Sue Ieraci (born 1960) is an Australian doctor and emergency medicine specialist with more than three decades’ experience in the Australian public hospital system. She is a vocal advocate for improvements in emergency medicine, how it is viewed in the hospital framework and patient-centred care. Ieraci has been a member of the Executive of Friends of Science in Medicine and she strongly promotes evidence based medicine.

Sue Ieraci
A portrait photo of Dr Sue Ieraci
Sue Ieraci in Dec 2019
Born1960
Sydney, Australia
NationalityAustralian
EducationMB,BS, Sydney University
OccupationEmergency physician
Known forAdvocating for improvements in emergency medicine and supporting evidence-based medicine.

Personal life

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Ieraci was born in Sydney in 1960 to parents who were both immigrants from the Calabrese town of Roccella Ionica. Her first language was Calabrese but both she and her older sister began to speak only English in their early school years.[1]

Ieraci is married with one daughter. [1]

Education

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After matriculation she gained entrance to Medicine at Sydney University. She graduated in 1983, did an internship at St Vincent’s Hospital in Sydney then specialised in Emergency Medicine.[1] She completed her EM training in Sydney in 1990.[2]

 
Skepticon 2019 - Sue Ieraci presenting "Medical anti-science bingo" lecture

Career

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Ieraci has spent a career of more than 35 years in public hospitals in the South West of Sydney which are working-class areas with lots of migrants.[3][1][4] Her career has included periods of management, committees, policy development, medical regulation and health systems consultancy. Increasingly her focus is on human relationships within the health care system,[5][6] but she has always maintained a clinical role. During her career she has spent 25 years as an emergency medicine specialist.[4]

In 2010 - 2011 she sat on the NSW board of the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA),[7] and from 2010 - 2012 was the Ministerial appointee to the Medical Council of NSW.[8] She now works in Emergency Telemedicine, providing care to a wide range of patients including people in remote areas and in nursing homes.

Significance in the national health debate

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The Herald Sun has called Ieraci a "leading Australian doctor"[9] and she has been called upon by the national media as a commentator on anti-vax topics,[10] by newspapers and national radio to discuss hospital staffing crises,[11][12] and by other media to give her opinion on alternative health influence.[13] She has published over 13 academic papers primarily dealing with issues facing Australian hospitals and ED's.[14]

In 2007 she gave evidence to the NSW Government's Joint Select Committee on the Royal North Shore Hospital (The Nile Inquiry).[15] In 2015, she appeared in front of a Federal Parliamentary Committee in her capacity as a medical practitioner in support of the Social Services Legislation Amendment (No Jab, No Pay) Bill 2015.[16]

Activism

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Ieraci is a member of the Friends of Science in Medicine (FSM) Executive.[13] She frequently speaks, writes, comments and is interviewed on issues around vaccination, alternative medicine and the wellness industry.[10][17][13] In representing FSM she has been the target of criticism by groups opposing her views.[16]

Ieraci appeared at the Federal Parliament Community Affairs Legislation Committee into the Federal No jab - No pay legislation.[16] She has also spoken in the media warning the public against the Australian Vaccination-risks Network (AVN) and started an online petition to warn about the dangers of them.[9]

Emergency medicine

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Ieraci is vocal in supporting better processes and structures for emergency medicine. Her conference presentations have been greeted with applause and support,[3] and she has been quoted on aspects of delivering best practice emergency medicine in both the press[11][18] and in medical journals.[19] At a meeting of the Australasian College for Emergency Medicine she spoke of the burden upon emergency departments due to the level of inexperience of a number of junior doctors.[20]

She is involved with the Network of Women in Emergency Medicine (NoWEM) group which is "a community of Emergency Physicians celebrating and promoting the advancement of women in medicine in Australasia."[2]

Ieraci has been involved with researching and problem solving around issues associated with integrating large eHealth IT systems.[21] She is also actively working for better patient management in, and community expectations of, Australian emergency departments.[12][22] Her publicly expressed opinions on emergency management issues have not been without criticism.[23]

Works

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  • Textbook of adult emergency medicine (contributor) - Churchill Livingstone Elsevier[24]
  • Emergency medicine : the principles of practice (contributor) - Churchill Livingstone[24]
  • Access block in NSW hospitals, 1999–2001: does the definition matter? - MJA[25]
  • Impact of a chest-pain guideline on clinical decision-making - MJA[25]
  • Redefining the physician's role in the era of online health information - MJA[25]
  • Good HIT and bad HIT - MJA[21]
  • EMERGENCY: Real stories from Australia’s ED doctor (contributor) - ACEM & Penguin[4]
  • Is there equity in emergency medical care? Waiting times and walk-outs in South Western Sydney hospital emergency departments - Australian Health Review[26]
  • 13 publications - Sue Ieraci's research while affiliated with Liverpool Hospital and other places.[14]

