ro m J i l l – r a -d i at i o n t h e r a P i st t r a i n e r

“IarrivedinDaNangforaneightmonth

assignmentasaradiationtherapisttrain-

er.Myworkinvolvedavarietyofdiffer-

ent aspects which included developing

workshops,producingtrainingmanuals,

aswellmentoringandpracticalskillsde-

velopmentwithamultidisciplinary team

oftherapists,physicistsanddoctors.

Innovationwithfewresources,extremely

interestingandchallengingpatientscou-

pled with high patient load makes for

a demanding workplace, however the

dedication of the staff in all areaswas

remarkable and the drive to learn and

improvewasobvioustosee.Mytimein

Da Nang was both the most demand-

ingandrewardingofmycareerthusfar

andhas laida solid foundation forme

asaclinicianaswellas thebeginnings

of assistance for colleagueswho I now

call friends. In a place where training,

information and resources are difficult

toaccess, theabundantmotivationand

hungertoimprovewasveryinspiringto

witness.”

r a d i at i o n t h e r a P y co u r s e i n v i ê t n a m

ThisyearHCMCOncologyHospitaland

theViêtNamAssociationof Radiologi-

calTechnologists(VART)areworkingin

partnershiptodevelopthefirstRadiation

TherapyCourseinViêtNam.Theinitial

course is planned to be 6 months as

opposed toa traditional2-4yearsand

willbedesignedtoaddressfundamental

concepts integrating a strong practical

componentwith theaim to fosterdirect

clinicalapplications.Thecertificatelevel

coursewillbenationallyrecognisedand

otherdepartmentsallaroundViêtNam

willbeinvitedtoenrol.Theultimatelong

termoutlookwillbetousethisfirststep

asabuildingblock towardsabachelor

levelcourseasthenumbersofmachines

andtechnologyinevitablyprogress.

a u st r a l i a n g ov e r n m e n t’s d i r e c t a i d P ro g r a m 2 01 4

In June 2014, a project funded by the

Australiangovernment’sDirectAidPro-

gram (DAP) administered through the

AustralianConsulgeneralinHCMCMr.

JohnMcAnulty, was successfully imple-

mented at HCMC Oncology Hospital.

With the aid of new equipment funded

by the project, together with training,

outcomesweredirectimprovementstoa

numberof specific treatment techniques

for different cancers sites. A handover

ceremonywas held inMay,whereMr.

JohnMcAnultyandhisteamwereinvited

to HCMCOncologyHospital. In 2015,

theDAPprogramwill continue towork

closely with HCMC Oncology Hospital

through a number of planned projects.

Averybigspecialthanksandacknowl-

edgement goes out toMr. JohnMcAn-

ulty,Ms.CatlyandalltheDAPteamat

theAustralianConsulateinHCMCforall

theircontinuedsupport.

ot h e r s P e c i a l ac k n ow l-e d g e m e n t s

Mr. Jamie lei Radiation Therapist from

Royal Adelaide Hospital who spent 3

monthsvolunteeringwithHCMCOncol-

ogyHospital.

Mr.NigelMiddlebrookMedicalPhysicist

fromqueenslandwhospent2weeksin

Viêt Nam delivering a number lectures

andpracticalsatHCMCOncologyHos-

pital.

Mr. PhongNguyen Radiation Therapist

from Perth Radiation Oncology Centre

who spent 2weekswith Jill atDanang

generalHospital.

Mr.garyArthurMedicalPhysicist from

Sydney on an 8 month assignment at

HCMCOncologyHospital.

radiation oncology activities in viêt nam

vu h u y n h r Ad iAt ioN tH e r A py t r A i N e r

d e s c r i P t i o n o F P i c t u r e s

1 – 4 . D A P H A N D O v e R C e R e M O N y At H C M C O N CO lO g y H O S PI tA l

1 . v u H u y N H ( My S e l f ) & J A M I e l e I (R A -D I AtI O N t H e R A PI S t R OyA l A D e l A I D e H O S PI tA l )

2 . v u H u y N H ( My S e l f ) P R e S e N tI N g At D A P H A N D O v e R C e R e M O N y At H C M C O N -CO lO g y H O S PI tA l

3 . l e f t tO R I g H t, D R . D A N g Q u O C t H I N H v I C e D I R e C tO R O f H C M C O N CO lO g y H O S -PI tA l , M R . J O H N M C A N u lt y A u S CO N S g e N e R A l H C M C, M S . C At ly D A P P R O -g R A M M A N A g e R A u S CO N S u l At e

4 . D A P H A N D O v e R C e R e M O N y At H C M C O N CO lO g y H O S PI tA l

5 . D A P S I g N I N g C e R e M O N y, D R . t u y e t A N H, H e A D O f D e PA RtM e N t H C M C O N CO l-O g y H O S PI tA l & M R . J O H N M C A N u lt y A u S CO N S g e N e R A l H C M C

6 . J I l l C Av e N A g H R A D I AtI O N t H e R A P y t R A I N e R Av I D P R O g R A M , O N A S S I g N -M e N t w I t H D A N A N g g e N e R A l H O S PI tA l S tA f f

7. J I l l C Av e N A g H R A D I AtI O N t H e R A P y t R A I N e R Av I D P R O g R A M , g O I N g O u t w I t H D A N A N g g e N e R A l H O S PI tA l S tA f f

8 . J I l l C Av e N A g H R A D I AtI O N t H e R A P y t R A I N e R Av I D P R O g R A M , P l Ay I N g f O Ot-b A l l w I t H D A N A N g g e N e R A l H O S PI tA l

O N CO lO g y f O Ot b A l l t e A M

AnnuAl RepoRt 2014

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Pham hoang ngoc hoa

this year, thanks to hoc mãi foundAtion, i hAd An oppoRtunity to come bAck to Sydney foR fuRtheR Study About RenAl tRAnSplAnt pAthology in AnAtomicAl pAthology depARtment of RoyAl noRth ShoRe hoSpitAl foR neARly thRee monthS.

This trip is very important for me because the number of patients who have renal transplan-tation is increasing significantly in Viêt Nam, but we don’t have enough pathologists who are specialized in renal pathological to prop-erly diagnose these diseases, especially in our hospital. So I’m very happy and respect the time there for study.

I went to the hospital every day. I studied by myself by collecting all the renal biopsy slides from the store and had a look at them as well as the reports in the computer at the same time. If I didn’t understand, there were two supervisors who are so kind and enthu-siastic with me: A/Prof. Robert Eckstein and Dr. Jason Chen. They are both specialists in renal disease pathology in the Anatomical Pathology Department and they helped me identify the lesions and in diagnosis of these slides.

I think I learned so much and achieved my goals during this time. I’m more and more confident to diagnose the diseases by my-self, and I still keep contact with my supervi-sors so that I can ask for their advice if I have any difficult case. It’s why I really want to say thank you to Hoc Mãi Foundation to help me and help Viêt Namese renal transplant patients by such a valuable chance of study-ing in Sydney. It’s not only a trip; it’s the future for many patients! And I promise myself never to stop studying to contribute to health care improvement in my specialization of renal pathology.

nguyen ngoc Quang

there weeks is not too long but it gAve me Some ReAlly Sweet And wondeRful expeRienceS. i Am So honoRed to be one of the viêt nAmeSe StudentS to Receive A hoc mãi ScholARShip.

Viêt Nam is a developing country. People can obtain a lot of benefits from economic devel-opment but also have to face many troubles. One of them is increase in cancer cases as a result of environmental pollution due to the wrong way of economic development. To adapt, we have to improve diagnosis and quality of treatment in hospitals. Genetics test for target therapy in cancer is becoming popular in Viêt Nam.

I had an opportunity to be trained and prac-tice in a professional and advanced envi-ronment in Genetics Laboratory at Kolling Institute. I learnt how to get good quality Genetics test, how to organize equipment following workflows, and about Standardiza-tion of Techniques for routine pathology ser-vice according to international standards (ISO 15189), which is a possible approach to take in the future. Training in Kolling Institute is the best opportunity I have had to improve my skills in Molecular Biology which is very use-ful to me in Viêt Nam.

I would like to extend my appreciation to Dr. Diana Benn and her family. She brought me to the Hoc Mãi Foundation and helped me organize my scholarship. She not only taught me knowledge and techniques in biology, but she also showed me how to become a good person. She made me feel at home.

Finally, I would like to express my warmest thanks to the Hoc Mãi Foundation for giving me this wonderful chance! Hopefully, Hoc Mãi Foundation will develop more opportunities to help Viêt Namese students like me to have this precious chance.

Trang nguyen Le

in sePtemBer 2014, i had a fAntAStic expeRience in RoyAl noRth ShoRe hoSpitAl (RnSh) with the SuppoRt of hoc mãi foundAtion. “clinicAl phARmAcy” in viêt nAm iS new compARed to AuStRAliA.

I learned much from this course under the instruction of a professional and experienced pharmacist as well as the enthusiastic help of other doctors and pharmacists in this hospi-tal. I experienced going to some wards with a pharmacist in-charge. Following their guide, I knew about what a pharmacist does and how he/she carries out responsibilities in each ward. I was impressed by ward round, team- based activities and alert stickers system. I also never forget the trip to patients’ houses to consult about their medication regimes and understand their lives more as well. Fre-quent lunch seminars and continuous educa-tion meetings made me penetrate the quote “stop learning, stop living”.

