Speakers and Moderators
Find out about the conference speakers & moderators here
Dr Sophie Adams
Dr Sophie Adams is a psychiatrist and the Medical Director Mental Heath, Austin Health. She is also a second year RACMA RPLE candidate. Sophie has interests in clinical governance, ethics and service provision and innovation as well as youth mental health, Consultation Liaison Psychiatry, Neuropsychiatry, and the value of clinical leadership.
Dr Ashley Bloomfield
Dr Bloomfield is the Chief Executive of the Ministry of Health and New Zealand’s Director General of Health.
Dr Bloomfield qualified in medicine at the University of Auckland in 1990 and after several years of clinical work specialised in public health medicine. His particular area of professional interest is non-communicable disease prevention and control, and he spent 2011 at the World Health Organization in Geneva working on this topic at a global level.
Dr Bloomfield was Chief Executive at Hutt Valley District Health Board from 2015 to 2018. Prior to that, he held a number of senior leadership roles within the Ministry of Health.
Dr Hwee Sin Chong
Adjunct Associate Professor Hwee Sin Chong is the Executive Director of the Queensland Medical Rural Service; a division of the Darling Downs Hospital and Health Service, as well as the acting Executive Director of Medical Services. She is a Fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Medical Administrators and is an experienced medical administrator having worked across a range of hospital and health system leadership and management roles, both in the public and private health sector, and regional and metropolitan.
She has over 10 years of experience in regional and rural hospital health, and is responsible for the award-winning Queensland Rural Generalist Program; Queensland Country Practice; and the development of strategies to enhance the delivery of rural and remote medical workforce services across Queensland. Dr Chong is passionate about developing medical leadership capability especially that of rural doctors, having partnered with the RACMA in the delivery of the Queensland Rural Generalist Leader Program that commenced in 2017.
Dr Chong is an active RACMA Fellow as a Censor and serving on the Rural Policy and Advocacy Group. She has interest in medical workforce development, education and standards, assisting as an intern accreditation surveyor in Queensland, and also sits on the Australian Medical Council, Prevocational Standards Accreditation Committee.
Dr Zoran Bolevich
Zoran is Chief Executive of eHealth NSW and Chief Information Officer of NSW Health, Australia’s largest public health system. Leading a 1,600 strong digital health agency, Zoran is responsible for implementation of the eHealth Strategy for NSW Health, which aims to create a digitally enabled and integrated health system, delivering patient-centred health experiences and quality health outcomes for people of New South Wales.
Zoran is passionate about improving the health system through meaningful and effective use of digital technologies, data analytics, research and innovation in partnership with patients, clinicians, health organisations, government departments and industry partners.
During his 30-year career in health, Zoran has worked in a range of senior health executive and ICT leadership roles in Australia and New Zealand. As well as a medical degree, Zoran holds a Master of Business Administration and is a Fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Medical Administrators.
Dr Roger Boyd
Dr Roger Boyd is a medical administrator with over thirty-five years of hospital and health services management experience in both the public and private sectors.
His current roles include responsibility for a state-wide project dealing with medical credentialing and scope of clinical practice across NSW Health. His past positions include Director of Medical Workforce for Northern Sydney Local Health District, Director of Medical Services at Royal North Shore Hospital and Managing Director of Health Care Corporation, a private hospital company.
Roger is a Past President of the Royal Australasian College of Medical Administrators (2010 to 2012) and he was the Founding Chair of the World Federation of Medical Managers. Roger is currently a member of the RACMA NSW Jurisdictional Committee and a preceptor. From 2012 to 2019 has was the College nominee on the Medical Council of NSW. He is also a former Chair of the National Prescribing Service, now known as NPS MedicineWise.
Dr Sidney Chandrasiri
Dr Sidney Chandrasiri MBBS MHM FCHSM FRACMA CHIA GAICD, is a Fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Medical Administrators (FRACMA), a Fellow of the Australasian College of Health Service Management (FCHSM), Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors (GAICD), and holds a Masters in Health Management and Certification in Health Informatics. She is a graduate of the highly selective Harvard Business School Intensive Seminar program on Value Based HealthCare taught by Michael Porter.
Dr Chandrasiri is the Deputy Chief Medical Officer and Group Director, Academic and Medical Services at Epworth HealthCare, a Board Director of the Heathcote Health Board of Management and a Sentinel event reviewer for The Department of Health in Victoria, Australia. She has medical management experience in both public and private health care organizations across Australia and New Zealand, has lectured in health system management to post graduate students at the University of Monash in Melbourne, is a speaker at multiple medical forums across Australia and has published more than 16 papers in leading medical management journals. Her current portfolio in Australia encompasses health service leadership, and a number of areas across clinical governance, through to clinical services design and strategic planning.
Dr Kerry Chant
Dr Kerry Chant is the Chief Health Officer and Deputy Secretary, Population and Public Health, NSW Health.
Kerry has extensive public health experience in New South Wales, having held a range of senior positions in NSW Health since 1991. She currently leads the Population and Public Health Division which has accountabilities for a broad portfolio of issues including communicable disease control, prevention of chronic diseases, drug and alcohol, research translation, and health system response to acute and emerging clinical issues.
