Edward Vergara

Dr Edward Vergara 
GP, Royal Park Medical

Sex and Research really did mix during my time completing an Academic Post during my GP training in 2010 and 2011 at the University of Melbourne. The time spent developing the skills of research and teaching has been pivotal in my GP career thus far.

When I embarked on an Academic Post I was keen to look at research which was informed by clinical questions I had during my clinical practice. During that time I was looking after young people who had low levels of sexual health literacy and was finding young men were even less informed. My research looked at exploring the attitudes held by young men regarding testing for Chlamydia, a common STI. The study looked at how these attitudes influence young men’s behaviour towards Chlamydia testing to try to inform future development of policies and strategies to increase testing rates for Chlamydia and other STIs in the male population.

The skills I learnt and developed through this program has been essential in the development of my career thus far. Research, teaching, leadership, project management, policy development and developing and evaluating assessments were some of the valuable skills I learnt during my time as an Academic Registrar. These skills I continue to use in my time as a GP today.

Since Fellowship I have continued to be involved in teaching and GP training. This includes roles as a Medical Educator, GP Supervisor, RACGP Examiner and currently as the RACGP Victorian State Censor. Through these roles I have incorporated essential aspects of research, training and assessment skills. Alongside these roles I have also embarked on practice ownership - as a partner of a new GP clinic in North Melbourne it comes as no surprise that project management, research and audit as well as teaching comes into my role as a practice owner on a daily basis.