Dr Deborah Mills is the medical director of Dr Deb's Travel Medicine Clinics in QLD, and one of the pioneers of Travel Medicine in Queensland.

Along with looking after individuals venturing overseas, she regularly conducts entertaining and informative seminars on travellers health for corporate and holiday travellers. She is a regular on 612 Local ABC radio and has been widely published in both the medical and lay press on the subject of Travellers Health. She has published the book "Travelling Well - The 'must-have' guide to enjoying good health while you travel". This book is now in its 12th edition, with over 100,000 copies in print.

As well as studying infectious diseases in Australia and many corners of the globe, she draws on her own travel experiences to ensure travellers get the critical 'been-there-done-that' information they need to travel with confidence and make the most of their trip.

In detail...

After graduating with an MBBS from the University of Queensland in 1983, Deborah completed her internship at Rockhampton Base Hospital, until 1985.

The next few years were spent travelling overseas to undertake a variety of locum, registrar and clinical positions providing experience in travel medicine related areas.

On 16th July 1988 she established in the CBD of Brisbane, the first clinic in Queensland devoted to travel medicine.

When this clinic commenced operation, travel medicine in Australia was in its infancy, and Dr Deb's clinic was the first non government centre in Queensland to gain approval to administer Yellow Fever vaccine.

As well as running her own clinic, Dr Deb worked for several years with other travel medicine clinics across Australia to improve the standard of travel medicine in Australia, organising conferences and travel medicine meetings, developing travel medicine manuals for vaccinations and malaria prescriptions, training programs for doctors, standardisation of medical kits.

From 1992 to 1994 Deborah operated a Travel Medicine Clinic at Herston, next to the Royal Brisbane Hospital

During the early years of travel medicine in Australia, there were no recognised courses or degrees in Travel Medicine, but despite not having formal Travel Medicine qualifications, Deborah now participates in curriculum development for tertiary courses that are now available.

She currently looks after 2 clinics in Brisbane - one in the central CBD of Brisbane and one about 10km away in northern suburb of Brisbane. Her clinics are members of the Travel Medicine Alliance - a network of independent travel medicine clinics across Australia.

Deborah regularly attends short courses and conferences on travel medicine including:

• 2nd International Conference on Travel Medicine Atlanta USA 1991
• 3rd International Conference on Travel Medicine Paris 1993
• 4th International Conference on Travel Medicine Acapulco 1995
• 5th International Conference on Travel Medicine Geneva 1997
• 6th International Conference on Travel Medicine Montreal 1999
• 7th International Conference on Travel Medicine Innsbruck 2001
• Tropical Health and Nutrition Conferences 1991-98
• American College of Physicians Travel and Tropical Medicine Seminar, Bangkok 1992, held in conjunction with the Royal College of Physicians.
• University of Glascow Travel Medicine Course, Madras India 1998
• Meetings of the Australasian College of Tropical Medicine 1991-98
• 4th Asia Pacific Travel Health Conference Shanghai 2002
• Africa European Conference on Travel Medicine Capetown 2004
• Northern European Conference on Travel Medicine Edinburgh 2006
• 6th Asia Pacific Travel Health Conference Bangkok 2006
• 10th International Conference on Travel Medicine Vancouver 2007

In regular contact with her peers world-wide, Deborah also visits other international travel medicine clinics to review procedures, indications for various vaccines, and the incidence of diseases. These visits have taken her to Europe and South East Asia on several occasions.

Published Works As Co-Author

• The Welcome Home Questionnaire as a Quality Assurance Tool. This paper was presented at the Second International Conference on Travel Medicine Atlanta USA, May 91.
• Returning Travellers Survey. Survey of all TMVC returning travellers to determine the effectiveness of pre-travel advice, and presented at the Second International Conference on Travel Medicine in Atlanta, USA.
• Planned Sexual Behaviour of young Australian Visitors to Thailand. A pilot study with implications for education and prevention programs, and published in the Medical Journal of Australia.
• Loa Loa A case report in Australia. Presented at the Microbiological Conference in Sydney.
• Leggat PA, Mills D, Speare R. Level of concern and sources of information of Australian hostellers for personal safety and terrorism when travelling abroad. 5th European Conference on Travel Medicine. Venice, Italy, March, 2006; P53: 71
• Leggat PA, Mills D, Speare R. Hostellers’ knowledge of transmission and prevention of avian influenza when travelling abroad. 15th Annual Scientific Meeting of The Australasian College of Tropical Medicine held in conjunction with the Australian Institute of Medical Scientists, Townsville, Australia. June 2006.
• Leggat PA, Mills D, Speare R. Hostellers’ knowledge of transmission and prevention of avian influenza when travelling abroad. Australian Biosecurity CRC National Workshop, Cairns, August 2006, P.20: 37.
• Leggat PA, Mills D, Speare R. Level of concern and sources of information of hostelers for personal safety and terrorism when traveling abroad. Journal of Travel Medicine. 2007; 14: 112-116.

Published Works As Author

• Travelling Well: The must have guide to enjoying good health when you travel.
• Travelling Well Fun Book: Resource for Parents taking children overseas
• Epidemic Alert: A monthly news bulletin for General Practitioners and their Travelling Patients.
• Which Vaccinations For Which Countries? Published in 'A View on Immunisation: Focus on Travel', an information booklet produced by Adis International and CSL
• Monthly column on Travel Medicine in Medical Observer for several years
• Various review articles in general practice medical journals

Memberships

• The International Society of Travel Medicine
• International Association for Medical Assistance to Travellers (IAMAT)
• Australasian College of Tropical Medicine
• Australian Medical Association
• RACGP Associate Member

Deborah also has full professional ASM accreditation with The National Speakers Association Of Australia, and is available to conduct presentations and seminars for you or your staff on any aspect of travel medicine and travel health.