It is flawed if I do not mention about the weather and landscapes, entertainment in Sydney. Warm sunshine in the morning and slightly cold wind in the evening, Sydney Op-era House and Harbour Bridge, kangaroos and little penguins contribute to my memory of my time in Sydney.

Moreover, I had a chance to visit the Sydney University and lovely staffs who supported

me in Hoc Mãi Foundation.

felloWs

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viêt namese medical students

Vu Thanh ThaoPham ngoc thach university

Living in sydney For one MONtH IS ONe Of tHe MOSt AMAzINg tHINgS I HAve eveR exPeRIeNCeD IN My

lIfe. tHe wARM welCOMe Of HOC MãI StAff AND ROyAl NORtH SHORe HOSPItAl’S DOCtORS MADe All Of My wORRIeS DISAPPeAR RIgHt AwAy ON My fIRSt few DAyS AND I wAS Able tO ADAPt QuICkly tO tHe wHOle New lIvINg-StuDyINg eNvIRONMeNt.

four weeks studying in the endocrinology Department of Royal North Shore Hospital was a wonderful experience. On my first day of clinical placement, my supervisor - Doc-tor greg fulcher gave me a warm welcome and introduced me to the other doctors and staffs. He also gave me detailed instructions of what to do and what I need to prepare for the clinical placement. I joined clinic time and I was able to practice taking history and examining patients under careful supervi-sion of the doctors. Not only my academic knowledge and clinical skills were improved, I also quickly enhanced my english skills.

the communication skills of the doctors were good and I learned from them how to conduct a friendly compassionate conversa-tion with patients. All of the doctors were so inspiring and friendly, especially Doctor Nisa Sheriff and Doctor Sally Duke, whom I spent the most time with. they were always willing to help me and give clear explanation to all of my questions. I was kind of shy and awkward during the first week but thanks to their friendliness, I was able to overcome my weakness and became more confident. they inspired me to think outside the box, always

have the impetus to continually ask “why” and deal with problems logically. I had the privilege to collaborate with such amazing people and do outstanding work like them.

On weekends, I had time to go sightsee-ing around the city. I was mesmerized by the beauty of Sydney. I love its heritage archi-tecture, its natural landscapes, its beauti-ful beaches and its multi-cultural lifestyle. I was so happy to visit some of the most popular places in the world such as Sydney Opera House, Darling Harbour and blue Moun-tains. I also joined some social events and was able to make new friends from differ-ent countries. It was a very meaningful and open-minding experience to me.

this trip to Sydney has been immensely rewarding to me. It has increased not only my clinical and academic knowledge but also my social skills. It was my privilege to col-laborate with many dedicated inspiring doctors and staff. Hoc Mãi has really provided me with plenty of valuable experience for my current study and my future career. I would like to express my most sincere gratitude to Hoc Mãi founda-tion for giving me this great opportunity to study and live in such a professional environ-ment. I hope to use all the amazing things I learned in Sydney to help my study and clini-cal pratice in viêt Nam and become a good doctor in the very near future.

*

Thanh Lan TrinhPham ngoc thach university

This triP is one oF the most wONDeRful MeMORIeS IN My lIfe tHAt I luCkIly ReCeIveD fROM HOC MãI

fOuNDAtION. tHe wINteR IN SyDNey wAS COlD but I wAS wARMeD uP by eveRytHINg AMAz-INg tHeRe. Abby AND MelIA, StuDeNtS fROM tHe MeDICAl SCHOOl Of uNIveRSIty Of SyDNey At tHe AIRPORt, welCOMeD Me. tHey SHOweD Me tHe HOSPItAl wHeRe I wIll HAve ClINICAl PlACeMeNt AND eveRytHINg AbOut lIfe IN AuS-tRAlIA SO I felt MORe CONfIDeNt lIke I AM IN My HOMetOwN.

thanks to my supervisors, Dr. Paul Collett and Dr. fawzia Huq, I have the chance to study in Acute Assessment unit and general Medicine Department with great teams and advanced environment. the most impres-sive thing is the professional coordination in team working of the staffs there in order to give patients the best health care. Not only doctors and nurses but also social work-ers, physiotherapists, dieticians, etc. work together and discuss plans to take care of patients because patients have both physical and mental problems that need to be solved.

I will always remember the time we do rounds and listen to patients’ concerns and give them plan for treatment. It will be wonderful if viêt Nam can apply this model in our medical system. Patients were very friendly. they were willing to talk to me everything about their medical problems as I was their family members to help me study and practice english too. the doctors were also very friendly and helped me a lot in my study. After taking medical history and examination of patients, I usually discussed with registrars and interns such as Jacob,

James, Jeff and wilson how to approach to diagnosis with the symptoms and signs that I have found in patients. they were very en-thusiastic to listen to me and tell me some-thing that I have not known yet. especially, the doctors I remember most is Dr. kaufman. I have learned a lot from him, not only medi-cal knowledge but also the way he communi-cates with patients. I always remember and apply things that he told me in my life and my medical career, “Try to do every-thing with all of my heart”. luck-ily, I met Daniel Pham, a medical student in Australia who comes from viêt Nam.

It was a also a good chance for me to visit many places and go sightseeing in Sydney be-cause this is the first time I have been abroad, and I enjoyed many landscapes.

finally, from the bottom of my heart, I would like to show my thankfulness to Hoc Mãi foundation as well as Professor bruce Robinson for giving me this wonderful op-portunity to learn and to experience. I also really appreciate all things that Ms. fiona thien, Ms. Claire bridgman, Ms. gina Dol-phin, Ms. Sophie Cher, Mr. ben foster have done for us to prepare well for this trip. Ad-ditionally, I would like to thank Mr. truong thai, Ms. Phan thi tuong van and some Hoc Mãi scholars from previous years who helped me and shared with me many valuable expe-riences. After this trip, I believe that I will become more matured and have more moti-vation to follow my dreams and my ambition to become a good doctor.

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oc MaiTran hoai Linhhanoi medical university

L iFe is a Journey, with PRObleMS tO SOlve, leSSONS tO leARN, but

MOSt Of All, exPeRIeNCeS tO eNJOy.

I remembered the day I started my elec-tive course in Sydney- Australia, which was also the first time I have ever been abroad. I thought four weeks would be like forever and I had set up many goals myself to achieve, especially my medical english. Hamish, an elective student who travelled to viêt Nam in 2013, gave us a warm wel-come when we arrived at Sydney Interna-tional Airport and took us to visit bondi beach and then back to our accommodation.

My placement at Royal North Shore Hospital was in ward 9A- general Medicine as my own aspiration to become an intern-ist in the future. My supervisors Dr. Paul Collett and Dr. fawzia Huq introduced me to their team including consultants Dr. kauf-man and Dr. Stiel, registrar Dr. Christine verdon and intern Dr. george She. I was

absolutely confused with language barrier and work rhythm. Over the next few days, I spent plenty of time doing ward rounds with the team. Although team members were usually overload with a great number of patients and paperwork, they always ex-plained clearly to me the symptoms, signs and treatment of their patients and asked me if there was anything different from these in viêt Nam. the most interesting thing I found out is that besides doctors and nurses, the patients were taken care of by occupational therapists, social workers, and dieticians during their hospitalization and after discharge. I completely admired the attitude and respect of all the staff towards the patients, which is the most important thing I have

to learn from them. when attending lectures, I was impressed by the modern teaching method and the active feedback from students. I find out that it is exactly the best way to achieve knowledge.

On weekends, I spent time visiting gor-geous places such as the Opera House, Dar-ling Harbour, Royal botanic gardens, Manly beach and others. Australian people are so friendly and hospitable, which somehow made me feel like I was home.

I would like to give my special thanks to Hoc Mãi foundation, Professor bruce Robinson, Mr. Jason Dibbs and Ms. fiona thien for their endless effort to offer such a great opportunity to experience the medi-cal environment in Australia. to Ms Claire bridgman and Ms. Sophie Cher, for organ-izing an elective placement for me at the Royal North Shore Hospital. to all the medi-cal staff of general Medicine in Royal North Shore Hospital especially Dr Paul Collett’s team for helping me get through difficulties in language and achieve excellent medical knowledge. And to all the greenwich village Staff for supporting me during my stay in Australia. thank you for everything!

viêt namese medical students

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Linh Chi Buihanoi medical university

I still rememBer clearly the fIRSt DAy wHeN I Set fOOt ON AuStRAlIA lANDSCAPe. DeSPIte tIReDNeSS AfteR A

lONg flIgHt, we weRe ReAlly INteReSteD wHeN HAMISH, A SeCOND-yeAR MeDICAl Stu-DeNt Of tHe uNIveRSIty Of SyDNey tOlD PROuDly AbOut fAMOuS lANDMARkS, wHICH SHOulD be DISCOveReD IN SyDNey.