Kerry has a particular interest in blood borne virus infections and communicable diseases prevention and control, and as NSW Chief Health Officer has a key role in the state’s health response to the current COVID-19 pandemic. In 2009, Kerry was praised for her outstanding leadership in the response to the H1N1 (Swine Flu) pandemic; the development and implementation of the NSW HIV strategy for 2012 – 2015; and in preparing NSW Health to respond to a case of Ebola, should the need arise.
For her achievements, she was awarded the Public Service Medal (PSM) in the 2015 Queen’s Birthday Honours for outstanding public service to population health in NSW. She was nominated by Chancellor David Gonski AC. She has also been awarded the NSW Public Servant of the Year Award 2020 by Premier Gladys Berejiklian.
Dr John Elcock
John Elcock is the Chief Medical Officer and Executive Director of Medical Services at Goulburn Valley Health, a regional health service in rural Victoria. He has held medical leadership positions for over 19 years. Prior to becoming a medical administrator John was a fulltime clinician for 13 years. Just for something different he taught English in Finland for 14 months. His professional interests include effective medical governance, ethical medical practice, medical leadership, and state-wide health strategy and policy.
John is also a Senior Medical Officer in the Australian Army holding the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. Since joining the Army 21 years ago he has served almost entirely in combat arms and high tempo units. He has deployed overseas multiple times including to Timor Leste, the Middle East and Afghanistan.
John and his partner have six children. He is therefore a dance dad, cheerleader, unpaid taxi driver and ATM. In his abundant spare time John enjoys archery, reading military history, reading and writing haiku poetry, and playing bass guitar quite badly.
Dr Jillann Farmer
Dr Jillann Farmer commenced as the Deputy Director-General of Clinical Excellence Queensland in June 2020, returning to Queensland Health after employment as the Medical Director of the United Nations, based at the headquarters in New York for 8 years. During tenure in this role, she was responsible for the health, safety and wellbeing of all UN personnel deployed throughout the world and was also responsible for the standards in healthcare facilities operating under UN the UN flag.
Prior to serving in the UN, she was the Medical Director of the Patient Safety Centre in Queensland Health, and the inaugural Director of the Clinician Performance Support Service.
In her earlier career, Jillann worked as a GP, and also for the Medical Board of Queensland, building the Health Assessment and Monitoring Program for management of registrants with illnesses that impact on their ability to practice. She has been a Director of Medical Services at a mid-size acute Hospital, and a Senior Medical Officer Emergency Medicine. She holds fellowships of both the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners and the Royal Australasian College of Medical Administrators.
During 2014, she led the UN’s internal response to Ebola, allowing the safe deployment of UN personnel into the Ebola Outbreak area, and ensuring delivery of healthcare services to them throughout the crisis. In 2020, she led the UN’s New York response to the first wave of COVID-19 in the USA, advising the Secretary General and the then President of the General Assembly.
During her tenure as UN Medical Director, she developed and launched the UN system workplace mental health strategy, developed the UN Safety and Quality Standards and implemented reforms of the UN Trauma care system.
AS DDG Clinical Excellence Queensland, Jillann has the lead for safety and quality across the healthcare system of Queensland.
Outside of work, Jillann has been a martial arts practitioner for over 30 years, and is a keen hiker, kayaker, cyclist and cross-country skier.
Mr Kevin Fjeldsoe
Kevin Fjeldsoe has most recently been working on the development of the NMHSPF as part of the Mental Health Policy and Epidemiology Group at the Queensland Centre Mental Health Research. He has worked in mental health since he graduated as a mental health nurse in 1976. During that time he has worked as a Clinician, Manager, Director of Nursing, CEO of a District Mental Health Service, State Manager and more recently as Director of the Mental Health Service Planning and Implementation Unit, Queensland Health. In 2012 Kevin was awarded an OAM for services to mental health reform and service development. He has been recently been working as part of a project team to deliver a National Mental Health Service Planning Framework. His primary area of research interest is evidence informed service planning and its application to practice.
Commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons
Shane Fitzsimmons was appointed as the inaugural Commissioner for Resilience NSW and Deputy Secretary, Emergency Management with the Department of Premier and Cabinet from 1 May 2020.
He is currently the chair of the State Emergency Management Committee (SEMC), the State Recovery Committee (SRC) and the National Emergency Medal Committee (NEMC). This appointment followed a distinguished career with the NSW Rural Fire Service of over 35 years, serving as both a volunteer and salaried member.
In 1998 he was appointed an Assistant Commissioner with the RFS and has held portfolio responsibilities for Operations, Strategic Development and Regional Management. In 2004, he was appointed the inaugural Australasian Fire Authorities Council (AFAC) Visiting Fellow to the Australian Institute of Police Management (AIPM) for a period of 12-months, developing and delivering programs in management and leadership.
