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OLA Urologists
Monday, 21 June 2021
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When Dr Caroline Hunt-Smith (Dowling, 1988), pictured centre, started her surgical training to be a urologist in 1999, she was the 12th female to train in the program in Australia and New Zealand. At the same time, Dr Sandra Elmer (Hallamore, 1999), pictured left, was just leaving school! Sandra completed a year of formal training to gain more expertise in the area of Urology, and became Caroline's fellow in 2016. Together they now share an operating list and collaborate regularly. Sandra has developed amazing skills in robotic surgery with great benefits to patient care. It has been wonderful to see the number of females, in Urology at specialist and training level, grow over the years. Now around 30% of trainees are female. Females make up more than 50% of medical graduates and are overrepresented in the high achievers at the end of medical school, which is phenomenal. It makes sense then that the best and brightest is needed to train in surgery. Caroline is a big advocate of "you can’t be what you can’t see" and has mentored many young female doctors and encourages them to think about a surgical career. Caroline is really though, most excited, that Lauriston is on its way to producing its third Urologist. Dr Sophie Tissot (Riddell, 2006), pictured right, is completing her training and Caroline is hoping she might do a year of training with her in the Urology Department at Eastern Health where Caroline is Director of Urology. Interestingly, Caroline first met Sophie when she took her daughter Penny to a Lauriston careers night in 2019 where Sophie was one of the keynote speakers. Lauriston has a proud history of strength in STEM, and this photo is a great reflection of this! |