Jack Best: Father of the Rural Clinical Schools—And Erudite Blogger

The Internet guarantees everyone the chance to discover, purposefully or not, that the world is full of people whose views on subjects of mutual interest are fascinating. All the more so when those views are presented with good humour and an erudition which reaches well beyond the central issue. Once again the current focus in health policy is “strengthening Medicare” and workforce issues—still dominated too much by medicine and doctors. And it is still the case that the greatest challenges are to ensure fair access to health services for people in rural and remote areas. For a number of years one of the leading sources of advice on these matters was a person whose views were informed by an extraordinarily wide scope of learning relating to health, culture, history, biology, philosophy and much more. It is a matter of great regret when someone whose ideas range so broadly falls silent. This was Jack Best, who died 18 months ago. Jack Best was a standout authority of his generation on matters relating to medical services and medical education in rural and remote areas. He also had a great understanding of the challenges involved in providing medical services for First Nations people. He cut his teeth in this area of activity as Director of Clinical Training of Victoria's Murray to Mountains intern training program, of which he remained proud. Through his life Jack held a number of official and representative positions and appointments in Victoria, in Australia nationally, and overseas. He loved a stage. Due in part to his connections and reputation in Victoria, including with sometime Health Minister Michael Wooldridge, in 1999 Jack was asked to undertake a ‘stocktake’ of rural and remote health. For this he consulted widely with all manner of people and interests, and was no doubt able to use his travels as a source of additional tales and opinions for his blog. One of the key results of this work was the development of a national network of Rural Clinical Schools and University Departments of Rural Health. These stand today as significant institutional and structural assets. There are now cohorts of medical graduates who have undertaken all of their undergraduate medical education in rural and regional areas. Jack believed that there are four major challenges to a successful career in rural medicine. They are social dislocation (especially relating to schooling); professional isolation; community tolerance; and succession planning. On the last he recommended 5 years' service—partly to avoid burnout. The other part of this approach to rural health had been the creation of University Departments of Rural Health (UDRH). The first two sites – Broken Hill and Mount Isa – were chosen because of remoteness, because the aim was to have a multicultural training centre in population health. The concept was new, but I was able to obtain locally-based allies in both cities. The UDRH program has been successful in the number which have been created (12) but they have strayed from the original intention of the program to integrate population health into clinical practice. However, the progression of the program has been hampered by the failure of the Rural Health Commission to progress the agenda and so the program still has limitations in its ability to satisfy its original aim. Jack's blog is at https://thebestmousetap.com.au/. Serbia injected itself into WW1 when a member of one of its secret societies, The Black Hand, Gavrilo Princip by name, an 18 year old student, assassinated the Grand Duke Ferdinand and his wife, Sophie, in Sarajevo on 28 June 1914. This is generally regarded as one of the incidents which lit the flame of WWI. From Belgrade's perspective, this War was the Third Balkan War. The First Balkan war in 1912 against the Ottoman Empire saw Serbia gain control of Kosovo, while the Second in 1913 saw Serbia defeat Bulgaria. These victories fed the aggressive aspects of a deep-rooted Greater Serbian ideology. The intertwined Orthodox church sense of superiority shared between the two major Slavic powers in Russia and Serbia emboldened the Serbians to take on the Austro-Hungarian empire. https://thebestmousetap.com.au. Jack has passed. But his blog remains a fresh and fascinating treasure trove into which one can trail one's fingers from time to time. I strongly recommend you try it. Gordon Gregory has worked in the interests of the people and communities of rural and remote Australia for decades. He was CEO of the National Rural Health Alliance for 23 years. Gordon Gregory: conceptualization, methodology, writing – original draft, writing – review and editing, project administration, visualization, validation, funding acquisition, investigation, software. Data sharing not applicable to this article as no datasets were generated or analysed during the current study.