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Hanging on the telephone A staunch advocate for improved Aboriginal health, Professor David Atkinson has spent much of his career in regional Western Australia. He tells Ara Jansen he wants to ensure the bush has well-trained, quality doctors.
David Atkinson never really made career plans. Turns out, he relied largely on the telephone because when it rang there was always an interesting offer on the other end. He thinks about it quite a bit – how did he end up in medicine? From David’s recollection it was a case of what seemed interesting, other students were planning to study medicine and it would get him a job. It was the 1970s and there was a family expectation that David would go to university. Hailing from ‘the other side of town’ and a not terribly affluent family, he suggests his expensive school probably helped open the doors. “Medicine interested me because of the complexity of what I learnt,” he said. “I have seriously eclectic interests when I can indulge them. I think mostly I enjoyed the clinical exposure. My parents died when I was in my second and third year. I met Sue, who became my wife, in fourth year and we took a year off, saved money and went overseas.” Sue and David have been married for 42 years and she recently retired from her career as a social worker. David is known for his decades-long work in Aboriginal health, particularly in training medical students and young doctors as well as doing research in areas of maternal and child health, chronic disease and aged care. He’s a staunch advocate for practical outcomes to improve the effectiveness of health services for Aboriginal people. When he was doing his internship at Fremantle Hospital, his sister was 8 | AUGUST 2020
MEDICAL FORUM | CHILD HEALTH ISSUE