During the period of September 2007 - April 2020 he was the Commissioner of the NSW Rural Fire Service and was also the Chair of the NSW RFS Bushfire Coordinating Committee and the Rural Fire Service Advisory Council. He was also a member of the NSW State Emergency Management Committee and the NSW State Rescue Board (SRB) and was Chair of SRB from 2008 to November 2015. In July 2012, he was appointed a Board Member of the NSW Government Telecommunications Authority.
He was appointed a Director of the National Aerial Firefighting Centre (NAFC) in March 2008 and was the Chair of the NAFC Board from 2009 to 2013. He was a Director on the Bushfire Co-operative Research Centre from 2009 to 2014.
He was a member of the Australasian Fire and Emergency Services Authority Council from 2007 and was a member of its Board from November 2016 to November 2019 and held the position of Deputy President upon retirement from the Board. In January 2016 he was appointed as a Councillor of the Royal Humane Society of NSW Inc. Additionally, he is a patron of two charities – Kids Xpress and Coffee 4 Kids.
Commissioner Fitzsimmons has been awarded the Rural Fire Service Long-Service Medal for more than 30 years, the National Medal in recognition of more than 35 years, and the Australian Fire Service Medal (AFSM).
He has also been acknowledged with a Paul Harris Fellow and a Paul Harris Fellow Sapphire through Rotary Clubs of Berowra and Sydney.
He has most recently been announced as the 2021 NSW Australian of the Year, and the Australian Father of the Year 2020 through The Shepherd Centre.
Dr Hugh Heggie
Dr Hugh Heggie currently is the Chief Health Officer and Executive Director of Public Health and Clinical Excellence for the Northern Territory Department of Health and is a member of the Executive Leadership Team.
Dr Heggie having been a research pharmacologist has been a rural generalist practitioner for 40 years, with additive skills in obstetrics, emergency medicine and indigenous health and has worked in remote settings across the NT since 2002. He has held a number of leadership positions over the last 10 years, participates in a wide variety of local forums, including the Clinical Senate and has led public health reforms across the NT.
Dr Heggie represents the Northern Territory at a number of national committees and advisory groups including the Australian Health Protection Principal Committee, the Clinical Principal Committee, the Council of the Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency, the Digital Health Agency and the National Health and Medical Research Council.
Dr Ian Hosegood
Ian Hosegood is the Qantas Group Medical Director, responsible for passenger health and employee health and human performance across the Group Airlines and Businesses. Ian has over 25 years experience in Aviation and Occupational Medicine and Health Systems Management including both Military and Commercial Aviation Medicine as well as Aeromedical Retrieval Services. Ian's previous roles include Principal Medical Officer at CASA, Executive management positions in the Royal Flying Doctor Service and Emirates Airlines and Chief Instructor at the ADF's Institute of Aviation Medicine. He served in the ADF for 12 years and was deployed overseas to Malaysia, East Timor, the Solomon Islands and Iraq where he was a member of the United Nations Special Commission (UNSCOM) conducting monitoring and verification of Iraq's chemical and biological weapons program. He is a Board member for the Australasian Society of Aerospace Medicine (ASAM) and the Australasian Medical Review Officer Association (AMROA) and is a member of the IATA Medical Advisory Group (MAG). He is also current President of the International Airline Medicine Association (IAMA). Ian holds specialist fellowships in Medical Administration, Aerospace Medicine and General Practice. Ian is the recipient of several military and civil medals including the Australian Active Service Medal and the National Emergency Medal.
Dr Andrew Johnson
Andrew will be no stranger to many RACMA fellows, having served on College Council, the College Board and numerous state and national committee roles at various stages over the last 25 years. His career spans across the public, private and defence sectors with over 20 years as Executive Director Medical Services in Townsville.
He has now moved into a bespoke role as Medical Director – Clinical Leadership and Collaboration (NQ) with the Townsville Hospital and Health Service, and is Professor with the James Cook University and Honorary Professor with the Australian Institute of Health Innovation at Macquarie University. He has also recently re-joined Defence as a Group Captain in the RAAF Reserves. Andrew is recognised as a “pre-eminent” specialist in Queensland Health and has been honoured with the award of Distinguished Fellow of the RACMA.
Together with his team, he has won international awards for his work in patient safety and has regularly presented his work and thoughts in national and international conferences and workshops. He is the primary or senior author of several book chapters and peer reviewed articles. Andrew’s new role allows him to explore his interests in leadership in complex environments, and conflict management and resolution.
Having recently attained qualifications as an accredited mediator and certified conflict coach whilst completing his Masters in Conflict Management and Resolution, he now sees this area of practice as a major gap in our training and skills development, watch this space.
Dr Beth Kotze
Beth Kotzé is Director of Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services Sydney LHD, Conjoint Associate Professor University of Sydney and Adjunct Professor University of Technology.
Over a period of more than 20 years, Beth has contributed to mental health service development, mental health policy, psychiatry education and practice. She has held executive positions within NSW Health and has served on many senior health service, senior government and advisory boards.
Beth became a Fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Medical Administrators in 2000 and was awarded the Bernard Nicholson Prize. In 2005 she was awarded the RACMA New Fellows Achievement Award.
