Global Speakers

Heather has international and national expertise in the development, implementation, management and governance of EHR and eHealth systems, particularly classification and terminological content and education.  She is well respected nationally and internationally, particularly in the difficult areas of data representation (classifications and terminologies), standards, semantic interoperability and practical system implementation. She has consulted to governments, healthcare organisations and software vendors. Heather is the only person who has held leadership roles in health informatics at ISO, HL7 and SNOMED INTERNATIONAL. She understands of the different requirements of organisations, clinical domains and researchers and the need for harmonisation to develop appropriate skills and education strategies. Her experience from the academic as well as the vocational perspective offers approaches to education which are flexible and practical for any learning environment or methodology.

Chief Executive Officer with 15+ years’ experience improving healthcare outcomes, creating culture, leading organisations through healthcare reform, and developing award winning best model of care programs and initiatives to achieve greater efficiencies and effectiveness. Exceptional change agent acknowledged for ability to bring strategic focus to roles, work with community to create a vision, and motivate individuals to operationalize and deliver that vision. Led the restructure and cultural reform of three health care services through evidence based practicing, new clinical and corporate governance frameworks, workforce development, and innovative planning. Each organisation is now a strong health care service with vision and direction.

Achieved best practice through benchmarking frameworks and quality improvement initiatives, continuous ACHS accreditation |Successfully implemented a world class electronic health record including medication management across an integrated health system (Acute Primary and Sub-Acute sectors)

Dewald is the Chief Technology Officer of Tristar Medical Group and oversee the ICT infrastructure and requirements of the larger organisation and all its 50+ clinics and service locations, including the expansion of their cloud based systems. With around 15 years of experience in the IT field, he started out as a software engineer after completing my studies. He then progressed to senior engineer level and started managing teams as a Technical Manager, Project Manager and IT manager. As CTO, Dewald uses his experience gained through learning and applying the principles of software engineering to implement new systems and improve on the existing.

Chris is an experienced clinician  and health IMT practitioner with a unique set of qualifications, and a unique exposure to broad aspects of the healthcare system in Australia. He is accredited as an IT professional with the ACS in Australia and the ACM in the US. He also has extensive experience in designing, leading and running operational IMT functions in healthcare organizations. Chris’ chief interests are in the usability of technology in healthcare, data and analytics, software and system evaluation, technology ecosystems and the governance of IT and data. He devised and established the not for profit group HealthTech-UX in early 2015. The main aim of this group is to improve the UX of all users of software in healthcare.

Dr Damian Claydon-Platt is the Chief Clinical Information Officer at Epworth Healthcare, a large not-for-profit healthcare group in Victoria. Damian is a medical doctor with 19 years clinical experience working predominantly in the Intensive Care Environment. As the CCIO of Epworth Healthcare, he is currently involved in the strategic alignment of IT priorities to clinical and organisational requirements, influencing of corporate vision to embrace the benefits of information technologies,

stakeholder engagement across the group, and implementation of clinical-facing information systems. He maintains a clinical perspective by continuing to work in intensive care, and is keenly aware of the need to minimize the impact of digital solutions on clinical workflows. Damian sees technology as a fundamental enabler of clinical improvement, through improved integration and exchange of information amongst all providers of care, and he enthusiastically pursues continuous organizational transformation to deliver the highest quality care.

Russel is a strategic thinker with reputation for inclusive management style to reach corporate goals. He served as CIO for Fiona Stanley Hospital in Perth from 2013-2016. He was the Consultant Program Director at the Gold Coast University Hospital from 2012-2013. Earlier on, he served as Consultant Program Director, Radiology Informatics for Queensland Health from 2006-2009, and was the Business Integration and Consulting Services Manager for RSL Care from 2002-2006.

