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M A Izard CV Aug 2011
DR. MICHAEL ANTHONY IZARD
ADM, MB BS, MMedHum, FRANZCR
Clinical Senior Lecturer
Sydney Medical School
and
Australian School of Advanced Medicine
Macquarie University Hospital
Curriculum Vitae
Personal Details:
Full name: Michael Anthony Izard
Qualifications: M.B., B.S. (University of London) awarded December 1983.
D.R.A.C.R. awarded September 1992.
F.R.A.N.Z.C.R. received March 1993.
M.Med.Hum (University of Sydney) awarded June 2007
Academic Positions: Clinical Associate Lecturer, Department of Medicine, NCS, University of Sydney accepted 1998
Clinical Lecturer, Department of Medicine, NCS, University of Sydney accepted March 2002
Clinical Senior Lecturer, Department of Medicine, NCS, University of Sydney accepted May 2008
Clinical Senior Lecturer, Macquarie University Hospital accepted June 2010
Honours: Australian Defence Medal awarded 2009 for service with the Australian Army.
General Interests:
At University: Member of the "Manic Depressives" Thespians.
Rugby at IInd and IIIrd XV level for the MHRUFC.
As House Officer: Mess Secretary, at both The Middlesex Hospital, and at The Gloucestershire Royal Hospital.
As Registrar: Medical Advisory Committee of the CPAS to Jean Colvin
Hospital 1989-1993. Member of the committee of the RMO
Association of St Vincent's Hospital 1989-90.
Currently: Major in the Australian Army Reserve (retd); my last position was OC Med Coy, 8 BASB. ADM awarded April 2009
Reading different translations of Dante’s Commedia
Raising two children.
MEDICAL EXPERIENCE:
Feb 1984-July 1984 Surgical House Job, The Middlesex, London, U.K.
Aug 1984-Jan 1985 Medical House Job, Royal Gloucestershire Hospital, Gloucester, U.K.
Mar 1985-Jan 1986 Second Year RMO, Shepparton, Victoria, Australia
Jan 1986-Jan 1987 Third Year RMO, Albury, NSW
Jan 1987-Jan 1990 Registrar, St Vincent's, Sydney NSW
Jan 1990-Jan 1993 Registrar, Westmead, Sydney, NSW
Jan 1993-May 1993 Assistant, S.R.O.C., Sydney, NSW
July 1993- July 1994 Fellow, Princess Margaret Hospital, Toronto, Ontario,
Canada
July 1994 - July 1996 Associate with S.R.O.C., Sydney, NSW
July 1996-Jan 1999 Partner with S.R.O.C., Sydney, NSW
Jan 1999 – Mar 2000 Partner with R.O.S., Sydney, NSW
Mar 2000 –Sep 2002 Partner with R.O.A., Sydney NSW
Sep 2002 – current date Consultant with R.O.A., Member Company of Genesis Care
Academic Positions:
Tutor and Examiner for The School of MRT, University of Sydney from 1995-1998
Clinical Associate Lecturer, Department of Medicine, Northern Clinical School, University of Sydney, accepted 1998
Clinical Lecturer, Department of Medicine, Northern Clinical School, University of Sydney accepted March 2002
Clinical Senior Lecturer, Department of Medicine, Northern Clinical School, University of Sydney accepted May 2008
Clinical Senior Lecturer, Macquarie University Hospital, accepted June 2010
Activities:
Clinical
I have a busy clinical practice based in the Radiotherapy Department at The Mater Hospital, and am have been invited to head the Gamma Knife team within the Radiotherapy Department at Macquarie University Hospital. I hold accreditation to practice at The Mater, Macquarie University Hospital and St Vincent’s Private Hospital and as well The Armidale and New England Hospital. I am one of three full-time radiation oncology consultants at the Mater site, currently one of two at Macquarie. My work has been predominately with both prostate and breast patients, but with the inception of Australia’s first Gamma Knife, I will be taking on neuro-oncology as well. I am interested in all forms of solid tumours as my country clinics provide a full range of malignancies. I am involved in the full range of patient care, from prior to diagnosis right through to palliative and terminal care. I am actively involved with the Multidisciplinary Team Meetings for these sites. I have always been proactive in these, and was a founder member of such meetings at the Sydney Adventist Hospital before leaving, as well as current meetings at The Mater and within the RNSH campus. I have attended other MDTs including the Lung, Colo-Rectal, Upper GI and Hepato-Biliary clinics although currently am a regular attendee at the breast, GU, palliative and GK MDTs.