Beth is an elected Director of the Board RANZCP. In 2010 she received the Margaret Tobin Award RANZCP (2010) which recognises the RANZCP Fellow who has made the most significant contribution to administrative psychiatry in Australia and New Zealand during the preceding five years.
Dr Bill Kingswell
Bill Kingswell is currently the Director of Medical Services, Queen Elizabeth Jubilee Hospital, Brisbane. Prior to this he was engaged with the Queensland Centre for Mental Health Research to contribute to the continuing development of the National Mental Health Services Planning Framework.
Dr Kingswell was Executive Director of the Mental Health, Alcohol and other Drugs Branch of the Queensland Department of Health from 2011 to 2016 and was responsible for the development of the Mental Health Act 2016 as well as the ‘Connecting Care to Recovery’, a five-year plan for the further development of public mental health services in Queensland. For the last 15 years he has worked in senior administrative roles in Queensland Health while maintaining a small clinical role. He has taken a keen interest in medical education at all levels and continues as the Deputy Chair of the Education Committee of the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists and Chair of the Specialist Training Program Committee.
Dr Paul Lane
Dr Paul Lane has a specialist medical background in Internal Medicine and Intensive Care. His current appointment is Director Medical Services for Rural and Indigenous Health for the Townsville Hospital Health Service. He is Co-medical lead for the Queensland Sepsis Collaborative for Clinical Excellence Queensland and chairs the Queensland Digital Working Group.
Prof. Tony Lawler
Tony is Chief Medical Officer and Deputy Secretary- Clinical Quality, Regulation and Accreditation within the Tasmanian Department of Health, and Professor in Health Services at the University of Tasmania.
Anthony is a Specialist Emergency Physician and previous President of the Australasian College for Emergency Medicine. He has previously been a Medical Advisor to the Tasmanian Minister for Health, Deputy Head of the Tasmanian School of Medicine, and Tasmanian Branch President of the Australian Medical Association.
He is a member of the Australian Medical Council’s Special Education Accreditation Committee, and a Director of the Postgraduate Medical Education Council of Tasmania.
Dr Libby Lee
Dr. LEE is the Director of the Strategy and Planning Division at the Hospital Authority administration. The Hospital Authority provides public healthcare services to the 7 million Hong Kong population through 27,000 beds in 43 public hospitals. The scope of her works includes strategy, service, capital and annual planning for the whole Hospital Authority. The current projects include the Hong Kong Children’s Hospital, Queen Mary Hospital, United Christian Hospital, Kwong Wah Hospital, and the Hospital at Kai Tak etc.
She is trained as anaesthesiologist in Queen Mary Hospital focusing on liver transplantation, pain management, electronic anaesthetic record system and simulation training. In 2008, she started her career in administration, first in Patient Safety and Risk Management as the Head of the Patient Safety and Risk Management Department in the Hospital Authority administration. The Department identifies clinical risks through incident management and the annual risk registration exercises, through which corporate strategies and risk reduction programmes are formulated, and quality improvement programmes in individual hospitals and clusters are facilitated and monitored. She then works in the Division of Strategy and Planning for public healthcare services development since 2011. In 2015, she also takes up the position of Deputizing Hospital Chief Executive of the Buddhist Hospital, overseeing the operations of the hospital as well as its refurbishment works.
Dr Erwin Loh
Professor Erwin Loh is national Chief Medical Officer and Group General Manager Clinical Governance for St Vincent's Health Australia, the nation’s largest not-for-profit health and aged care provider, with 36 facilities, including 6 public hospitals, 10 private hospitals and 20 aged care facilities in Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria.
He is qualified in both medicine and law, with general and specialist registration as a medical practitioner (medical administration specialty) and is a barrister and solicitor of the Supreme Court of Victoria and High Court of Australia. He also has an MBA, Master of Health Service Management, and PhD in management. He is Chair of the Victorian State Committee and Board Member of the Royal Australasian College of Administrators. He is Honorary Clinical Professor with the title of Professor at the Department of Medical Education, University of Melbourne. He is adjunct Clinical Professor at Monash University, where he leads the Clinical Leadership and Management Unit at the Monash Centre for Health Research and Implementation. He is Honorary Professor at Macquarie University at the Centre for Health Systems and Safety Research.
He teaches and carries out research in health law, health management and clinical leadership. He has been an invited speaker at local and international conferences, published on health law, medical management, and health technology, and is a member of the Association of Professional Futurists, with an interest in medical futurology.
Dr Brendan Murphy
Dr Brendan Murphy commenced as the Secretary of the Department of Health on 13 July 2020.
Prior to his appointment as Secretary, Brendan was the Chief Medical Officer for the Australian Government and prior to this, the Chief Executive Officer of Austin Health in Victoria.
Dr Murphy is:
- a Professorial Associate with the title of Professor at the University of Melbourne
- an Adjunct Professor at Monash University
- a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences
- a Fellow of the Royal Australian College of Physicians
- a member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.
