Fiona Wood

For the Australian young adult fiction writer, see Fiona Wood (writer).

Fiona Wood
AO FAHMS
Wood speaking at the Microsoft Australia Imagine Cup 2012 announcement in Sydney
Born
Fiona Melanie Wood

(1958-02-02) 2 February 1958 (age 66)
Yorkshire, England
NationalityAustralian
OccupationPlastic surgeon
Known forSpray-on skin
SpouseTony Kierath

Fiona Melanie Wood (born 2 February 1958) is an Australian plastic surgeon and burns specialist working in Perth, Western Australia. She is the director of the Royal Perth Hospital burns unit and the Western Australia Burns Service, and developed spray-on skin in collaboration with Marie Stoner. In addition, Wood is also a clinical professor with the School of Paediatrics and Child Health at the University of Western Australia and director of the Fiona Wood Foundation (formerly the McComb Research Foundation).[1][2]

Early life and education

Wood was born in Yorkshire, England, on 2 February 1958, the third of four children. Her father Geoff was a miner and her mother Elsie was a physical education teacher. Growing up in relative poverty, Wood's parents pushed their children to get a better education – with her mother transferring to a Quaker school to improve the children's educational opportunities. Wood attended Ackworth School near Pontefract, West Yorkshire. She was athletic as a child and hoped for a career as an Olympic sprinter. In 1978, she was one of twelve women admitted to the St Thomas's Hospital Medical School in London, graduating from there with a Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery in 1981.[2][3][4]

Career and research

Wood worked at London's Great Ormond Street Hospital and then at Queen Victoria Hospital before marrying Western Australian born surgeon Tony Kierath and migrating to Perth with their first two children in 1987. She completed her training in plastic surgery between having four more children. In 1991, Wood became the first female plastic surgeon in Western Australia. In 1993, Wood began working with medical scientist Marie Stoner on tissue engineering. They focused on a particularly painful pain point – burn treatments. Through their work, Wood and Stoner were able to greatly decrease skin culturing time and greatly reduce permanent scarring in burns victims.[1][4]

In October 2002, Wood was propelled into the media spotlight when the largest proportion of survivors from the 2002 Bali bombings arrived at Royal Perth Hospital. She led a team working to save 28 patients who had between 2 and 92 per cent body burns, deadly infections and delayed shock.

She was named a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) in 2003.[5] She was named Australian of the Year[6] for 2005 by Australian Prime Minister John Howard at a ceremony in Canberra to mark Australia Day.

In March 2007, following the crash landing of Garuda Indonesia Flight 200, Wood travelled to Yogyakarta, to assist in the emergency medical response for burn patients.[7]

In 2006, she attracted criticism for publicly endorsing the drug brand Nurofen. The profits from this endorsement went to the McComb Foundation, of which she was the chairwoman. The Australian Medical Association subsequently advised doctors against "endorsement of therapeutic goods". Wood later said of the endorsement that she "would not explore it again because I believe the negative perception outweighs the gain … I believe it was a mistake for me personally".[8]

In 2022, she released her biography, Under her Skin by Sue Williams, with her share of proceeds from the book going to the Fiona Wood Foundation.[9][10]

Spray-on skin

Wood has become well known for her patented invention of spray-on skin for burn patients, a treatment which is being continually developed. Where previous techniques of skin culturing required 21 days to produce enough cells to cover major burns, Wood has reduced the period to five days. This reduction hinged on the types of skin harvested; Wood focused her efforts on thinner skin which took less time for enzyme solutions to penetrate. Through research, she found that scarring is greatly reduced if replacement skin could be provided – within 10 days. This is because closing the wound quickly greatly decreases the chance of infection one of the greatest causes of severe scarring. As a burns specialist the Holy Grail for Wood is "scarless woundless healing".[3][11][12]

Wood started a company now called Avita Medical to commercialise the procedure. Her business came about after a schoolteacher arrived at Royal Perth Hospital in 1992 with petrol burns to 90% of his body. Wood turned to the emerging US-invented technology of cultured skin to save his life, working nights in a laboratory along with scientist Marie Stoner. The two women began to explore tissue engineering. They moved from growing skin sheets to spraying skin cells; earning a worldwide reputation as pioneers in their field. The company started operating in 1993 and now cultures small biopsies into bigger volumes of skin cell suspensions in as few as five days. This service is used by surgeons in Sydney, Auckland and Birmingham. Cells can be delivered via aircraft and ready for use the next day in many cases. Royalties from licensing will be ploughed back into a research fund, named the McComb Foundation.[13]