I am experienced in all forms of Radiotherapy treatment having attended several Overseas courses on different techniques, such as Gamma Knife (University of Pittsburgh) IMRT planning (Amsterdam) and Brachytherapy (Kiel and Seattle). I am a believer in Continuing Medical Education, and have been involved with the RANZCR’s Faculty of Radiation Oncology CME program since its inception. My practice involves a significant load of prostate brachytherapy, both LDR (Permanent) and HDR (Temporary) implantations. I have recently started APBI (accelerated partial breast irradiation), which is brachytherapy implantation for breast cancer with significant time savings for some patients. I have some of the most experience across Australia, having been involved with prostate brachytherapy almost since it was first (re-)introduced in Australia, and have shown my results at National and International Radiotherapy meetings as well as published my results. I designed and was heavily involved in the building of the Brachytherapy Unit at The Mater, which was the first dedicated Brachytherapy unit in Australia. This has been recognized by the general radiotherapy community, and where other NSW radiotherapy centres do not have brachytherapy facilities, I am happy to provide assistance and return the patients after their treatment.
Macquarie University Hospital was officially opened in July 2010, and the Radiotherapy Department opened in August. It contains Australia’s first Perfexion Leksell Gamma Knife, and I am now trained in prescribing and delivering treatment with this unit. It is active, and performing above expected workloads at present. The Radiotherapy Dept also has one of Australia’s first VMAT rotational treatment delivery processes which in conjunction with the Mater’s RapidArc rotational delivery gives us the ability to treat accurately and minimize morbidity. This is ‘state-of-the-art’ equipment for 2010 and functioning very well in regular clinical usage.
I have been involved with Country Clinics, traveling to Armidale since I started it 1995 and I also took on a clinic in Tamworth in 2000, recently having to stop them due to workload with Macquarie University Hospital. By their very nature there is a broad spectrum of malignancy seen at such Clinics, and as a result of my starting the Armidale Clinic, there is now a regular Medical Oncology Service there too, run from the RNSH.
Service to the Profession and the Community
I am actively involved in both the Medical and General Community. I spent 6 years with the Australian Army Reserve holding commission as a Major in the Medical Corps and was awarded the ADM as a result. I have now been discharged from this duty, but was heavily involved and attended several courses, including the Early Management of Surgical Trauma (EMST) to improve my medical skills with them. My last post was as Officer Commanding Medical Company 8 BASB in Dundas.
I have sat on several different committees over the years. The earliest was the Jean Colvin Medical Advisory Committee which I have been on since 1989. I was Deputy Chairman of the Mater Hospital Cancer Department since its inception in 1996, resigning in 2002 when it was up and running actively. In September 2002, I was appointed Director of the Mater Radiotherapy site along with my clinical duties from that date to July 2003 when I handed that position across to my colleagues.
In March 2001, I was co-opted to the Executive Committee of the Australasian Society for Breast Disease as representative Radiation Oncologist, and was one of the conveners for the September 2003 meeting, which was held on the Gold Coast. I am still involved with the ASBD and chaired a session at the 2006 meeting in Port Douglas.
In 2002, I received a Ministerial appointment from the Minister of Veterans Affairs to the Specialist Medical Review Council of the Department of Veterans Affairs, and have been involved in reviewing radiation-related conditions for them; the latest being a review of malignant neoplasms of the brain due to start in 2011.
In 2005 I was invited onto the NSW Board of Prostate Cancer Foundation of Australia (PCFA) as one of their Medical Advisors. I have written articles and been involved with patient information material on DVDs and on television with them. As an invited speaker I have given talks to the general community on prostate cancer at the Northern Beaches, Nepean, Wahroonga and Castle Hill area as well as a Sydney wide “Well Man” symposium in Darling Harbour and another in Newcastle.
From June 2000 to June 2006 the Minister of the Environment appointed me as representative of the RANZCR Faculty of Radiation Oncology to the Radiation Advisory Committee of the NSW Environment Protection Authority. This Committee met on a monthly basis to advise the Minister on matters relating to the use of radiation in the community, in industry and in medicine. It also advises on the appropriate licensing of professionals who wish to use some form of radiation in their daily work.
In 2009 I was proposed by the Sydney University and accepted by the DVA in 2010 as the Sydney University Academic sitting member for the DVA’s NSW LMOAC, a two year position for the DVA to enhance its position with both General Practitioners and the Universities.
I have fulfilled other roles for the College, including External Reviewer of NSW Radiotherapy Departments, and have been invited as a College Representative for Hospital Staff Specialist Interview Panels.