It was lucky for me to practice in endocri-nology Department in which I am interested. Professor greg fulcher made my anxiety fade away when he guided me how to get an effective learning course and introduced me to all staffs in the department. the biggest challenge I faced with was language. After sharing my difficulties with doctors, they helped me to be more confident by speak-ing slowly and explaining carefully medical terms and abbreviations that I did not know. the precious first lesson I learned was com-municating effectively with patients and building respectful and sympathetic rela-tionship between doctors and patients. I had been taught to examine patients, de-tect signs and symptoms and write medical records in english. learning how to manage patients with diabetes mellitus and to screen ones with thyroid cancer gradually broadened my knowledge. besides, there was a significant change in my mind after I took part in medical lectures, grand rounds and meetings. Creative and active thinking of doctors and medical students of Sydney

university is worthwhile experience, which I will share with my friends in Hanoi Medical university. Moreover, I am really impressed with librarian Hau Nguyen and other staffs at Douglas Piper library who guided me to find many useful medical books.

there is no doubt that discovering beautiful Australia is too awesome not to remember. the Sydney Opera House is not only an international icon of Australia but also an architectural envy of the world. walking in Royal botanic garden and visit-ing taronga zoo made me blend in a natural environment will flora and animals of tem-perate zone. Australian people with kindness and hospitality helped all of us quickly integrate with climate and life here.

I would like to express sincere and deep-est gratitude to Hoc Mãi foundation, to Pro-fessor bruce Robinson, Mrs. fiona thien, and Mr. Jason Dibbs. I also would like to thank all doctors, registrars and interns at Royal North Shore Hospital especially Professor greg fulcher who is a mentor and who al-ways shares valuable experiences with me. this scholarship helped me broaden medical knowledge and took me to a new horizon where I got more confidence, passion and motivation to chase my dream and turn it into reality. thank you for everything!

Bui Bao Lamhanoi medical university

as a medical student, i am AlwAyS lOOkINg fOR kNOwleDge eNHANCeMeNt. ONe MONtH StuDyINg

AS AN eleCtIve StuDeNt IN ROyAl NORtH SHORe HOSPItAl IS My gOlDeN OPPORtuNIty NOt ONly tO bROADeN My MeDICAl kNOwleDge but AlSO eNRICH My lIfe exPeRIeNCeS.

I received a warm welcome from my eNt team led by my supervisor, Dr. David veiv-ers. the first week was the toughest when language barrier and difference in working systems stood as issues. thanks to enthu-siastic instructions, my medical english has been improved quickly. Day by day, I learned how to examine eNt patients, how to read and understand the charts with numerous abbreviations and new medical terms. I could do ward rounds confidently with reg-istrars and interns every morning and help them as much as I could in the clinic hours. I even took part in an operation in the thea-tre under the supervision of Dr. veivers. Additionally, there were many interesting

lectures and grand rounds were held every friday by leading professors of Australia in the fields of general Medicine, Surgery, Ra-diology and so on. In my opinion, this is the best way to achieve knowledge, especially for students.

During off-hospital time, I spent most of my weekends traveling and taking pictures. the landscapes of Sydney and the suburbs are so magnificent. from the shore of bondi beach to the blue Mountain, the charming beauty of Australian nature varies diversely but still gorgeous and peaceful. taronga zoo, known as “a miniature Australia eco-system”, was also an interesting site to visit where more than 2600 animals of 340 species living.

Special thanks to Hoc Mãi foundation for funding my elective course, to Royal North Shore hospital staffs for their support and to Professor bruce Robinson for giving me this precious privilege.

viêt namese medical students

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Pham Giang Trunguniversity of medicine & Pharmacy hcmc

Walking outside the AIRPORt, I felt SO COlD AND exCIteD tO StARt My lONgeSt

JOuRNey AwAy fROM My Sweet wARM COuN-tRy. tHe fIRSt DAy CAMe wItH tIReSOMe, but It COulD NOt StOP Me eNJOyINg tHe fRIeNDly SOCIety IN SyDNey, AND lOOkINg fORwARD tO exPeRIeNCe tHe MeDICAl SyS-teM Of AuStRAlIA.

when I went around Royal North Shore hospital for the first time. I was amazed not only with the mordern facility in hos-pital, but also with the organization. us-ing my ID badge, I knew I could not access everywhere, just like another staff and pa-tients. therefore, I realized that it is much safer for the patients and for me either. when I joined the ward rounds, I saw there was no white coat, doctors wore their most polite suit, showing respect to patients and preventing hospital-acquired infec-tions. furthermore, doctors’ communica-tion and clinical examination always show the respect to the patient’s feelings and decisions. I was very interested in many signs and notes, which reminded doctors of

many easy-to-forget details such as signs sticked on the charts of patients have the same name. last but not the least, every patients had their own space, making them feel relaxed and recovery better. they can decorate their space with flowers, pictures or even motivation words given by their families.

Outside the hospital, I traveled to many places, I learnt that Australians are very kind. they always say “thank you” and “sorry”, hold the door for another person and care about each other. when I sat down beside a pathway to rest, a man came and asked if I was fine or not. I was surprised and a little bit afraid at first, then I real-ized that he asked because he cared.

At last, I am very grateful to HOc Mãi foundation for the support during my jour-ney. they gave me the best conditions for learning and discovering a new environ-ment. They gave me a chance to open my mind, and to realize that small changes can lead to huge effect.

huynh an Kuonguniversity of medicine & Pharmacy hcmc

As i Pushed my luggAge Out Of tHe SyDNey kINgSfORD SMItH AIRPORt, I tHOugHt tHAt: “tHIS MuSt be A wONDeRful tRIP”. AND NOw, AfteR All tHIS tIMe lIvINg IN SyDNey, StuDyINg IN tHe HOSPItAl, MeetINg New fRIeNDS, I MuSt SAy, My JOuRNey IS MORe tHAN wONDeRful.

It’s so great to have a chance to study in one of the biggest hospitals in Sydney – the Royal North Shore Hospital. I chose to spend my four-week placement at the Pain Management and Research Centre because pain medicine is new to me and I want to learn more about this interesting field. On my first day, I met Dr Nathan taylor – my supervisor who then took me around to introduce me to other doctors and medical staffs. they greeted me with smiles and friendly handshakes, which warmed me up in winter day. Most of the time, I followed the doctors to observe them check-ing the new patients. each patient has to meet three specialists – the doctor, the physiothera-pist and the psychologist, who then consult together to find the best solution to the pa-tient’s problem. I am very impressed with the way the doctors show a patient that they really care for his or her issues. Additionally, I

was introduced about ADAPt, a chronic pain self-management program for the patients who suffer from long term pains. the program proves beneficial in helping the patients to know about their pain, to face their enemies and to deal with them. I hope that viêt Namese chronic pain patients will have a chance to take part in such a program someday.

Aside from studying in the clinic, I en-joyed exploring Sydney. we visited many interesting places, such as the Opera House, Darling Harbour, the Royal bo-tanic garden, Paddy’s Market, the Rocks, featherdale wildlife Park, and others. the beauty of St Mary’s Cathedral, the flurry of the Rocks’ Street Market and the taste of kiwi fruits had become parts of my sweet-est memories.

finally, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to Hoc Mãi foundation, patrons, donors and especially Professor bruce Robinson for giving me this opportu-nity. this trip to Sydney is one of the best things I have experienced in my life and I will never forget this journey.

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Do Thi mãi huonghanoi medical university

Four weeks in sydney AuStRAlIA IS tHe MOSt beAutIful tIMe IN My SCHOOl lIfe. I MADe SOMe New fRIeNDS fROM kOReA, tHAIlAND, AND AuStRAlIA.

On the first two weeks, I studied at Sydney Nursing School. I learned how to listen to english instructions and lectures of teachers from different countries. I was impressed because they have tuto-rial classes and students do self-study with computers in the library. I found that tuto-rial classes are really effective when every student can discuss the lesson together. During the time spent in the library, stu-dents can learn online with many precious lectures and references and it’s very easy to access the materials.

two weeks later, we studied at Royal North Shore hospital with six other Sin-gapore students. tam and I were in the haematology ward. for the first time, I was very nervous because nurses spoke very fast in english and everything was new. I worked with beck (a registered nurse) and she helped me a lot. I adapted gradually and I became more confident to ask the RN that I want to do basic care for patients.

I also tried my best to communicate with patients and other staff. I was very glad because some patients were ready to share their stories with me. the machines are very modern especially the drug machine. the staffs work well as a group, including nurses, doctors, pharmacists, assistant nurses, and nursing students. the RNs do the handover both in the office and at bed-side that’s very different from viêt Nam. I also learned more about leukaemia and I saw patients’ feelings during the time they suffer from their disease.

On the weekends, we went to Royal botanic gardens, bondi beach (I’ve picked many nice shells along the shore), blue Mountain, and taronga zoo. the more I discover Australia, the more I see that it is really beautiful.

Many thanks to Hoc Mãi foundation for giving me a precious chance to come to Aus-tralia to attend the nursing program for one month. this experience cannot be replaced. One month in Australia urged me to learn more and more in order to contribute my humble ability to my country.

viêt namese nursing students

Tam Thi Thanh Nguyenhanoi medical university

one month in sydney was tHe MOSt AMAzINg exPeRIeNCe I’ve eveR HAD. I ReAlly APPReCIAte tHe OP-

PORtuNIty gIveN tO Me by tHe HOC MãI fOuN-DAtION tO HAve AN INCReDIble exPeRIeNCe.