As well as receiving much praise from both her own patients and the media, she also attracted controversy among other burns surgeons because spray-on skin had not yet been subjected to clinical trials.[14][15] A clinical trial was planned in 2005 at Queen Victoria Hospital, England.[16]

In 2009, Wood’s company Avita Medical received US$1.45 million from the United States Armed Forces Institute of Regenerative Medicine to expedite one of the company’s key product offerings, the ReCell kit.[17]

Awards and honours

References

  1. ^ a b "Fiona Wood". Fiona Wood Foundation. Retrieved 12 April 2023.
  2. ^ a b "Fiona Wood". Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved 13 February 2009.
  3. ^ a b Leser, David (November 2005). "Thank God for Fiona" (PDF). The Australian Women's Weekly. Vol. 75, no. 11. pp. 54–60. Retrieved 12 April 2023.
  4. ^ a b Standish, Ann (2014). "Wood, Fiona". The Encyclopedia of Women and Leadership in Twentieth-Century Australia. ISBN 978-0-7340-4873-8. Archived from the original on 11 April 2023. Retrieved 12 April 2023.
  5. ^ Science World 3 Third Edition 2006/ second reprint
  6. ^ Lewis, Wendy (2010). Australians of the Year. Pier 9 Press. ISBN 978-1-74196-809-5.
  7. ^ Cohen, David (17 March 2007). "The skilled hands that will soothe a painful recovery". The Age. p. 8. Retrieved 12 April 2023. Burns specialist Fiona Wood, whose team treated the victims of the 2002 Bali bombings, flew to Indonesia to see the survivors and their burns.
  8. ^ Nader, Carol (5 December 2006). "Top doctor rues advertising drug for children". The Age. Retrieved 9 June 2010.
  9. ^ Fleming, Katherine (2 October 2022). "Under Her Skin: new biography of Professor Fiona Wood shows private side of a reluctant public figure". The Sunday Times. Retrieved 12 April 2023.
  10. ^ Williams, Sue (2022). Under Her Skin:The life and work of Professor Fiona Wood AM, National Living Treasure. Allen & Unwin. ISBN 9781761066917.
  11. ^ "Australian of the Year: 2005 Award". National Australia Day Council. Archived from the original on 20 November 2010. Retrieved 9 February 2009.
  12. ^ Swan, Norman; Wood, Fiona (2008). "Dr Fiona Wood, plastic surgeon". Australian Academy of Science. Retrieved 12 April 2023.
  13. ^ "Spray on Skin". Biotechnology Innovation. Archived from the original on 27 February 2009. Retrieved 9 February 2009.
  14. ^ Dennis, C (July 2005). "Spray-on skin: hard graft". Nature. 436 (7048): 166–7. Bibcode:2005Natur.436..166D. doi:10.1038/436166a. PMID 16015298. S2CID 2694478.
  15. ^ "Jury still out over 'spray-on skin'". The Age. 28 January 2005. Retrieved 9 February 2009.
  16. ^ "Spray-on cells treat severe burns". BBC News. 5 September 2005. Retrieved 9 February 2009.
  17. ^ Greenblat, Eli (27 May 2009). "Avita boosted by US affirmation". The Age. Retrieved 12 April 2023.
  18. ^ "Dr Fiona Wood, Australia's most trusted person... again". National Australia Day Council. 16 July 2010. Archived from the original on 19 April 2011. Retrieved 6 April 2011.
  19. ^ "2004 Winners". Western Australian of the Year Hall of Fame. Celebrate WA. Retrieved 24 November 2023.
  20. ^ "Fellowship of the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences" (PDF). Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences. June 2019. Archived from the original (PDF) on 24 September 2019. Retrieved 12 September 2019.
  21. ^ "Winthrop Professor Fiona Melanie Wood AM". Australian Honours Search Facility. Retrieved 25 January 2024.
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