Dr Max Kamien. Academic general practitioner and champion of rural practice

"I did not set out to be either a general practitioner or an academic. However, three personality traits helped to point me in that direction. A consciousness of the difficulties of minority groups and a desire to help them fight their battles, a valuing of the generalist role and a streak of idealism that incorporates a world view that nearly everything could and should be better than it is. "The position of academic general practice in medical schools is akin to that of Aborigines in Australian society. Things are nowhere near as hard as they were 15 years ago, but they are still not easy. Many things I have tried to do have come to fruition but with a lead time of five to 15 years. If I had know how hard the struggle for academic general practice would be, I would have thought once and still have taken the same career path. "In the future I would like to spend more time making professional and social contact with general practitioners throughout Western Australia and helping medical students and vocational trainees to achieve their intellectual and professional potential. I would like to encourage more young doctors to start research projects within their own practices and become a helper rather than an initiator. I want to be the third or fourth name on a paper not the first. In five to ten years I will bow out of academia, but I can't imagine ever giving up clinical medicine, one to one practice teaching and patient care."