I had 2 weeks of studying at Sydney Nurs-ing School and 2 weeks clinical experience at Royal North Shore Hospital. At school, I learned a lot from lecturers and from other students. the lecturers invited guests to come and join the class. they were play-ing role, making situation asking students to recognise what is right and wrong, what we should do that time as a nurse. I found it quite interesting and it fascinated me. I also joined Clinical Simulation labs. the lecturer would come to watch and tell me exactly what I should do if I did it wrong.

the next 2 weeks we went to the hospi-tal and practiced there. Our supervisor was Mr. Alastair burn and we were there with 6 other Singapore nursing students. I went to Hematology ward which specialized with Oncology. we met twice a week to review all the things we learned. I helped in some basic care areas: make a bed, feed and shower patient, do bSl, and so on. Having this chance to learn how to work as a nurse

in international working environment, com-municate with patients was so awesome. I remember one patient who had leukemia telling me: ”I want to bring you home, so you can take care of me”. I was super happy at that time. It meant so much to me. She encouraged me a lot on my way to become a nurse.

At hospital, I identified the differences between vN and Australia. In Australia, There is a big team work work-ing together to deliver the best effective care and treatment to patients. the daily handover was really good for me – it enhanced my knowledge and skills and improved my english as well.

I would like to say a lot of thanks to Dr. Jenifer Hardy, all lecturers and nursing stu-dents at Sydney Nursing School. they were really nice, helpful and generous. I would like to say thanks to Professor bruce Rob-inson, Mr. Jason Dibbs, Mrs. fiona thien, Mr. esmond esguerra, Dr. Jenifer Hardy, Dr. Christopher gordon, Mr. Alastair burn, Nurs-ing Clinical Placements Services at Syd-ney Nursing School: Jock wheeldon, Dawn tuffen, bronwyn, Natalie... for helping me have a great time in Sydney.

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oc viêt namese Phd student

Van Dinh Nguyen1st year Phd student, sydney medical school

northern hoc mãi felloW 2010

It is really a dream coMiNg true wHeN i AM grANted by AustrAliA AwArds scHolArsHip rouNd 2013/

iNtAke 2014 to becoMe proudly A pHd cANdidAte oF AN outstANdiNg AustrAliAN ANd worldwide ter-tiAry iNstitutioN, tHe uNiVersity oF sydNey. HoweVer, it is tHe re-sult oF A loNg-terM prepArAtioN iNitiAted by My pArticipAtioN iN Hoc Mãi FouNdAtioN’s excHANge progrAM iN 2010.

It is not exaggerated to say that Hoc

Mãi scholarship is the most important

achievement I had so far because it

brought me incredible benefits. the Hoc

Mãi training program was designed to

fully support young viêt Namese doctors

in enhancing their all skills. by clinical

observation in a modern teaching hos-

pital such as Royal North Shore Hospital

(RNSH) and westmead Hospital, I learned

standard clinical procedures in diagnosis

and treatment that can be applied suc-

cessfully and served very useful back

in my working places in viêt Nam. for

example, upon my return after the three

month scholarship, drug desensitization,

a specific therapy in allergy field was

introduced successfully and has been

become a routine clinical practice in the

Centre of Allergology and Clinical Immu-

nology, bach Mãi Hospital from 2010. In

addition, english class for medical prac-

titioners in the english teaching Centre

helped me in bridging the gap in language

and culture not only in medical scope but

also in broader areas of life. More impor-

tantly, the program was also created to

improve research capacities for young

viêt Namese doctors by providing skills

regarding from appraisal and interpreta-

tion of a scientific article, to design-

ing good medical research proposal and

major points in good clinical practice

involving ethical issues. thirdly, Hoc

Mãi scholarship took me to the academic

environment where I proudly met Profes-

sor bruce Robinson, Professor Jonathan

Morris, Professor Suran fernando, Mrs

Rhonda glasson, and other lovely profes-

sors, educators and Hoc Mãi people who

supported and taught me a lot.

finally, the greatest benefit from

Hoc Mãi fellowship is that I was luckily

supervised by A/Professor Sheryl van

Nunen, former head department of Al-

lergy at RNSH because her support did

not stop as usual at the end of the fel-

lowship. by keeping contact regularly

and working together since 2010, we

have published one full paper on world

Allergy Organization Journal, 13 interna-

tional conference abstracts, established

and applied e-consultation model* in

clinical practice in viêt Nam and received

the best paper Award on Association be-

tween HlA-b*1502 and severe cutaneous

skin reactions – induced carbamazepine

at Asia Pacific Asthma, Allergy and Clini-

cal Immunology 2013. the proposal was

also funded by Hoc Mãi foundation in

2012 under the program of development

healthcare through research. this is now

being further investigated as my PhD

proposal supervised by Professor Suran

fernando, A/professor van Nunen and

Doctor Christopher vidal.

All in all, Hoc Mãi program 2010 grant-

ed me the greatest chance to become

a PhD candidate and it ensures that my

journey functions smoothly by providing

me all crucial skills required of a PhD can-

didate. It is time for me to give my grate-

ful thanks to Hoc Mãi foundation and all

of you for your support and taking me to

the university of Sydney.

note: e-coNsultAtioN betweeN Viêt NAM

ANd AustrAliA: A coNteMporAry Model For re-

gioNAl collAborAtioN. iNterNAl MediciNe Jour-

NAl 2012;42 (suppl 4) :1-16. NguyeN VAN diNH,

sHeryl VAN NuNeN.

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Hoc Mai

Phoebe O’ Carrigansydney nursing school

dA nAng hoSpitAl foR women &childRen

I read aBout the hoc Mãi scHolArsHip progrAM beFore i

eVeN Applied For sydNey NursiNg scHool’s

progrAM. i AM so grAteFul tHAt i wAs A

scHolArsHip recipieNt ANd tHere Are two

MoMeNts tHAt leFt Me witH A lAstiNg

iMpressioN oF wHAt NursiNg is reAlly All

About iN Viêt NAM.

later in the afternoon on the first day,

a pre-term infant was admitted with a con-

genital heart condition. Although I could not

understand what the doctors and nurses were

saying, I could interpret the seriousness of

the situation through the rushing, and by how

many staff were at the bedside of the infant

interpreting the ultrasound of the heart. An-

other aspect of medicine and nursing that can

be transferred across languages, the gravity of

the situation, simply through body language.

I was then able to sit in on the conversation

in which the doctor informed the parents that

that their baby had pulmonary atresia, with

ventricular septal defect, a disease that is

curable with the implantation of a stent, but

with many risks, such as sudden death, death

from the general anaesthetic in surgery, or

poor organ perfusion. Observing the conver-

sation with the parents, again, although in

viêt Namese, I was very clearly able to see the

exact point in which the parents realised they

had a very sick child. the mother slumped back

in her chair, her eyes began to glass over with

tears, and she began asking fewer questions

whilst the gravity of the situation sunk in. It

is known that it takes 3 seconds for informa-

tion to sink in. And I witnessed the change in

the mother in those 3 seconds, even without

being able to speak a word of viêt Namese.

It was in these moments that I wished I could

portray my empathy and compassion, because

my heart also sunk when I realised that the

prognosis for this child was very poor.

On a friday, we followed Dr v on her ward

rounds on the maternity wards. Seeing the

wards was how expected the hospital to be.

Overcrowded hallways due to the families

staying, bedsharing, rooms which would ac-

commodate one bed at home in Australia,

housing 4-5 beds, and minimal hand sanitiser.

However, on top of this, there were leaks in

the ceilings, with buckets placed under to

attempt to catch the water, sinks around the

corridors were full due to blockages, a perfect

breeding ground for bacteria. the hospital,

although one of the newer of hospitals, is

extremely run down, with minimal medical

equipment and limited resources. On the ward

rounds, we performed newborn examinations,

which I was taught how to do on the spot, part

in english, part in viêt Namese with demon-

stration. An important aspect of nursing, is to

always gain consent, and to converse with the

mother whilst performing the examination.

So, as you can imagine, this was very diffi-

cult. None of the newborns I assessed had eng-

lish speaking mothers, so with the assistance

of Dr v and Dani, I was able to perform a full

assessment and thank the mother for allowing

me to do so. Many of the families are often

from rural areas, and come into the hospital

to give birth, given that I am obviously a for-

eigner, I do tend to stand out. However, all of

the mothers and families greet me with a huge

smile in reflection of my own smile, and I feel

very welcomed.

Hoc Mai

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Hoc Mai

Danielle Diem Phamsydney medical school

nAtionAl hoSpitAl of pAediAtRicS

My 2nd Placement IS At tHe NAtIONAl HOSPItAl Of PAeDIAtRICS (NHP) IN HANOI.

In emergency department (eD), there is an admission desk where 2 doctors assisted by a nurse would do the triage and decide whether patients will get into emergency room or monitoring room. eD at NPH also acts as a tran-sit bay where all patients being transferred from different hospital must come first and get their documents ready before being trans-ferred to the appropriate ward.