References

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  1. ^ a b c d Ieraci, Sue (February 2013). "Sue Ieraci". Australia Donna. Archived from the original on 16 December 2019.
  2. ^ a b "Bio of Sue Ieraci '@The Rocks'". NoWEM. Network of Women in Emergency Medicine. 21 December 2018. Archived from the original on 17 December 2019.
  3. ^ a b Coopes, Amy (30 November 2017). "An applause-winning question: Is it time to re-think the way we do emergency medicine?". Croakey. Croakey Health Media. Archived from the original on 28 October 2019.
  4. ^ a b c Lee, Cassandra (31 July 2015). "Bio of Dr Sue Ieraci - A time to die". Real ED Stories. Australasian College for Emergency Medicine. Archived from the original on 13 March 2018.
  5. ^ Australasian College for Emergency Medicine (November 2012). "Bio of Invited Speakers: Sue Ieraci - ACEM 2012 - Annual Scientific Meeting". www.conferencedesign.com.au. Archived from the original on 25 December 2019.
  6. ^ Croakey (18 October 2018). "Specialist emergency physician Dr Sue Ieraci at #MHED18" (video). Youtube. Croakey Health Media. Retrieved 30 October 2019.
  7. ^ AHPRA (2012). "Annual Report 2011/12" (PDF). NSW Government. Archived (PDF) from the original on 15 December 2019.
  8. ^ Medical Council of NSW (2011). "Annual Report 2011" (PDF). NSW Government. Archived (PDF) from the original on 15 December 2019.
  9. ^ a b O'Brien, Susie (30 January 2012). "All Aussie kids should be vaccinated". Herald Sun. Vic.: News Corp Australia. Archived from the original on 4 March 2012.
  10. ^ a b Whyte, Sarah (22 May 2017). "Online petition calls for malnourished son of anti-vaxxer to be returned home". ABC News. Australian Broadcasting Corp. Archived from the original on 26 August 2018.
  11. ^ a b Wallace, Natasha (11 October 2009). "Hospital wages rise above the flat line". The Sydney Morning Herald. Archived from the original on 15 October 2009.
  12. ^ a b Swan, Norman (2 November 2007). "Problems in Australian hospital emergency departments". Health Report. ABC Radio National. Archived from the original on 21 July 2017.
  13. ^ a b c "The dark side of alternative health treatments". Life & style. New Zealand: Stuff Limited. 22 November 2015. Archived from the original on 29 October 2019.
  14. ^ a b "Sue Ieraci's research works | Liverpool Hospital, Liverpool (NSW) and other places". ResearchGate. Berlin, Germany. 2010. Archived from the original on 13 December 2019.
  15. ^ Dusevic, Tom (12 July 2008). "A HOSPITAL IN NEED OF RADICAL SURGERY". Australian Financial Review. Fairfax. Retrieved 16 December 2019.
  16. ^ a b c Senate Committee (2 November 2015). "Community Affairs Legislation Committee : 02/11/2015". ParlInfo. Federal Parliament of Australia. Archived from the original on 13 December 2019.
  17. ^ Haggan, Megan (26 July 2016). "Acupuncture is 'pointless,' says FSM". Australian Journal of Pharmacy. APPco Pty Ltd. Archived from the original on 29 October 2019.
  18. ^ Dr Sue Ieraci and 118 other NSW public hospital emergency doctors (14 November 2007). "Is there a doctor in the house? We have a medical emergency". The Sydney Morning Herald. NSW: Fairfax. Archived from the original on 25 December 2019.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  19. ^ Ieraci, Sue (21 May 2015). "The Third World?". Canadian Journal of Emergency Medicine. 2 (3): 151. doi:10.1017/S148180350000484X. ISSN 1481-8035.
  20. ^ McLean, Tamara (26 November 2007). "Young doctors 'a risk' in emergency". The Sydney Morning Herald. NSW. Archived from the original on 25 December 2019.
  21. ^ a b McDonald, Kate (7 March 2013). "Good HIT, bad HIT and why eHealth is so hard". Pulse+IT. Archived from the original on 17 December 2019.
  22. ^ NSW Ministry of Health (2015). "Mental Health for Emergency Departments - A Reference Guide" (PDF). mentalhealthcarersnsw.org. NSW Government. Archived (PDF) from the original on 27 December 2019.
  23. ^ Various (27 December 2007). "Compassion counts". The Sydney Morning Herald. NSW: Fairfax. Archived from the original on 25 December 2019.
  24. ^ a b "Trove search results for '"Sue Ieraci"'". Trove. National Library of Australia. 10 December 2019. Archived from the original on 10 December 2019.
  25. ^ a b c "Advanced search | Ieraci". The Medical Journal of Australia. Australian Medical Association. 22 December 2019. Archived from the original on 22 December 2019.
  26. ^ Mohsin, Mohammed; Bauman, Adrian; Ieraci, Sue (1998). "Is there equity in emergency medical care? Waiting times and walk-outs in South Western Sydney hospital emergency departments". Australian Health Review. 21 (3): 133–49. doi:10.1071/ah980133. PMID 10185681. S2CID 30588609.