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Major Tim Inglis reckons there is not much that beats field work.

As a civilian Pathologist he's used to working in remote areas as the Public Health Microbiologist for Western Australia.

As a reservist in the Australian Army's 3 ^rd Health Support Battalion, he took it one step further, and deployed to Papua New Guinea as a member of the international humanitarian and assistance mission, Pacific Partnership 2013.

He has recently come back from a tour in HMAS Tobruk to assist the townships of Wewak and Vanimo on PNG's northern coast, returning to his ‘other' life as Professor Tim Inglis in the School of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine.

As Major Inglis, he worked with local health care facilities to improve their pathology procedures and overall ability to identify and treat infectious diseases.

"Some of the things we focused on are fundamental in Australia, such as helping them with hospital procedures and data tracking of complex tests including biopsies," he said. "These things aren't costly or complicated but can immensely improve the quality of pathological work."

Tim is helping to set up a surgical pathology service at Wewak Hospital to reduce turnaround times for biopsy results.

The only service is in the capital, Port Moresby, and the backlog often means people must wait up to 12 months to receive the results of their tests.

"As a first step, we asked the Lab Manager at Wewak Hospital, Steven Tiwara, to prepare 10 different samples for testing," he said. "Using the standard procedures and laboratory systems we have in Australia, Steven was able to quickly prepare the samples and set up a functional data tracking chain. I brought them back to Australia where we can provide test results in weeks and not months," he said.

Tim says his Pacific Partnership 2013 deployment has been one of the highlights of his military career.

"I enjoy the field work and I'm used to it in my civilian job. To come here and help where there is a large burden of infectious diseases is challenging and confronting but profoundly rewarding because you realise your training can help in a place like this."

"For example, we were able to get cultures from a newborn infant who was struggling to survive. By using a simple digital camera and using the blood culture system we use in Australia, we were able to provide the results to a paediatrician within a day and have the right antibiotics prescribed," he said.

Despite the large workload the local health practitioners face daily, Major Inglis hopes the focus on training and sustained improvement of practices will continue to make a difference.

"On top of the clinical assistance and teaching work we're doing here now, I hope that this mission can inform junior Medical Officers across the ADF and build their skills sets so if they ever need to respond to an incident in the region, they come in with real world lessons behind them," Tim said.

Pacific Partnership 2013 is an annual humanitarian and civic assistance mission aimed at strengthening international relationships with partner and host nations in the Asia-Pacific region.

Another project within the partnership is Vietnam's Hope Centre , where Australian and US military engineers have been working to improve the lives of 100 children with disabilities.