The Hellenic Medical Society of Australia (HMSA) recently celebrated the end of another successful year over dinner and a trivia night. HMSA has focussed on community activities involving strengthening ties between doctors, the community and Australian and Greek healthcare systems. The event saw 100 Hellenic doctors and their partners come together over a wonderful dinner and test their medical and Greek general knowledge through trivia. HMSA President Professor Marinis Pirpiris opened the night and highlighted HMSA achievements to date and goals for the coming year. Merriment followed with networking, whilst sharing collective knowledge and a show of healthy competitiveness between teams.
The HMSA aims to unite doctors with the wider community and indeed this past year can attest to that. There have been multiple internal and public education lectures. Children’s health and paediatric first aid were the flavours of the March public lectures, led by Dr Betty Messazos-Trapetsas (HMSA Board) and co-presented with Dr Chris Pappas, and Dr Maria Raftopoulos. In April a joint lecture on urological diseases and chronic kidney disease was organised by Mr George Koufogiannis (HMSA board), who also presented in unison with Mr Peter Liodakis and Professor John Katsoulis. Associate Professor Arthur Nasis (HMSA Treasurer), enriched a Delphi Bank function later in October with an informative discussion on predicting, preventing and managing cardiovascular disease.
Multiple professional presentations also took place after the joint presentation by Dr Nick Antoniades on Thunderstorm Asthma and Dr Spiros Fourlanos (HMSA Board) with updates on Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus. April saw the gathering of the HMSA at the Hellenic Museum for an informative talk on cutting edge renal and pancreatic transplantation medicine by Professor John Kanellis, in combination with a presentation by Professor Vicki Kotsirilos on various Hippocratic treatments of antiquity and those persisting today. In August, Professor John Dixon and Mr George Kalogeropoulos presented at a medical dinner on the latest trends in medical and surgical bariatric management. Throughout the year HMSA has also seen an increase in the number of Doctors in Training and medical students who have joined.
As always, the HMSA is forever grateful to its major sponsors for making so many of these events possible. The trivia night would not have happened without the kind support of Boston Scientific and 4Cyte Pathology, Australia’s newest privately owned, independent bulk-billing pathology company. In addition to the trivia night, HMSA is grateful for the continued strong support by Delphi Bank that has enabled many of their events to proceed throughout the year. They are also grateful to Zaparas Lawyers, iNova Pharmaceuticals, AstraZeneca and the Greek Community of Melbourne for their support in 2018.
The coming year promises to continue building on the foundations already laid by the HMSA, with the inception of a medical student scholarship for students planning to undertake a clinical placement overseas, in Greece or Cyprus. HMSA is also working to establish a mentoring program, in addition to various online Greek language resources to facilitate the care of Greek speaking patients in Australia. Furthermore, an online directory of doctors with links to the Australian Greek community is also currently under construction. Next year will see an increase in public lectures and research involvement. HMSA is also seeking to increase its philanthropic works further by launching a formal means by which medical supplies and resources can be sent to areas of need, including Greece.
The HMSA board and its members thank all those who have participated in the various events throughout the year and wish you all a very merry Christmas and a healthy, happy and prosperous new year.
Medical practitioners (doctors, including medical students) seeking to join the HMSA should access the website for information on membership. The public can also visit the site for further information. See hmsa.org.au