He was formerly CMO and director of Nephrology at St Vincent’s Health, and sat on the Boards of the Centenary Institute, Health Workforce Australia, the Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health, the Olivia Newton-John Cancer Research Institute and the Victorian Comprehensive Cancer Centre. He is also a former president of the Australian and New Zealand Society of Nephrology.
A/Prof Pooshan Navathe
A/Professor Pooshan Navathe is a practising occupational physician and an internationally acknowledged thought leader in aviation medicine. After occupying the medical leadership position at the Civil Aviation Safety Authority, he has recently moved to become the Director Medical Services at Maitland NSW. A/Prof Navathe has a large number of publications, and continues to be active in his research into risk and uncertainty in medical decision making. A/Prof Navathe has been involved in medical education for over two decades, and continues to teach and mentor doctors in their various specialist pathways.
Dr Nick O'Connor
Nick O’Connor graduated in Medicine at Sydney University in 1981 and became a Fellow of the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists in 1987. Dr O’Connor has a Masters in Medicine (Psychotherapy), a Masters in Health Administration, is a Fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Medical Administrators, and a Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.
Dr O’Connor is Clinical Lead of the Mental Health Patient Safety Program, NSW Clinical Excellence Commission. Previous appointments include Area Director Mental Health Northern Sydney (1997-2008), Clinical Director Sydney Local Health District (2008-2012) and Clinical Director North Shore Ryde Mental Health Service (2012 -2019).
Nick is a Board Director of the RANZCP, Chair of the NSW Health Education and Training (HETI) Higher Education Governing Council and past Co-Chair of the Mental Health Network of the NSW Agency of Clinical Innovation. His areas of interest include: general adult psychiatry, health leadership and culture, patient safety and improvement science.
Dr O'Connor can be contacted via nick.oconnor@health.nsw.gov.au
Dr Mary O'Reilly
Mary O’Reilly was awarded her FRACMA this year. Mary is Deputy CMO and Medical Director, Patient Safety and Clinical Excellence at Austin Health in Melbourne and an Adjunct Clinical Associate Professor with Monash University. An Infectious Diseases Physician by background, Mary was formerly Director of Infectious Diseases and Infection Control at Eastern Health. Mary was seconded to the Victorian Aged Care Response Centre in 2020 to support the joint Commonwealth and Victorian Aged Care COVID-19 prevention strategy in Aged Care.
Dr Stephen Pang
Dr Pang is the former Head of Human Resources of the Hong Kong Hospital Authority which has employed more than 80,000 staff. His role is to provide strategic advice and leadership to the HR function. He has contributed to the enhancement of staff morale and capability to meet organization challenges. Prior to this role, he was the Hospital Chief Executive of the Grantham Hospital and Tung Wah Hospital and had worked in various roles at HA Head Office as Chief Manager of Cluster Services Division and Quality and Safety Division at Head Office. Dr Pang has over 16 years of solid experience in healthcare management after he completed his specialist training in Internal Medicine. Furthermore, he oversaw the promulgation and implementation of hospital accreditation program in pilot hospitals as well as the continuous quality improvement programs. He has engaged the stakeholders to develop the Hong Kong Standards by making reference to EQUIP4.
Currently, he is the honorary clinical associate professor of the Chinese University of Hong Kong and the Censor of the Administrative Medicine Subspecialty Board of Hong Kong Academy of Medicine. In addition, as the member of the Elderly Commission appointed by the Government, he actively advises on the strategy of aged care to the senior government officials.
Dr Annette Pantle
Dr Annette Pantle, MBBS, MPH, FRACMA, FAAQHC, FAICD is a specialist medical administrator and an experienced clinician and senior executive with experience across all sectors of the health system in Australia including rural general practice, public and private hospital management, aged care, government and policy. She has held a number of senior executive roles in health including inaugural roles as the Executive Director for Patient Safety in the Tasmanian Health System, Group General Manager Clinical Governance and Chief Medical Officer for St Vincent’s Health Australia and as the Director for Clinical Practice Improvement at the NSW Clinical Excellence Commission. She is currently the Medical Director of the Medical Council of NSW where the paramount consideration of the regulatory activity is the protection of the public.
Dr Suzanne Phillips
Dr. Sue Phillips is the Regional Director of Medical Services for the Kimberley region of northern WA – a region that is challenged by remoteness and geographical isolation, transport issues and the impact of weather on service delivery, workforce issues unlike anywhere else in the state, and the massive burden of acute and chronic disease of its mainly Aboriginal population. Sue has been a rural generalist /medical administrator in the region since 2004 and has been instrumental in developing Broome Hospital into a thriving teaching hospital that is a role model for rural generalism across WA. Sue became a Fellow of the College in 2010, in recognition of the need for rural medical clinician leaders to seek training and qualifications that supports their role in medical administration.
Dr Luis Prado
Associate Professor Luis Prado MBBS FRACMA FRACGP FACHE FCHSM FAAQHC FISQua FACMQ Grad Dip Sp Med GAICD CHIA, is the Executive Director Academic and Medical Services and Chief Medical Officer of Epworth HealthCare. He is a specialist in medical administration and clinical governance, and a censor and board director of the Royal Australasian College of Medical Administrators. He is also a practicing specialist general practitioner with a special interest in sports medicine.
