Key Qualifications and Special Interests

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• MBBS MRCP MScMCH DCH FAFPHM

• Travel Medicine

• Tropical Medicine

• International Maternal and Child Health

• Corporate and occupational medicine

Dr Bob Kass Specialist Public Health Physician

 

Dr Bob Kass has specialist qualifications in Public Health Medicine and Paediatrics.

 

He is one of Australia’s pioneers in the discipline of travel medicine. His career has taken him to many overseas locations including Western Samoa, Papua New Guinea, UK, Tonga, Tokelau, Thailand, Laos, India, Uganda and Myanmar.

 

Some of his travel medicine feats include walking Kokoda and climbing Mt Kilimanjaro and Mt Kinabalu. “You can’t learn travel medicine at medical school!”

 

As Chief Medical Advisor to the Australian Volunteer Program (Australian Youth Ambassadors, Australian Volunteers for International Development) he was responsible for the care of more than 3000 volunteers over 20 years. In recent years he has advised a number of schools on how to keep their students healthy when travelling overseas. “Healthy travel is not just about vaccines!”  

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As a public health physician his main health focus is on prevention. Routine immunisations play an important role in keeping Australians healthy. He has found his work with vaccine hesitant families very satisfying. “Helping individuals understand disease impacts in the pre vaccine era has to be one of the first aspects considered when discussing the role of vaccines in disease prevention”. 

 

He has had personal experience working through epidemics of Measles in Papua New Guinea and Whooping Cough in the United Kingdom. As a paediatrician he has been involved in the treatment of all vaccine preventable diseases. Textbooks can never fully describe the impact at a family level.

 

He sees the annual flu vaccine as a very important immunisation in those most vulnerable and where family members may be the vehicle for infection. He believes the COVID outbreak has demonstrated this route of transmission very well.

 

Dr Kass enjoys his daily walks on the beach, an occasional Kayak up the Onkaparinga and interaction with the local community.