PG Times

MJA's editorial board have written to Australian Medical Journal president Brian Owler to review the decision to appoint Elsevier.  Photo: Andrew Meares All but one member of the editorial advisory committee for Australia's top medical journal have resigned following the sacking of its eminent editor.  Stephen Leeder, an emeritus professor of public health at the University of Sydney and chair of the Western Sydney Local Health District Board, was sacked as editor of the prestigious Medical Journal of Australia after he raised concerns about a decision by the journal's publisher AMPCo to outsource the journal's production to Elsevier. AMPCo is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Australian Medical Association. Professor Leeder said he was "bereaved" by his departure from the MJA, but said that working with Elsevier was "beyond the reach of my ethical tolerance". Leading doctors from...

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Involving a long and gruelling stint of study to qualify and everyday exposure to human pain and suffering, the practice of medicine is perhaps one of the last you could expect to serve as a base for comedy. But it is the saving grace of humanity that it too has people capable of seeing — and sharing — the funny side of their life. Like this doctor who found greater fame with his uproariously comic series of books centred on his profession. Richard Gordon Though doctors too have left a mark on literature — Anton Chekhov, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Mikhail Bulgakov, A J Cronin, Khaled “The Kite Runner” Hosseini, W Somerset Maugham to name some — comedy has not been common. Making up the deficiency is Richard Gordon (actually Dr Gordon Ostlere (1921-), with his long-running “Doctor” series and their array of film, stage, TV and radio adaptions. (His only companion in the genre is possibly H Richard Hornberger or “Richard Hooker” (1924-1997) of “M*A*S*H: A Novel About Three Army ...