A/Professor Prado is the first Australian to hold Fellowships, by examination, of both the American College of Healthcare Executives and the American College of Medical Quality. He also holds Fellowships of the Australian College of Health Service Management, the Australian Association of Quality in Health care and the International Society of Quality in Healthcare.
Dr Milind Rawal
Dr Milind Rawal is a medical graduate from Russian university and Masters in Health Service Management from University of South Australia, Adelaide. Dr Rawal has more than 5 years of experience in medical administration including working as Director of Clinical Services at Central Coast Local Health District, NSW. Dr Rawal is currently a medical administration trainee at Maitland Hospital and 1st year candidate in Fellowship program for Royal Australian College of Medical Administrators (RACMA).
Dr Andy Robertson
Dr Andrew (Andy) Robertson is the Assistant Director General and Chief Health Officer within the Public and Aboriginal Health Division in the Western Australia Department of Health (WA Health). With specialist qualifications in Public Health Medicine and Medical Administration, he served with the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) from 1984 until 2003, including completing three tours to Iraq as a Biological Weapons Chief Inspector with the United Nations Special Commission in 1996 and 1997. He remains in the RAN’s Active Reserve, and was promoted to Commodore and undertook the role of Director General Navy Health Reserves from July 2015 until December 2019.
In October 2003, he took up the position of the Director, Disaster Preparedness and Management in WA Health. In December 2004, he led the Australian Medical Relief team into the Maldives post tsunami, managed WA Health’s response to the 2005 Bali Bombing, led the WA Health team into Indonesia after the Yogyakarta earthquakes in June 2006, worked as the Radiation Health Adviser to the Australian Embassy after the Fukushima nuclear incident in 2011 and conducted the AUSMAT needs assessment in Nepal after the Nepal earthquake in 2015. Since 2008, as Director, Disaster Management and Deputy Chief Health Officer, he has coordinated the WA Health disaster and public health responses to the Ashmore Reef incident, the H1N1 2009 pandemic, the 2011 CHOGM meeting and the 2015 Ebola preparations, and acted as the Chief Information Officer and the Chief Medical Officer. He has been undertaking the current role since June 2018, including leading the WA Health response to the COVID-19 outbreak.
Prof. Alan Sandford AM
Alan, a Specialist Medical Administrator, is an experienced health executive and clinical consultant with over 29 years of executive health management experience. Alan has held executive level management positions in a variety of health settings both in Australia and internationally. He is currently the Executive Director Medical Services, Rockhampton Hospital Business Unit, Queensland Health. Previously he was Executive Director Medical Services and Clinical Governance for North West Hospital and Health Services, Queensland Health, for five years.
Working with groups of senior clinicians to optimise engagement is a priority for Alan. Recent roles in rural Australia have strengthened health workforce, governance and clinical functionality within organisations. He was previously the head of Health Workforce for Victoria with the Department of Human Services with State and Commonwealth roles in the area of workforce. Alan has over 23 years’ experience as an Australian Council on Healthcare Standards (ACHS) surveyor and is currently an active lead assessor involved in accreditation in both the public and private health sectors across Australia.
Alan holds postgraduate qualifications in health management and is a Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors. Alan is also Adjunct Associate Professor with James Cook University and Clinical Associate Professor with the University of Tasmania.
In 2017, Alan was awarded Member of the Order of Australia in the Australia Day Honours.
Dr Andrew Simpson
Andrew was Chief Medical Officer for the NZ Ministry of Health from March 2016 until December 2020.
Andrew originally trained as a Medical Oncologist and took up a consultant position at Capital and Coast District Health Board in 2000. Andrew became Clinical Lead for cancer services in 2007 and subsequently the Executive Director (Clinical) for Medicine, Cancer & Community in 2010.
Andrew also was appointed as Clinical Director for the newly established Central Cancer Network in 2007 and moved to the Ministry in 2012 as the National Clinical Director Cancer, before taking on the role of Chief Medical Officer in 2016.
Dr Sabapathi Subiramanian
Dr Sabapathi Subiramanian is a staff specialist paediatrician and the Head of Women’s and Children’s division at Sale Hospital. He completed the Leadership for Clinicians program of The Royal Australasian College of Medical Administrators and was admitted to Associate Fellowship in September 2018.
He works closely with Safer Care Victoria is passionate about delivering the best possible care for local children and believes in empowering patients, families and nursing staff through education and person-centred approach. One prime example is the Multidisciplinary outreach clinic based at the local Special Development School that allows smooth and personalised participation of Children with less abilities and their families in consultation.
He has keen interest in indigenous health and closely involved in the early intervention work at the Gippsland and East Gippsland Aboriginal Co-operative based in Bairnsdale. He is instrumental in setting up an outreach clinic at this co-operative their early learning centre that is funded by Rural Workforce Agency Victoria.