In viêt Nam, people go straight to the hos-pital when they are sick. thus, to reduce con-gestion, a clinic area just outside the hospital, all patients who come to the hospital need to be seen firstly by a doctor. Other patients who are transferred from other hospitals or come in by ambulance may go straight to eD. On a normal day, there are around 3000 patients came to the clinics, of these, 5-10% (around 300 patients) will get to eD.

eD at NPH has a good range of presenta-tions providing excellent opportunity for clinical practice. I spent the first few days in triage learning about assessing, categorising and distributing patients. for the rest of the placement, each week my supervisor assigned a body system to read about, and during the week I could assess and examine patients who present with problems of that system.

there are english meetings three times a week when the doctors take turn presenting a

case so that everyone can learn medical eng-lish. we were also welcomed to join training sessions and simulation including anaphylaxis shock, cardiac arrest management, setting up medical ventilator, etc.

every wednesday afternoon, I also got to follow Dr. Duy to the paediatric endocrinology clinics where we normally saw 50 or more pa-tients for an afternoon. It was an eye-opening opportunity to see how the doctors manage so many patients. there is a good range of con-ditions including precocious puberty, Prader-willi syndrome, turner Syndrome, growth hormone deficiency, etc.

Social outings in Hanoi were quite similar to the time in Danang. Overall, I have gained priceless experience from this elective place-ment in viêt Nam, and I am very grateful for this opportunity, thanks to Hoc Mãi founda-tion. Not only I got to see and experience a very different healthcare system but also I have learned not to judge but rather justify my own understanding and belief in medical practice. the best evidence-based medical practice does not necessarily work out the best everywhere. In different circumstances like in viêt Nam where overpopulation with large health dispar-ity between urban and province are dealt with by already overcrowding hospitals with very limited resources, the best evidence-based practice may not be so effective, nor practical.

australianstudents

dA nAng hoSpitAl foR women & childRen

DecemBer 2014, the fIRSt 4 weekS Of My eleCtIve StARteD At DA NANg HOSPItAl fOR wOMeN & CHIlDReN. tHe HOSPItAl IS fAIRly New, OPeNeD IN APRIl 2011, AND IS tHe fIRSt MAJOR SPeCIAlISt PAeDIAtRIC AND MAteRNIty HOSPItAl Of tHe CeNtRAl RegION Of vIêt NAM.

My coordinator, Dr. Hoang tran is the head of Neonatal Department where I spent my 1st week. basing on my learning objectives, Dr Hoang also arranged for me a week in PICu, a week in maternity and the last week as my free choice which I ended up spending in HDu (high dependency unit) where premature ba-bies or babies discharged from NICu are looked after with their mothers.

the NICu team was very friendly and help-ful. Most NICu doctors can speak english very well and were keen to teach. every morning we had an english ward round where a junior doc-tor presented the progression of each patient on the ward and the current management plan. when all the doctors went to their meeting with other departments, the nurses took us for some procedures skills from cannulation, taking blood, inserting Ng tube to feeding and bathing the babies.

My experience in PICu the following weeks was, in contrast, quite different from expected. I felt more like in an emergency De-

partment most of the times. It can get quite chaotic in PICu, there was a day when new pa-tients didn’t stop coming in, every single bed was full and they put out extra trolley-beds on the walkway to accommodate more patients. Almost all patients in PICu had pneumonia; either came in with it or developed during admission. there were also numbers of pa-tients with meningitis and encephalitis, and other conditions including many severe con-genital heart defects, severe hydrocephalus, lyell’s syndrome, etc. which are rarely seen in Australia. this provided excellent clinical experience.

the week in delivery and maternity was even far more different from what I’d seen back in Sydney. As one of the major maternity hospitals in the area, there were about 30 nor-mal deliveries a day on average, not including C-section. Spending a morning in delivery, I was able to observe 5 or 6 normal births eas-ily, which is more than I had seen in my entire 8 weeks of O&g at RNSH. this was a fantastic opportunity to have some hand-on experience.

the overall experience in Danang was in-credible. the people are lovely, the doctors are very friendly and outgoing. Outings are countless and often involve lots of eating and drinking, followed by karaoke session.

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Hoc Mai

Chia Ying & Paul Shapterfaculty of health sciences

As a Final year PHySIOtHeRAPy StuDeNt tRAvellINg tO HANOI tO leARN AND PRACtICe PHySIOtHeRAPy, I RetuRNeD HOMe wItH A vASt AMOuNt Of exPeRIeNCe AND MeMORIeS tHAt I wIll be CHeRISH fOR A lIfetIMe.

Dai Hoc y, the university of Medicine Re-habilitation Centre in Hanoi is a small centre next to the Mãin building of the hospital where patients are referred to physiotherapy for musculoskeletal injuries, spinal cord in-juries and post stroke rehabilitation. I found language barrier in viêt Nam were the Mãin problem during my visit. thankfully, my su-pervisors were able to translate and helped me learn a few useful words and physio techniques along the journey. throughout my experience I was further able to overcome these barriers through drawings, hand signals and even with the “help” of google translator, to understand and get along well with patients.

I was also able to visit other wards in Dai hoc y hospital. In the post operation ward and the stroke unit, we performed chest physio, massage and exercises to prevent chest com-plication, thrombosis and promoting inde-pendent physical function for discharge. One of the most rewarding experiences is when I was able to rehabilitate an 82 year old Par-kinson’s disease patient following a post total knee replacement. She was initially bed bound, but with some hard work and determi-

nation she was able to leave hospital walking independently on a frame.

the health care system in viêt Nam is very different compared to Australia. Physiother-apy is not well-known as it is in Australia, therefore most patients are only aware of the need to see physiotherapist after they have been developed complications. Patients pay to see a doctor and physiotherapist with no cost being covered by the government. they also have to pay for each treatment or technique performed by the therapist. As a result it is difficult for the patients with lower income to seek medical help.

the other thing to take back with me to Australia is the friendships and memories I have gained during my stay in viêt Nam. I was really moved by the fact that I was treated like a family member and was invited to their homes as an honoured guest to show me their ‘Hanoi’ local experiences.

every insight and experiences reflecting the true meaning of Hoc Mãi- “forever learning” will reMãin a part of me throughout my whole career. I have to thank everyone involved in this scholarship including the staff from Hoc Mãi foundation, university of Sydney, the 2014 Hoc Mãi fellow scholars, and the amazing people that I have met in Hanoi for making my experience in Hanoi a life changing one.

chia ying

During decemBer i was PARt Of A gROuP Of StuDeNtS wHO wAS fORtuNAte eNOugH tO be SeleCteD tO PARtICIPAte IN tHe HOC MãI SCHOlARSHIP tO vIêt NAM. I wAS lOCAteD At tHe HANOI MeDICAl uNIveRSIty HOSPItAl wItHIN tHe Re-HAbIlItAtION DePARtMeNt fOR fOuR weekS, wHICH wAS A gReAt exPeRIeNCe.

the first week was very eye opening as I saw firsthand how the viêt Namese health system worked and how different the fa-cilities and processes are from the Austral-ian health system. the physiotherapy team I worked with were very welcoming as well as the viêt Namese medical students who were also placed at the hospital at the same time. My supervisors, Ms Huyen and Mr Deo were very knowledgeable and assisted me in my learning, organising time to allow me to see various aspects of their responsibility in the hospital and a wide variety of conditions that they treat.

My time in Hanoi Medical university Hospi-tal was a great educational experience, which I feel was invaluable as I transition into a

qualified health professional. It gave me the opportunity to learn outside my comfort zone, in another country with many new conditions and the added challenge of language barrier. One positive aspect of the Hoc Mãi scholar-ship was the multidisciplinary nature of the placement. I can know fully understand where I fit into a professional team and what various roles include.

the highlight for me was experiencing viêt Nam and its culture. being given the op-portunity to live in the country for some time

allowed me to explore places and events that

as a tourist I would not. the staff of the hos-pital and the viêt Namese students invited me around to various places where they enjoying eating and relaxing which allowed me to expe-rience the real and raw viêt Nam.

I will be forever grateful for this once in a lifetime opportunity provided by the Hoc Mãi foundation. Not only was it a great edu-cational experience it was also an invaluable life experience in which I will never forget.

Paul shapter

hAnoi medicAl univeRSity hoSpitAl

australianstudents

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Hoc Mai

Alex Feeney, Brian Lesmana, Zijun Gesydney medical school

I was lucky enough tO SPeND AN INvAluAble MONtH IN Hué tHANkS tO tHe HOC MãI fOuNDAtION. It wAS A MONtH tHAt bROADeNeD My MeDICAl kNOwleDge AND AlSO CReAteD MANy lASt-INg RelAtIONSHIPS wItH lOCAl DOCtORS AND MeDICAl StuDeNtS.

My initial two weeks were in the oncology department at the Hué university of Medi-cine and Pharmacy Hospital. Dr Dung, and his residents Dr thuy and Dr Huy showed great resourcefulness in the face of overwhelming patient numbers and limited access to some chemotherapies. A culture of learning was fostered among us, with the doctors regularly taking me on ward rounds in english, imparting their knowledge on a wide range of malignan-cies and allowing me to interview patients by acting as a translator. I was always very thank-ful for their time. In return, I attempted to as-sist with questions regarding medical english and pronunciation. Also, when we encountered rarer diseases such as ileal MAlt lymphoma and PNet, I would research them and make a one-hour presentation to the department.

