Dr. Quinn is being honored with the IGCS Lifetime Achievement Award for a lifetime of outstanding service and leadership within the global gynecologic cancer care community. During his IGCS Presidency, he steered the society through major changes including a revamp of it administrative structure, revitalizing its education, mentorship, and training programs and established partnerships and governance mechanisms to truly internationalize our membership and leadership. His vision for IGCS certificate programs in palliative care, preinvasive disease, and nursing are soon to be a reality. He has been an advocate for women in leadership positions, and an inspiration to many calling for compassionate care and global responsibility to improve women’s healthcare all over the world.
About Dr. Quinn
Michael was educated in Scotland and undertook research into hormones and gynecological cancer in the late 1970s in Melbourne, Australia leading to the largest randomized trial into adjuvant progestogen use in endometrial cancer involving 1012 patients in the 1980s.
He headed the oncology unit at the Royal Women’s Hospital between 1988 and 2008 and chaired numerous Australian expert committees until his retirement from clinical practice in 2015.
His passion has been in teaching, training, and mentoring and he has published over 300 papers and co-authored five textbooks throughout his career.
A co-founder of ASGO, AOGIN and of ANZGOG, he has held leadership positions in all the major international societies including co-chairing the FIGO Oncology Committee with Lynne Denny and chairing the Gynecological Cancer Intergroup (GCIG).
Michael was President-Elect of IGCS and subsequently President between 2014 and 2018 during which time he internationalized IGCS, pushing for true global representation within the membership. He established the IGCS Gynecologic Oncology Global Curriculum and Mentorship Program, which is now utilized at training sites in 12 countries. He also revitalized the Education Committee, developed the Strategic Alliance Partnership outreach and guided the society to adopt gender-neutral policies to ensure diverse representation on the IGCS Council and Committees.
He was instrumental in the establishment of the IGCS web-based palliative care certificate program to meet the needs of women in low and middle-income countries. This program is about to be launched. Next on his list is helping to develop an IGCS nursing curriculum. He promises that there is lots more to come!