He has postgraduate certification in health informatics and has developed a special interest in providing paediatric telehealth medicine to rural and remote areas of Wellington and East-Gippsland Shire. Under his leadership the paediatric team has set up a school-link follow up clinic where children have their follow up review conducted directly from school with input from carers and educators.
He is also privileged to be associated with Monash University as the Clinical Dean for the Monash Rural School of Health at the Sale Campus and provides leadership for curriculum delivery at Central Gippsland Health.
Prof. Nicola Spurrier
Professor Nicola Spurrier is the Chief Public Health Officer for the Department for Health and Wellbeing, being appointed in 2019. The Chief Public Health Officer is responsible for public health and communicable disease issues. Professor Spurrier’s role also includes advising the Minister and the Chief Executive of SA Health about proposed legislative or administrative changes in relation to public health.
Nicola is a dual qualified Medical Specialist, Public Health Physician and Paediatrician, with 30 years’ experience within SA Health including 10 years in the Department for Health and Wellbeing.
Nicola has specialised in developing and implementing policies and programs across child health, obesity prevention and Aboriginal health. She also has extensive experience in health protection and promotion, public health partnership and health diplomacy activities.
Prof. Ruth Stewart
Adjunct Professor Ruth Stewart was appointed as the second National Rural Health Commissioner for Australia in July 2020. She brings to this role nearly 30 years of work as a Rural Generalist doctor with the advanced skills of a GP obstetrician. Ruth and her husband Anthony Brown now live and work on Thursday Island in the Torres Strait.
For 22 years Ruth and Anthony were General Practitioners in private practice in Camperdown in south west Victoria where they had Visiting Medical Officer status in the local public hospital. In 2008 Ruth was employed as the inaugural Director of Clinical Training Rural with the then new medical school of Deakin University. Her role was to establish the rural program. She created a network of 12 growing to 18 Longitudinal Integrated Clerkship placements for third year medical students from Deakin University to spend the whole of their core clinical year in rural practice.
In 2012, Ruth moved to north Queensland to become Associate Professor of Rural Medicine, Director Rural Clinical Training with James Cook University. In this role she oversaw the doubling of rural clinical placements for the medical school and worked clinically as a Senior Medical Officer at Mareeba Hospital. Ruth is the immediate Past President of the Australian College of Rural and Remote Medicine and was on the College’s board from 2002-2020 in various roles. She was on the board of the Torres and Cape Hospital and Health Service for 6 years, the Cape York Hospital Board for two years and has been on the board of several Regional Training Providers/Organisations for General Practice Training, on the board of the Rural Doctors Association of Australia for two years and the Tropical Australian Academic Health Centre board. For three years. She has held a number of representative and medico political roles including on the Distribution Advisory Group, and the Health Innovation Advisory Committee for the National Health and Medical Research Authority.
Ruth received a PhD from Flinders University in 2014. Her thesis examined the lessons learnt from a Managed Clinical Network of rural maternity services in South West Victoria. She has an abiding interest in quality of rural maternity services and sustainable models of rural health care.
Dr Greg Stewart
After forty years in the NSW Health system as a clinician, public health physician and senior manager, Dr Greg Stewart retired in April 2020 from his position as Director, Primary Integrated and Community Health for South Eastern Sydney Local Health District (2011-20). His career spanned a full range of management and public health activities in NSW Health, including as Director of the South Western Sydney Public Health Unit (1990-96), Chief Executive Officer of Wentworth Area Health Service (2000-01) and Chief Health Officer of NSW (2001-05). He undertook his medical training at Sydney University and graduated in 1979. In 1984, he undertook a Master of Public Health degree, also at Sydney University. In 1988, he became a Fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Medical Administrators and was awarded the Bernard Nicholson Prize for the candidate with the highest aggregate mark in the final RACMA examination. He is a Foundation Fellow of the Australasian Faculty of Public Health Medicine (1990) and was President of the Faculty from May 2014 to May 2016. He currently serves on the Board of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians.
Dr Iwona Stolarek
Dr Iwona Stolarek has more than 10 years of experience at a senior level of clinical governance both within district health boards, and at a more strategic level working as Medical Director for the Health Quality and Safety Commission in New Zealand. Her current role has focused predominantly on building sector capability and leadership for quality and safety by strengthening clinical governance and clinical leadership.
Prof. Brett Sutton
Professor Brett Sutton is Victoria's Chief Health Officer. The Chief Health Officer undertakes a variety of statutory functions under health and food-related legislation. He also provides expert clinical and scientific advice and leadership on issues impacting public health.
Professor Sutton has extensive experience and clinical expertise in public health and communicable diseases, gained through emergency medicine and field-based international work, including in Afghanistan and Timor-Leste. He represents Victoria on a number of key national bodies including the AHPPC (Australian Health Protection Principal Committee). He is also Chief Human Biosecurity Officer for Victoria. Professor Sutton has a keen interest in tropical medicine and the incorporation of palliative care practice into humanitarian responses.