My second two weeks were split between the internal medicine departments at the larger Hué Central Hospital and Hué university Hospi-tal. My time on the wards at these hospitals were spent collaborating with the many medi-cal students stationed on that ward. we dis-cussed the differences between the Australian

and viêt Namese educational and medical sys-tems and interviewed and examined patients together and exchanged hints and tips that we had picked up from our respective educations to date. I also spent an evening shift on the ward and was impressed to see the full class of over 40 students stay until 10pm to complete their assigned physical examination tasks.

brian lesmana and Jim ge, my fellow Sydney university Hoc Mãi students in Hué, partici-pated with me in several education sessions in an effort to give back to the university and community that was being so welcoming and helpful to us. we ran an open session on the Australian healthcare system at the university.

Many well-documented differences ex-ist between the Australian and viêt Namese medical systems and much of this is linked to availability of resources. However, I did wit-ness a very important similarity – the equal dedication, work ethic and desire to achieve the best outcome for patients exhibited by the doctors and nurses day in, day out on all the wards. It is this similarity which has left the greatest impression on me and it is this joint passion for excellence in patient care which will continue to drive the success of the Hoc Mãi foundation. thank you very much to eve-ryone involved in Hoc Mãi and I look forward to further participating in the great work and success of the foundation in the future.

Alex Feeney

As we (with alex AND bRIAN) weRe tHe fIRSt bAtCH Of Stu-DeNtS tO vISIt, we HAD lIttle IDeA Of wHAt tO exPeCt, eSPeCIAlly Of tHe weAtHeR. tHe 3 MONtHS Of DeCeMbeR tO febRuARy IS tHe RAINy SeASON IN Hue, A CIty SO fAMOuS fOR ItS MISty RAIN tHAt NuMeROuS POeMS HAve beeN wRItteN OveR tHe CeNtuRIeS. HOweveR, tHe lIttle SuRPRISe At tHe weAtHeR wAS QuICkly eRASeD by tHe fRIeNDlINeSS Of All tHe StuDeNtS AND MeDICAl StAff At tHe HOSPItAl. I wAS AttACHeD tO tHe eMeRgeNCy AND CARDIOlOgy DePARtMeNtS AND tHe DOC-tORS veRy QuICkly INCORPORAteD Me INtO tHeIR teAM AND HelPeD Me gAIN A gReAt AP-PReCIAtION fOR tHe DIffeReNCeS IN HeAltH-CARe betweeN vIêt NAM AND AuStRAlIA.

emergency medicine is a relatively new specialty in viêt Nam and many of the doctors practicing in the eD were surgeons and intern-ists. Minor accidents and complaints were common due to the lack of a well-developed primary care system and I was able to perform many minor procedures under supervision. Dr lai, the head of department, was especially encouraging and even invited me to come back to Hue after finishing medical school.

the experience was different to the chaotic and over-crowded ward in the Central Hospital and because of that each doctor had the time to teach me one on one. Dr Dung from the oncology depart-

ment was very friendly and gave me the oppor-tunity to give a presentation to the doctors and students, an experience I found very rewarding.

One thing that struck me was the difficul-ties the poor had in accessing care, and often extensive discussions with the family had to take place before an intervention as it may well cost them a few years’ worth of income. through conversations, I also understood some of the personal challenges faced by viêt Namese doctors – for example, even after graduation, residents do not get paid for their 3 year term of study and must rely on their family for support; research is difficult given the lack of proper training and equipment.

I feel that I and the other Hoc Mãi students in Hue really connected with the doctors and students we met and one of them actually plan to come visit us in Sydney in sometime this year. I hope our visit can be a springboard to future visits by more students from Australia and for us to also play hosts to these fantastic students and doctors from Hue.

I am extremely grateful to the Hoc Mãi foundation for this opportunity to visit viêt Nam and it has been an immensely posi-tive experience for me. I look forward to con-tributing to the program in whatever way I can in the future.

Zijun Ge

hue univeRSity foR medicine & phARmAcy hoSpitAl

australianstudents

21

Hoc Mai

I in decemBer 2014, I wAS fORtuNAte eNOugH tO HAve tHe OP-PORtuNIty tO be PARt Of tHe fIRSt gROuP Of tHRee StuDeNtS fROM tHe SyDNey MeDI-CAl PROgRAM tO be PlACeD IN Hue uNIveRSIty Of MeDICINe AND PHARMACy HOSPItAl IN tHe tRAuMA DePARtMeNt, wHICH COMPRISeD bOtH ORtHOPAeDIC AND PlAStIC SuRgeRy.

there was definitely no shortage of trauma in such a motorbike-centric city. Patients seemed to avoid hospital on particularly wet days! even scheduled surgeries would be can-celled because patients simply did not turn up on such days. It was most intriguing to see how the viêt Namese doctors were able to utilise atypical resources (often due to monetary rea-sons) to substitute instruments and materials that we would regularly use back in Australia to similar efficacy. It was also fascinating how the doctors were well versed and skilled in such diverse surgical techniques. unlike at home, doctors in viêt Nam are not entirely constrained by their speciality, and are often required to possess a skillset of a broader spectrum.

Moreover, I was not restricted to the trau-ma department. I was able to make strong con-nections throughout the hospital; notably, the oncology department took all three of us (Alex feeney and zijun ge) in and made us feel inte-grated. we were taken on essentially private ward rounds, part of diagnostic discussion, and were invited to assist in multiple surgeries. we were also able to go to the endocrinology/respiratory/neurology departments at Hue Central Hospital as well as the endocrinology department in Hue university Hospital. we were all warmly welcomed and were privileged enough to be exposed to a vast array of cases. the level of support in Hue exceeded my expec-tations.

Most importantly, however, I believe we were able to make strong connections not only at a professional level, but also at a more per-sonal level. everyone in Hue was so gracious, obliging and accommodating, and I hope that we can Mãintain these relationships through-out our medical careers. I would like to give special thanks to Dr Chi le van for organising our placements.

Brian Lesmana

T he hoc mãi Foundation Provided me with the AMAzINg OPPORtuNIty tO leARN AbOut NuRSINg IN HANOI, vIêt NAM. I SPeNt ONe

week At bACH MãI HOSPItAl IN tHe INteNSIve CARe uNIt (ICu) AND 3 weekS At tHe

NAtIONAl HOSPItAl Of PAeDIAtRICS IN tHe NeONAtAl INteNSIve CARe uNIt (NICu). AS

A NuRSINg StuDeNt, tHIS PlACeMeNt wAS PRObAbly ONe Of tHe MOSt CHAlleNgINg,

but AlSO ONe Of tHe beSt I HAve uNDeRtAkeN SO fAR.

with around 160 babies in the NICu, there were plenty of opportunities for me to

improve my skills. the doctors and nurses took the time to help me develop new skills

in caring for the newborns and educated me on their conditions. I was amazed at the

skill level of many of the nurses and the resources available to them. the high stand-

ard of care provided by the staff enabled a rich learning environment and improved my

competency as a nurse.

the language barrier was a major challenge at times, but it helped me to improve my

non-verbal communication skills, surprising myself at how much I could learn through

careful observation and interacting with staff with few words. In return, I was also able

to assist some of the doctors and nurses with their english medical terminology. they

emphasised the importance of them learning english, as the NICu is a relatively new

area of research in viêt Nam.

I was blown away by the incredible generosity and hospitality of my viêt Namese

colleagues. It was such a unique experience, enabling me to form a strong network with

my viêt Namese colleagues, and friendships that I will continue to cherish in years to

come. Overall, Hanoi provided an exciting and rich cultural experience. I believe it has

further prepared me for my future role as a Nurse in Australia and abroad.

Lenore Mãitlandsydney nursing school

nAtionAl hoSpitAl of pAediAtRicS

australianstudents

22 AnnuAl RepoRt 2014

Hoc Mai

I assisted woolcock HANOI IN ONe Of tHeIR ReSeARCH PROJeCtS. I ASSISteD tHe DAtA COlleCtION OffICeR wItH weekly RePORtS, DIStRICt RePORtS AND CHeCkINg DAtA SetS fOR eRRORS. I AlSO SuP-PORteD tHe PROJeCt MANAgeR tO exPReSS HeRSelf betteR IN wRItINg RePORtS IN eNg-lISH, AND bRAINStORMINg IDeAS tO eNHANCe tHe DAtA COlleCtION MetHODS, wHICH wAS tHROugH PHONe CAllS AND HOuSeHOlD vIS-ItS, AND PARtICIPAte IN weekly SkyPe Meet-INgS wItH CANADA-bASeD PROJeCt HeAD. I wAS AlSO Able tO wORk ON My OwN SMAll ReSeARCH PROJeCt, wHICH INCluDeD INteR-vIewINg tHe telePHONIStS, AND by PRObINg QueStIONS tO vARIOuS StAff MeMbeRS IN ORDeR tO IDeNtIfy MetHODS tO IMPROve tHeIR ReSeARCH. tHIS wIll be uSeful fOR tHeIR ACt2g StuDy AS A fOllOw-uP AND IMPROve tHe ACt2 StuDy ReSultS. eveRyONe wAS ReAlly HelPful AND SuPPORtIve Of Me beINg tHeRe.

During my time with them, I was able to attend a meeting between the Ministry of Health and international NgO’s on how they can enhance their relationship to improve ser-vices. I also visited a district tb clinic where Jonathan fryar and I interviewed the manager. As a nurse, it was great to see the more clinical side of tb management in viêt Nam.

living in viêt Nam was very interesting. I lived in a hotel, which was really convenient and my friend from work would take me every morning on her motorbike. I was with 2 other students so we did weekend trips to Sapa val-ley and Hoi An. we were able to meet up with 2 MIPH alumni who were very happy to show us around and have dinner with us. Although I have been to South-east Asia multiple times, I realised I was more focused on health ac-tivities during this trip. After learning so much throughout the year, this experience gave a better insight to primary and public health in a low-middle income country.

