The late Dr Nicholas Medland AM, who passed away on Friday 21 February 2025, has been posthumously awarded one of Australia’s highest honours, a Member of the Order of Australia (AM), in recognition of his significant service to sexual health medicine as a physician, clinical epidemiologist, and general practitioner.
Dr Nick Medland was a clinical epidemiologist at the Kirby Institute at UNSW Sydney, researching the community impact of interventions to prevent infectious disease transmission.
“Nick was an outstanding collaborator and leader in the sexual health field and a gifted, passionate and effective leader, Nick played a pivotal role in shaping HIV and sexual health clinical and public health practice in Australia,” says Kirby Director Scientia Professor Anthony Kelleher. “It is very fitting that his significant contributions, both to his patients and to the community at large, have been recognised in this way”.
Nick trained as a doctor and then went to work at the Victorian AIDS Council Gay Men’s Health Centre and the Melbourne Sexual Health Centre where he embarked on a PhD. This, together with his degree in English literature undertaken at University College London after his medical training, helped shape his insights into the world and its people. He was driven by a strong belief in the importance of community and particularly community-led health initiatives. Later, in Vietnam, working on a range of HIV programs with the US CDC and FHI 360, Nick also developed a deep understanding of how to make the health system a potent shaper of health outcomes.
From 2020 – 2023, Dr Nick Medland was the President of ASHM and prior to that he was a board member for more than a decade. Nick was the chair of the Australian Sexually Transmissible Infections Management Guidelines for Use in Primary Care and led the update to include tests for HIV and syphilis with all STI testing in Australia. He was also pivotal in developing the highly effective primary healthcare response to mpox playing a critical role in development of clinical guidelines and training programs.
“We honour Nick's remarkable legacy and his contribution to the field. He is remembered with gratitude and respect,” says Prof Kelleher.
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