Professor Sutton is a Fellow of the Royal Society for Public Health, a Fellow of the Australasian College of Tropical Medicine and a Fellow of the Australasian Faculty of Public Health Medicine (AFPHM). He is also a member of the Faculty of Travel Medicine.
Dr Melissa Sweet
Dr Melissa Sweet is a public health journalist, author, and managing editor of Croakey Health Media, a non-profit public interest journalism organisation with a focus on health equity and the determinants of health.
Melissa is also involved in various research and teaching activities and has an honorary appointment as Adjunct Senior Lecturer in the Sydney School of Public Health at the University of Sydney. Her most recent academic publication (co-authored) is: “Converging crises: public interest journalism, the pandemic and public health”. Her most recent journalistic publication is co-authored with Dr Tess Ryan: "The long road to healthcare justice”.
In 2017, Melissa completed a PhD at the University of Canberra, titled: “Acknowledgement”: A social journalism research project relating to the history of lock hospitals, lazarets and other forms of medical incarceration of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. This was awarded the Parker Medal for the University of Canberra’s most outstanding thesis of 2017.
Melissa has been writing about health and medical issues since the late 1980s. Prior to becoming a freelancer in the late 1990s, she covered health and medicine for The Sydney Morning Herald and Australian Associated Press, and also worked at Australian Doctor magazine, and was a columnist for The Bulletin magazine.
Melissa is the author of a number of books including Inside Madness (Pan Macmillan, 2006), which examined the history of mental health care in Australia, and the work and life of murdered psychiatrist Dr Margaret Tobin. In recognition of her work on this book, Melissa was awarded a Dart Centre Ochberg Fellowship.
Dr Allison Turncock
Dr Allison Turnock is the Medical Director of the General Practice and Primary Care Unit at the Department of Health in Tasmania. The Unit hosts the Tasmanian Rural Generalist Pathway Coordination Unit that facilitates the pathway of junior doctors through to rural generalists with a Collaborative group of stakeholders. Allison is a GP by background, including Rural Clinical School attendee and PGPPP participant. In previous roles she implemented the inaugural Rural Application Process and Aboriginal Entry Process at the University of Tasmania’s School of Medicine. She is currently a member of the National Primary Health Reform Steering Group.
Prof. Harvey Whiteford
Harvey Whiteford is Professor of Population Mental Health at the University of Queensland. He trained in medicine, psychiatry and public health in Queensland and at Stanford University, California. He has held senior positions in government, including those of Director of Mental Health in the Queensland and the Federal governments in Australia and was recruited from Canberra to the World Bank in Washington DC to help develop the Bank’s lending program for mental and neurological disorders.
Dr Whiteford currently leads teams responsible for estimating the global epidemiology and burden of mental disorders, and for the design and planning of health services to reduce the burden of mental disorders. From October 2018 to August 2020 he was the Associate Commissioner on the Australian Productivity Commission mental health inquiry.
Dr Murray Wright
Murray is a graduate of the University of Sydney Medical Faculty, and has worked in a range of metropolitan, rural and regional centres, as a psychiatrist, in various leadership roles, and since October 2014, as NSW Chief Psychiatrist.
His clinical interests include consultation-liaison psychiatry, emergency psychiatry, quality and safety improvement, psychiatric and substance misuse comorbidity, and psychiatric impairment among health professionals and police officers. In addition to his public sector roles, Murray has maintained a private practice since 1990, and has a longstanding relationship with NSW Police, providing clinical advice and support to the Negotiation and Fixated Persons Units.
Dr Jeanette Young
Dr Young is the Queensland Chief Health Officer and one of the Deputy Directors-General in the Department of Health. She has specialist qualifications as a Fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Medical Administrators and as a Fellow by Distinction of the Faculty of Public Health of the Royal College of Physicians of the United Kingdom. She is an Adjunct Professor at Griffith University, QUT and UQ.
Her normal role includes responsibility for health disaster planning and response; aeromedical retrieval services; licensing of private hospitals and schools of anatomy; policy regarding organ and tissue donation, blood, medicines and poisons, cancer screening, communicable diseases, environmental health, preventive health; and medical workforce planning and leadership. Since January this year she has been the State Health Incident Controller for the management of the COVID-19 Pandemic. Whilst she has concentrated on the pandemic response Bronwyn Nardi followed by Professor Keith McNeil have been Acting DDG for Prevention Division.
Dr Young is a member of numerous state and national committees and boards including the National Medical and Medical Research Council and the Australian Health Protection Principal Committee.
Dr Brian Yow
Brian is the Medical Administration Registrar at Waitemata DHB in Auckland, NZ. Previously, he was Health Informatics Fellow and Clinical Quality & Risk Manager at Counties Manukau DHB. As Informatics Fellow, he was clinical lead for the digital health program at Counties, implementing electronic vitals, radiology, regional clinical portal, smartphones/tablets and QLIK data analytics. He attained CHIA - Certification Health Informatics Australasia and is completing his Master of Health Service Management at Massey University. Brian developed interests in quality and safety as a junior doctor, after caring for a patient involved in an incident with metal during an MRI scan.
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