Lisa Redwood

As Part oF a maJor CAReeR AND lIfe CHANge fROM COMMuNIty PHARMACy, I CHOSe tO StuDy MIPH. tHe HOC MãI fIelD PlACeMeNt HAS beeN A vItAl Next SteP IN My DevelOPMeNt IN My New CAReeR. It HAS bROugHt Me PRACtICAl exPeRIeNCe IN tHe fIelD, SO tHIS HAS beeN A fANtAStIC OP-PORtuNIty fOR Me.

My area of interest is tuberculosis con-trol and the possible role of the local phar-macy sector can play in assisting in this public health issue. through the woolcock Institute for Medical Research, I was able to learn firsthand about the challenges of dealing with health system in a low-middle income country.

My first two weeks was based in the wool-cock Office in Ha Noi. I visited a tb Centre with lisa Redwood and what struck me was the very basic level of facility the health workers have at their disposal, even in the nation’s capital.

the next two weeks were in Ca Mau, in the far south of the Mekong Delta. I worked alongside the field staff of ACt3 research study being undertaken by woolcock, collect-ing sputum samples for active case detection. I visited remote communities with some vil-lages could only be reached by boat. this is where poverty in viêt Nam is most evident. No

running water or proper waste facilities, liv-ing in stilt huts made from mangrove wood and palm leaves above the tidal swamp.

whilst in viêt Nam I have also travelled and seen many parts of the country and experi-enced the culture. Cycling 350km for four days through the Mekong delta on rural roads through rice fields is an experience I will never forget. this allowed me to see a viêt Nam unseen by most westerners. the people were so friendly and welcoming. Some would ride next to me on their motorbikes and practice their english. Many would call out and wave, saying “hello” as I road through their village and invite me to stop and have a drink. Such beautiful people!

the opportunity given to me by Hoc Mãi, and the generosity of woolcock have helped me understand the challenges faced in this rapidly developing country and my potential future working in this beautiful country. I can-not thank these organisations and the people who assisted me in this experience enough. this has been a professionally enlightening and a personally enriching experience I will never forget.

Jonathan MaRcus FRyaR

australianstudents

Lisa Redwood & Jonathan Marcus Fryarmaster of international Public health

woolcock inStitute foR medicAl ReSeARch

2222

AnnuAl RepoRt 2014

Hoc Mai

23AnnuAl RepoRt 2014

I am Pleased to rePort on tHe Financial aFFairS oF tHe Foundation For

tHe year ended 31 deceMber 2014. tHe accounting

recordS oF tHe Foundation are Mãintained by tHe

univerSity oF Sydney, and itS accountS are drawn

up annually in accordance witH tHe univerSity’S ac-

counting policieS. tHe reSultS oF tHe Foundation For

tHe year are Set out in tHe incoMe StateMent wHile

tHe Financial poSition at 31 deceMber iS SuMMarized

treasurer’s rePort 2014ro s s g a v i n

t R e A S u R e R

in tHe balance SHeet, botH oF wHicH are included in

tHiS annual report.

tHe principal Source oF revenue in 2014 caMe FroM do-

nationS wHicH waS tHe Major Source oF Funding For

SHort-terM viSitS by viêt naMeSe HealtH proFeSSionalS

to auStralia, ScHolarSHipS For auStralian Medical and

nurSing StudentS to coMplete clinical placeMentS in

viêt naM, ScHolarSHipS For viêt naMeSe Medical and

nurSing StudentS to coMplete clinical placeMentS in

auStralia, clinical reSearcH projectS and workSHopS

in Ho cHi MinH city and Hanoi, and Funded a nuMber oF

SpeciFic purpoSe prograMS conSiStent witH tHe Foun-

dation’S objectiveS. additionally, a grant oF $214,000

received FroM tHe departMent oF Foreign aFFairS and

trade auStralia awardS FellowSHip prograM waS Suc-

ceSSFully obtained and Managed by tHe Foundation,

but doeS not appear in tHe accounting recordS For

tHe Foundation.

tHe Foundation Had a deFicit oF $64,000 in 2014;

However accuMulated FundS oF $333,000 will

Support itS activitieS in 2015, SuppleMented by tHe

revenue to be derived in tHe FortHcoMing year. we

continue to be grateFul For tHe generouS Support

oF our donorS wHo provide tHe Financial reSourceS

to allow tHe Foundation to operate.

24 AnnuAl RepoRt 2014

Hoc Mai

24

foundation governance statement

The hoc mãi australia viêt naM Medical Foundation recogniSeS tHe iM-

portance and beneFit oF reviewing itS adoption

and alignMent witH governance principleS and

provideS tHe Following report

PrinciPle 1: lay solid foundations for management and oversightnature oF the entity

the Hoc Mãi Australia Viêt Nam Medical Foundation is a part of the university of sydney AbN 15211513464 and not separately incorporated under a state or commonwealth Act. the Foundation is required to gain prior approval for its fundraising activities from the appropriate university delegate. the Foundation’s activities are not-for-profit and covered by the dgr status of the university of sydney. the university is exempted from the requirement to hold an Authority to Fundraise and obligations upon holders of such an authority but is still required to comply with the bal-ance of provisions of the charitable Fundraising Act.

roles of board/council and management

the Foundation operates under the authority of the senate of the university of sydney, as approved in 2000 and has no powers of delegation. the Founda-tion conducts its affairs pursuant to the Foundation rules and the relevant policies of the university. the Foundation had its annual fundraising plan approved and was able to meet its objectives.

PrinciPle 2: structure of the council to add valuePatron: her excellency, Professor the hon. dame ma-rie Bashir ad cvothe council of the Foundation in 2014 consisted of the following members:

mr alfred attard Qualifications and experience: director, Jetz Homes & developments pty ltdcurrent term of Appointment: ongoing from 2006special responsibilities: council MemberNumber of meetings attended 4; eligible to attend 4

ms audrey BlundenQualifications and experience: lecturer and interna-tional Advisor, Faculty of law, uNswcurrent term of Appointment: ongoing from 2009 special responsibilities: council MemberNumber of meetings attended 4; eligible to attend 4

dr thomas diepQualifications and experience: general practitionercurrent term of Appointment: since 2013special responsibilities: council MemberNumber of meetings attended 3; eligible to attend 4

rear admiral ken doolan ao ran (rtd)Qualifications and experience: National president, the returned and services league of Australiacurrent term of Appointment: ongoing from 2010special responsibilities: council MemberNumber of meetings attended 1; eligible to attend 4

Professor elizabeth elliott amQualifications and experience: professor of paedi-atrics and child Health, university of sydney and

consultant paediatrician, the children’s Hospital at westmeadcurrent term of Appointment: since 2009special responsibilities: council MemberNumber of meetings attended 3; eligible to attend 4

mr ross gavinQualifications and experience: partner, pricewater-housecoopers, sydney (rtd)current term of Appointment: ongoing from 2005special responsibilities: treasurerNumber of meetings attended 3; eligible to attend 4

emeritus Professor kerry goulston aoQualifications and experience: gastroenterologist; Former Associate dean, Northern clinical school, university of sydneycurrent term of Appointment: since 2001special responsibilities: deputy chair Number of meetings attended 4; eligible to attend 4

the hon mr craig knowlesQualifications and experience: Former senior Minis-ter of Nsw parliament current term of Appointment: since 2004special responsibilities: council MemberNumber of meetings attended 2; eligible to attend 4

dr Ji liQualifications and experience: Medical intern. current term of Appointment: since 2013special responsibilities: council MemberNumber of meetings attended 4; eligible to attend 4

mr michael mann amQualifications and experience: Managing director (Asia-pacific) - laureate education Asia inc; the Former Australian Ambassador to Viêt Nam; the Founding president of royal Melbourne institute of technology’s university in Viêt Namcurrent term of Appointment: since 2001special responsibilities: council MemberNumber of meetings attended 2; eligible to attend 4 (resides in thailand since 2010)

the hon mrs Jeannette mchughQualifications and experience: Former Member - Fed-eral parliamentcurrent term of Appointment: since 2003special responsibilities: council MemberNumber of meetings attended 2; eligible to attend 4

Professor Jonathan morrisQualifications and experience: director, kolling in-stitute of Medical research, university of sydney; professor of obstetrics and gynaecology, university of sydney current term of Appointment: since 2005special responsibilities: council Member; university officer (Foundations)Number of meetings attended 2; eligible to attend 4

mr tom moultQualifications and experience: Has worked in advertising and marketing for 35 years; director, walker Moult pty ltd. outside of work; has been involved with various industry organi-sations; a board director of Foodbank Australia and the bell shakespeare company; currently a governor of Frensham school.current term of Appointment: since 2001 special responsibilities: council MemberNumber of meetings attended 3; eligible to attend 4

Professor Bruce robinsonQualifications and experience: dean, sydney Medical school, university of sydneycurrent term of Appointment: since 2001 special responsibilities: chairperson; ex officioNumber of meetings attended 4; eligible to attend 4the management committee of the Founda-tion in 2014 consisted of the following mem-bers:Mr Jason dibbsMr ross gavinMr esmond esguerraprofessor Jonathan Morrisprofessor bruce robinsonMs danielle somers

honorary:ambassdor mr. hoang vinh thanhQualifications and experience: Ambassador – social-ist republic of Viêt Namspecial responsibilities: Honorary Member

consul general mr mãi Phuoc dungQualifications and experience: consul general - so-cialist republic of Viêt Nam, sydneyspecial responsibilities: Honorary Membercouncil members were elected and co-opted at the Foundation’s AgM on 6 March 2012. there is not a separate nomination committee of council. the full council resolves on nominations for co-opting of members to fill vacancies outside of the process of election at the AgM. there was not a performance evaluation of the council undertaken in the report-ing period.

