Geoff Solarsh

MB BCh. (University of Witwatersrand. South Africa)
DCH and FCP (Paed). (College of Medicine of South Africa)
Dip Adult Education. (University of Natal, South Africa)
FRACP. (Royal Australian College of Physicians)

1.  Community/International Child Health
2.  Primary Health Care Systems
3.  Community-Based Medical Education

Professor Geoff Solarsh is Director of the Bendigo Regional Clinical and co-Head of the North Victorian Regional Medical Education Network (NVRMEN), a collaborative initiative with the School of Rural Health at the University of Melbourne designed to identify and educate a cohort of 60 medical students in educational sites in Northern Victoria.  From 2004-07 he served as Head of the School of Rural Health at Monash University.

Prior to arriving in Australia in 2004 he worked in South Africa, where his main interest and involvement was in the design, development, implementation and evaluation of maternal and child health programs in underserved black populations at district, regional and provincial levels.  From1995 until 2003) he served as the Stella and Paul Loewenstein Professor of Maternal and Child Health at the University of Natal in Durban.

His main interests are the development of programs of community-based medical education and population-based research in underserved communities.  He also has a long history of involvement in the development of primary health care systems in developing countries.  He has held major grants from the Kellogg Foundation, the Wellcome Trust and the US National Institutes of Health.

Bland RM, Rollins NC, Solarsh G, Van den Broeck J, Coovadia HM, 2003: 'Maternal Recall of exclusive breastfeeding duration,' Arch Dis Child; 88(9): 778-83.

Hosegood V, Benzler J, Solarsh G, '2005: Population mobility and household dynamics in rural South Africa: implications for demographic and health research', Southern African Journal of Demography, 10(1&2): 43-67.

Solarsh G & Hofman K, 2006: 'Developmental Disabilities in Disease and Mortality in Sub-Saharan', Second Editio, Chapter 10,  The World Bank, Washington, D.C..

MS Durkin, H Schneider, VS Pathania, KB Nelson, GC Solarsh, N Bellows, RM. Scheffler & KJ. Hofman, '2006: Learning and Developmental Disabilities, Disease Control Priorities in Developing Countries.' (2nd Edition),ed. 933-952. New York: Oxford University Press. DOI: 10.1596/978-0-821-36179-5/Chpt-49.

Humphreys JS & Solarsh G, '2008: Populations at Special Health Risk: Rural Populations, in Heggenhougen and Quah': International Encyclopedia of Public Health, Academic Press, San Diego, 242-253. 

'Steps to a CBME Program in Northern Victoria: Negotiating a curriculum between Specialists and General Practitioners.'
The objectives are to develop a community-based curriculum for year 4 medical students that integrates 4 major disciplines for year-long delivery in general practice and to obtain input and buy-in to this curriculum model from both specialists and general practitioners. This curriculum will be implemented in pre-identified academic general practices affiliated to Monash University in Northern Victoria.  The educational goals of this curriculum model are to achieve clinical competence in the designated disciplines within natural community settings that promote continuity of care, continuity of learning and continuity of supervision.  This provides student with longitudinal perspectives on health and disease and a deep understanding of comprehensive primary health care systems and their place within a wider tiered health care system.  This experience is likely to improve relevance of medical education, to strengthen student involvement, to increase likelihood that students will practice in these settings and to assist with the development of more effective health care systems in the future.  Engagement of both specialists and general practitioners is critical to meet both educational and health system goals.