Long-term CEC colleague, Emeritus Professor Kim Oates is a recipient of an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) in the Queen's Birthday Honours announced Monday, 9 June 2020.
Professor Oates received recognition for distinguished service to paediatric medicine, as an advocate for child health and welfare, to medical education, and to professional societies. Professor Oates is a former Chair of the Federal Government National Council for Prevention of Child Abuse.
His achievements at the CEC included initiating and leading the yearly Australian Academy for Emerging Leaders in Patient Safety, with a focus on finding and nurturing future Australian health leaders. An enduring and highly valuable legacy was his creation of a series of high quality videos on aspects of patient safety, 'Brief Bites' remains a valuable online resource for clinicians available on the CEC website. After 11 years with the CEC, Professor Oates took a new direction in November 2019.
Throughout his highly successful 50-year career in paediatrics, Professor Oates committed himself to giving back, through research and teaching in Australia and abroad. His long-standing clinical and research interests in child development, child behaviour and child abuse have seen him internationally recognised as a child advocate, particularly his pioneering research in child protection alongside recognition as a clinician, researcher, teacher and administrator.
In his consultant role at CEC, as Director Undergraduate Quality and Safety Education, Professor Oates was instrumental in driving patient safety education. He developed and taught a patient safety education program for undergraduate students across five medical schools in addition to schools of nursing and allied health with a focus on how doctors can work more safely to reduce patient harm.
In the last decade, Professor Oates focused his research on medical education and patient safety, publishing more than 200 peer-reviewed papers, writing and editing 15 books, and 62 chapters in other books as well as numerous reports, reviews, editorials and opinion pieces.
In March 2018, he was awarded the For People's Health Medal from the Vietnamese Government for his work in Vietnam over the last 10 years.
In addition to advocacy for children, throughout his career Professor Oates championed support for identifying and encouraging future leaders in academic, clinical and administrative positions. He established and currently leads the Australian Academy for Emerging Leaders in Patient Safety, with a focus on finding and nurturing future Australian health leaders.
View the Brief Bites series on the CEC website.