Doctor fiona wood biography sample

Professor Fiona Wood, AM, FRCS, FRACS (2 February 1958 - )
PLASTIC & RECONSTRUCTIVE SURGEON (contributed in part by Ella Barry, Teacher, ACT)

Fiona Wood is one of Australia’s most highly respected plastic and reconstructive surgeons. Fiona is renowned for her innovation and advanced skill set, making her a world leading burns specialist. Fiona established early on in her career she wanted become more than just a doctor, Fiona desired to combine research, invention and surgery into her medical practice.

Professor Fiona Wood AM is an Australian National Living Treasure.

“I don’t think any of us should get up in the morning and be average. I don’t think my patients would be happy if I got up in the morning and believed average was good enough.
I think we need to put ourselves in a position with support around us, such we get up in the morning and we do the best that we can. Day in, day out.”
YouTube: Fiona Wood Foundation - Changing Lives
https://youtu.be/1IhCA-988nQ

Introduction

Fiona Wood was born in a Yorkshire coal mining village. Her parents and the Quaker Ackworth School, inspired her to work hard and serve the community. By 1975 she was studying in St Thomas’ Hospital Medical School, London and challenging the long tradition of restricted entry of women to medical schools and the field of surgery.

She married Western Australian-born surgeon Tony Kierath and migrated to Perth in 1987. They have four sons and two daughters.

Fiona with her children celebrating being named Australian of the Year 2005
(clockwise from left, Joe, Dan, Tom, Jess, Jack, and Evie)

Fiona Wood has been a burns surgeon and researcher for over 30 years and is Director of the Burns Service of Western Australia (BSWA). She is a Consultant Plastic Surgeon at Fiona Stanley Hospital and Perth Children's Hospital; co-founder of the first skin cell laboratory in WA; Winthrop Professor in the School of Surgery at The

Plastic surgeon

Contents

Introduction

Dr Fiona Wood was interviewed in 2008 for the Interviews with Australian scientists series. By viewing the interviews in this series, or reading the transcripts and extracts, your students can begin to appreciate Australia's contribution to the growth of scientific knowledge.

The following summary of Wood's career sets the context for the extract chosen for these teachers’ notes. The extract discusses her search for a new ‘gold standard’ in the healing of skin after a burn. Use the focus questions that accompany the extract to promote discussion among your students.

Summary of career

Fiona Wood was born in Yorkshire, England, in 1958. She studied at St Thomas’ Hospital Medical School in London and received a BSc in 1978 and an MB BS in 1981. During her studies she became interested in surgery, particularly plastic and reconstructive surgery. She worked as a senior house officer and registrar in various surgery disciplines in hospitals in London and Sheffield and became a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons (London and Edinburgh) in 1985.

In 1987 Wood moved to Perth. She continued her medical training in surgery and plastic surgery at hospitals including the Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital, the Princess Margaret Hospital for Children, the Repatriation Hospital and Royal Perth Hospital. She became a Fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons in Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery in 1990.

Wood became a consultant plastic surgeon in 1991 and her interests focused on burns care and reconstruction. Also in 1991 she became the director of the Burn Service of Western Australia. In 1992, after treating a patient with burns to 90 per cent of his body using an emerging US-invented technology of cultured skin, Wood was inspired to research how to help heal burns more quickly as a means to reduce scarring. She and scientist Marie Stoner began exploring tissue engineering, star

Plastic surgeon

Fiona Wood was born in a Yorkshire mining village in England in 1958. In 1978 she was one of twelve women admitted to the St Thomas’ Hospital Medical School, London where she graduated with her M.B., B.S in 1981. Wood completed her internship and residency at several hospitals in London before immigrating to Australia in 1987. She then took up a registrar position in plastic surgery at the Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital, Perth. By 1991 Wood had passed the plastic surgery exam and become a consultant. She began working with medical scientist Marie Stoner in 1993 on a method for burns treatment at the Royal Perth (RPH) and Princess Margaret (PMH) hospitals. From this collaboration an entirely new, and more successful, method of treatment was developed. Thus, in 1995, Cellspray®, a spray-on solution of skin cells, was launched and in 1999 Wood and Stoner founded Clinical Cell Culture (C3). Wood’s expertise in burns treatment came to the world’s attention in 2002 in the wake of the Bali bombings but she hasn’t let fame stand in the way of her research or teaching which she continues at the RPH, the PMH and the University of Western Australia.

Interviewed by Dr Norman Swan in 2008.

Content

Entering surgery

Fiona, you’ve just sat down here after coming from the national trampolining championships. Tell me about that.

Oh, ho! Well, my youngest child has been a gymnast and now enjoys trampolining very much. I’ve got lots of children, four boys and two girls, and I really like being involved in what the kids are doing. I’ve been on more sporting trips interstate, I think, than you can count on one hand.

So you’re the team doctor?

Yes, I guess I could be. But I’ve been to all sorts of sports: rugby, triathlon, ice-skating. That was a perverse one –ice-skating in Perth was a little unusual! (That was my older daughter.)

It’s been a cold enough winter for it. How’s your orthopaedics?

‘Well,’ I thought,