Professor Peter Friedland is a Fellow of Royal Australian College of Surgeons,the College of Surgeons (Otorhinolaryngology) South Africa, Head of Department Otolrhinolaryngology Head Neck Skullbase Surgery at Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital. In 2009 he accepted his current appointment as Professor within the School of Surgery at The University of Western Australia.
For many years he has demonstrated a strong commitment to the teaching of undergraduate and postgraduate medical students. Two important messages that he gives to students are as follows:
- Each individual patient is a precious human being with emotions, pride and dignity, and as such, should be treated with utmost respect, care, compassion and honesty; irrespective of age, colour or creed.
- Competence, knowledge and awareness of one’s own medical or surgical limitations are essential features of being a doctor; especially since a patient’s life and safety rests in the physician’s hands.
He is known for his positive contribution within the field of social responsibility, especially in South Africa, where his honorary work amongst disadvantaged segments of the population has been sustained over many years. This has included organising community support or personally providing pro-bono medical care for orphans, HIV-infected or -affected children, children with deafness or cleft lip and palate, and for members of the prison population requiring operations.
Telemedicine; developing a telemedicine application for nasal and oropharyngeal diagnosis. This is being developed in collaboration with Swan Districts Hospital and the Wheatbelt.
Sudden sensorineural hearing loss (SSNHL); developing a laboratory, animal-research project to examine cochlear microvascular blood flow to determine etiology and treatment.
Adjunct Professor and Clinical Head of Department, Ear Nose and Throat, Head and Neck Surgery, Wits University Donald Gordon Medical Centre, Faculty of Health Sciences, University Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa
Clinical aspects of otolaryngology, head and neck surgery.