In 2004-5 I was invited to assist The NSW Department of Health (with other NSW Radiation Oncologists) in a process to write a protocol for the writing of radiation treatment prescriptions, the result of which has now been formalized and circulated into the general radiation community as ‘best practice’.
I was invited to a Committee organised by ARPANSA to rewrite the Code of Practice of Radiation Oncology, which was published in December 2008.
I am regularly asked to review radiation-related material for publication. Journals include the International Journal of Radiation Oncology, Biology and Physics and ANZ Journal of Surgery and a textbook for Australasian Radiology.
I have chaired sessions at both the College scientific ASM and also at meetings for the Australasian Society of Breast Diseases and the Australasian Brachytherapy Group. I have been asked to give presentations to the Australian Breast Care Nurses ASM and to general practitioners on subjects such as prostate cancer, palliative care and the role of the Gamma Knife. I have also given invited talks on the Gamma Knife at the recent International Melanoma ASM.
Research
Because of my heavy clinical load, currently I do not have any allotted time for research. Prior to taking up my clinical practice, I spent a year as a Research Fellow at The Princess Margaret Hospital in Toronto, Canada, and did research on radiation Sensitivity of Leydig cells as well as studies on nasopharyngeal carcinoma. I was also fortunate to do some work on apoptosis and the Bcl2 gene but unfortunately this was not enough to warrant publication prior to my return to Sydney.
Recognizing that the current techniques of brachytherapy on prostate cancer are relatively new, I have closely monitored my results with brachytherapy, and have published the results of my findings, as well as shown them at multiple local and national meetings. Prostate brachytherapy is now regarded in Australia as an appropriate and standard method of treatment. I am still monitoring our database with a view to further publications, which is close to publication.
I have been involved with breast cancer trials at The Mater, as well as allowing the NSW Cancer Council access to my patients for their studies of the management and follow-up of prostate, colo-rectal and breast cancer patients. Studies from the Pam MacLean Centre calling for volunteers have also been met positively, and their results have provided interesting feedback on behavioural patterns.
Teaching
From 1995-1998 I was a lecturer and member of the External Advisory Committee for the undergraduate degree program at the School of Medical Radiation Technology, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Sydney. This involved lecturing and the creation and marking of exams for their second year students. This changed when their teaching program was altered to be managed internally from within the campus.
From 1995 – 2002, I attended the NSW branch of the RANZCR Faculty of Radiation Oncology Education Coordination Committee meetings and have been involved with accreditation of the teaching program of different Radiotherapy Departments in NSW. This is an initiative of the NSW FRO ECC.
We have had requests from other Radiotherapy Centres in Australia to visit the Brachytherapy Unit, and have shown several other medical practitioners, radiation oncology physicists and radiation therapists how to carry out such practice. Recently we have had a Clinical Research Fellow join us from Ireland to improve her brachytherapy and Gamma Knife skills.
Teaching has been in the form of lectures to the whole year in the Oncology Block, done within the RNSH Campus as well as smaller group tutorials and individual tuition for other Blocks (such as the Colo-Rectal Block) carried out at The Mater although on a yearly basis the quantity of each of the different aspects can vary. I have been an invited lecturer with the University of New England. Medical students from both the colo-rectal term and the oncology term attend the radiotherapy department and I endeavour to teach a general overview of what is involved in the management of malignancy from a radiotherpeutic viewpoint.
I have done tutorials on radiotherapy in general and brachytherapy in particular for the Nursing Service. In the past this was done in Glebe, but currently it is done as ‘in-service’ education meetings within the Hospital.
I consider teaching an important part of my work and have been involved with the FRO education program for Radiation Oncology Registrars. This entailed both the organisation of teaching days when all the Registrars from NSW gather at a particular site once a month for a program on a particular topic as well as mock examination practice for those Registrars about to sit their final examinations.
I have been involved with supervising students’ projects, both undergraduate and postgraduate. A recent example was a resident who as a result of his Master’s project was able to get onto the surgery training program.
Service to the University
Apart from the teaching mentioned above to Radiation Therapists, Nurses and Medical Students, Residents and Registrars, from 2002 to 2006 I undertook course-work at the University of Sydney, resulting in the award of a Masters in Medical Humanities in June 2007. Semester topics included Death and Dying, Professional Ethics, Business Communication, Course Design, Semiotics, Military Medicine and Creative Writing. Since then, I have been asked to assess an Honours Thesis for medical students. I was also involved with the recent review of the Medical Curriculum, and was invited into the opening working party for Medical Humanities.