AMA Awards 2006 Gold Medal
AMA President, Dr Mukesh Haikerwal, last night bestowed the organisation's highest honour on a pair of Nobel Prize-winning doctors.
The Gold Medal winners for 2006 are Perth researchers, Professor Robin Warren and Professor Barry Marshall, who won the 2005 Nobel Prize for Medicine for discovering the bacterium that causes gastritis and stomach ulcers.
The Gold Medal is awarded to members of the profession who have rendered outstanding services to the Association, to the practice of medicine, or to the community.
Prof Warren and Prof Marshall's work was initially greeted with scepticism by a medical community which did not believe that bacteria could survive in the acid conditions of the stomach.
Prof Marshall resorted to drinking a culture of the bacteria to give himself an ulcer, to prove the discovery.
"The findings of these two men forced the international medical community to re-think the way they treat a condition that affects millions of people around the world," Dr Haikerwal said.
"Due to the work of Professors Marshall and Warren, ulcers are now commonly treated with a course of antibiotics, and a major factor leading to the development of stomach cancer is now easily beaten.
"On behalf of the AMA I offer a hearty congratulation to both Gold Medal winners."