PrinciPle 3: Promote ethical and re-sponsible decision-making council members have been provided with the uni-versity of sydney Foundation governance guide, Foundation rules, code of conduct, external interests policy and the occupational Health & safety policy. the code of conduct, external interests policy and the occupational Health & safety policy are also available on the university’s public website as are other relevant university policies regarding gift acceptance, harassment, grievance procedures and other related policies.

PrinciPle 4: safeguard integrity in fi-nancial reportingthe annual accounts of the Foundation are prepared by the financial staff of the university, signed off by Finance director, Faculties of Health, university of sydney and included in this Annual report to the senate. the Foundation is part of the university and therefore does not have its own audit sub-commit-tee. the university is audited by the Audit office of Nsw.

the Foundation undertook the following fundraising appeals1 during 2014: tax Appeal and spring Appeal.

And in conducting those appeals the Foundation took all reasonable steps to ensure that commissions paid or payable to any person as part of a fundraising ap-peal did not exceed one-third of the gross money obtained by that person in the appeal2 and appropri-ate particulars of all items of gross income received or receivable, all items of expenditure incurred, in-cluding the application or disposition of any income

obtained from the appeal and particulars of those transactions to which they related were recorded in the minutes of the Foundation.3

PrinciPle 5: make timely and balanced disclosurethe Foundation complied with the reporting and dis-closure requirements of the senate. these include an annual budget and this Annual report

Members and council have been made aware of the processes for disclosure pursuant to the code of conduct, external interests policy, which include pro-tected disclosure to the icAc, the ombudsman or the Auditor general.

PrinciPle 6: respect the rights of shareholders, members, staff, volun-teers, clients, & other stakeholdersthe Foundation council and/or membership consists of members of the community, industry bodies and the university whose input is invited via the Annual general Meeting and council meetings of the Founda-tion. the following forums/mechanisms have been held during the year to involve stakeholders in elec-tion of the council, activities of the foundation or other stakeholder participation: 4 Foundation council meetings.

under the charitable Fundraising Act, the university may be questioned about any appeal on details of the purpose of the appeal such as the appeal target, objectives, distribution of proceeds, and the process to provide answers. during the year the Foundation published information [on its website/ other means] and outlines those activities in this annual report. specific requests for information responded to by the Foundation office have included the together for Health: overview of Australia’s involvement within viêt Nam’s healthcare sector report. other enquiries may have been made to other parts of the university.

PrinciPle 7: recognise and manage riskthe Foundation recognises its activities within university premises or other premises require risks such as health and safety, environmental protec-tion, privacy, trade practices, and compliance with the charitable Fundraising Act to be considered and managed. the Foundation has managed these risks during the year.

PrinciPle 8: remunerate fairly and re-sponsiblyNo member of a council is entitled to receive any remuneration for acting in that capacity except reasonable remuneration on a basis which has first been approved in writing by the university officer (Foundations)

Members of the Foundation council may be reim-bursed for reasonable expenses after written approv-al of the university officer (Foundations). Any such instances are recorded in the minutes of the council.

1 see s5 charitable Fundraising Act 1991 (Nsw)

2 reg 9(6) charitable Fundraising regulation 2008

3 see s22(2)(b) charitable Fundraising Act 1991 (Nsw)

AnnuAl RepoRt 2014

Hoc Mai

25AnnuAl RepoRt 2014

donors

$10,000 & Above

audrey Blunden

g & P nock Foundation Pty ltd

liangrove grouP Pty ltd

christoPher Pokorny

transix Pty ltd

$1,000–$9,999

the returned & services league oF australia limited

owen dent

kerry goulston

elizaBeth hawker

tessa ho

raymond martin

nigel stoke

anonymous

$1–$999ian dawsonisaBel smit

zacharia turneranonymous

sara alamyarchristoPher BamBach

roByn Brownadrian Butler

aaron carBurysilvania carvalho

anita chaoswee chia

Bruce childsmarian chinnock

soo chungirene cigna

craig cooreychristine crealy

louise doBsonkenneth doolan

Fiona duonghelen Fonggillian Foxross gavin

helena gawlinkskamarianna glamcosrhondda glassongarlina glushkov

tamika gowardgillian gutte

laynie hall PullinPhiliPPa hall

Bradley hazzardeileen henderson

daniel hengian hill

david hirschrodney hughes

allan Jameshelen Johnsonswetha kumar

richard leewilliam lee

liangheng limargaret love

melvyn macarthurPolina madorsky

michael mannreBecca mann

marton marosszekygordana martinovich

craig mcgillJeannette mchugh

elia moonJamie morris

noreen murraychristina nguyen

laura nguyenmichael nguyenPhoeBe nguyenQuan nguyen

diana o’connorkim oates

dharmita Padhivictoria Pan

marie Parmentercatherine PhamJacQueline Pham

calum PoPeelizaBeth PowellBruce roBinsonnora schreiBerleslie schrieBer

lynne segalshyama singh

glenn stePhensJonathan stretch

michelle swiFtlaila tananaangela tang

holly thomsonvivien tongvivian tran

Peter van asPerensarah van BronswiJk

meredith vergeFlorence wala

kate walshPiyanuch wheelercraig whiteman

thomas whitFordJoanne williamsreBecca williams

amy wuanthony yacouB

reBecca yannatasha yee

han zhao

Hoc Mai

australia–viet nam medical

foundation

Who we areHoc Mãi, tHe AustrAliA Viêt NAM Medi-

cAl FouNdAtioN, is A NoN-proFit orgANi-

sAtioN wHicH wAs estAblisHed iN 2001

to iMproVe MedicAl educAtioN iN Viêt

NAM. it is A FouNdAtioN oF tHe uNiVersi-

ty oF sydNey tHAt briNgs togetHer tHe

collectiVe HeAltH cAre kNowledge ANd

experieNce oF AustrAliA ANd Viêt NAM

iN AN educAtioNAl pArtNersHip. tHe Hoc

Mãi FouNdAtioN HAs A distiNguisHed pA-

troN, proFessor tHe HoNourAble dAMe

MArie bAsHir, Ad. cVo.

O ur missionwe AiM to Foster HeAltHcAre educAtioN

to iMproVe HeAltH outcoMes For tHe 85

MillioN people liViNg iN Viêt NAM by:

• Supportingabilateralexchangeofstudents and health professionals be-tweenAustraliaandViêtNam

• Assistingtodevelopanunderstand-ingofthemethodsofteachingdoctorsandnurses inViêtNamby ‘Train theTrainer’ programs and the SCORPIOtechnique

• Facilitating the development ofknowledgeoftheViêtNamesedoctors,nurses and other healthcare workerstoimprovehealthcaredeliverytotheirpeople

• Developing a strong network ofAustralian medical, nursing, technicalandalliedhealthstaffwhowillprovideon-going assistance and training ofViêtNamesecolleagues

• Providing practical assistance withpreventive, diagnostic and manage-mentproblemsinhospitalsinViêtNam

• Increasing medical research skillsinViêtNamwith theaimofusingre-

searchtoimprovecare

What we dowe FAcilitAte:

• Education and ‘Train-the-Trainer’programs in Viêt Namese hospitalsanduniversities

• Support for medical research andtraininginViêtNam

• Delegations travelling to ViêtNamto teach clinical skills and knowledgewithinvariousspecialitiesinanumberofhospitalsinViêtNam

• Young health professionals fromViêtNamtocometoAustraliaforad-vancedtraining

• Medical,nursing,andalliedhealthstudents from Universities of Sydney,MelbourneandTasmaniatoundertakeclinicalplacementsinViêtNam

• Viêt Namese medical students tobroaden their hospital experience inAustralia

• Students in theMasters of Interna-tionalPublicHealthfromtheUniversityofSydney toundertake theirpraxis in

ViêtNam

How we workHoc Mãi relies oN tHe goodwill oF Aus-

trAliAN HeAltHcAre proFessioNAls to

Host ANd trAiN tHeir Viêt NAMese col-

leAgues. we Act As FAcilitAtors For

Viêt NAMese ANd AustrAliAN MedicAl

persoNNel to gAiN experieNce ANd uN-

derstANdiNg oF issues iN tHe deVelopiNg

world ANd to proVide esseNtiAl Medi-

cAl, NursiNg ANd Allied HeAltH support

to our NeArby NeigHbor. we rely oN

grANts ANd doNAtioNs to support ANd

grow our progrAM.

hoc mãi PhilosoPhy

TheHoc Mãi Foundation

annual rePort2 0 1 4