Professor Erwin Loh is Chief Medical Officer and Executive Director of Innovation, Patient Safety and Experience at Monash Health, Victoria’s largest health service. Besides being a current Board Member of the Hudson Institute of Medical Research, he is also on the Board of the Monash Health Research Precinct and the Australasian College of Legal Medicine (where he is also Vice President). He is adjunct Clinical Professor at Monash University where he teaches clinical leadership and management. He is the Chair of the Victorian State Committee of the Royal Australasian College of Administrators. He has academic interests in health leadership, health law and medical futurology.

Chris has specialised in the design and development of business solutions and software solutions for Government and Corporate for over 30 years. For the past 16 years his specialty has been in the delivery of Mental Health solutions for the public and not-for-profit sector. At Forensicare, he wrote and architected the electronic medical record. He re-architected their aging hardware-reliant infrastructure to a mobile and virtual environment; for the government sector, he developed a school supply ordering system that was licensed to various State governments. In 1998, he developed and hosted the first Internet-based system launched in Victoria – www.tenders.vic.gov.au. In 1999, he developed and hosted the Victorian Valuer-General’s online property valuation system, then known as prism.

Cheryl has worked in Health for over 26 years, including roles in nursing, research, education and senior management, in adult and paediatric specialist referral hospitals in Adelaide and Sydney, Australia. She has a Diploma in Applied Science, a Bachelor of Nursing, a Masters of Health Service Management, and is a Student of Lean. Cheryl moved from Adelaide in 2001 to take up senior management roles at The Children’s Hospital at Westmead, NSW where she worked as Director of Clinical Operations. In 2011, with the formation of The Sydney Children’s Hospitals Network (SCHN), she commenced a new role as Director of Clinical Integration for SCHN. Key responsibilities include Clinical leadership for e-health Strategy and Adoption, clinical data collections and analytics, health records, Reporting, Activity Based Funding (ABF), and Efficiency and Revenue sustainability.

Cheryl has a focus on developing people and their processes, to evolve models which support safe service delivery, fair resource allocation, efficiency, equitable access, and innovation in Health services.

Melissa Baysari is a Senior Research Fellow at the Australian Institute of Health Innovation, Macquarie University. She is a Human Factors researcher experienced in both qualitative and quantitative evaluations of health information technology. Melissa has published over 60 peer-reviewed articles in Australian and international journals and books and secured over $4 million (AUD) in research funding in the area of health technology evaluation. Overall, her research has delivered new knowledge to ensure that computerised decision support is both effective in improving safety and is compatible with the needs, preferences and established workflow of users.

Matiu aims to transform healthcare through creative innovation. He use an experience design approach incorporating patient insights into every step of the improvement and innovation cycle. By using the five senses as a starting point to improve the patient experience, he tuned in to what patients can see, taste, smell, touch and hear. He teaches clinicians to develop a sensitivity to how patients experience health services. To a patient every smile, every small gesture counts, Matiu leads teams in delivering healthcare experience that makes a difference. Amongst many achievements he had made include:  introduced a daily e-huddle and instant messaging service for community nurses and reinvigorated telehealth within RDNS;  organised the interior design fit out for Cancer Specialists in Private Practice; introduced virtual reality technology to Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre; developed the Specialist Clinic waitlist audit process and tools for Alfred Health; was the Project manager for National Emergency Access Target (NEAT 4-hour target) at Alfred Health; introduced rapid no wait screening, reducing wait times from 45 mins to 12 mins for Melbourne Sexual Health Centre.

Ms Anne Mennen has worked across many clinical cardiac areas as a registered nurse including cardiac care, emergency and cardiothoracics. She was the nurse unit manager of cardiothoracics 32 South Monash Medical Centre for seven years before 10 years as the operations manager for MonashHeart. More recently she has been seconded to work on developing the Victorian Heart Hospital; Australia’s first dedicated heart hospital to be built at Monash University, Clayton.

Katie has a background in physiotherapy and over 10 years of experience leading large-scale change efforts to improve quality and safety in patient care. The use of timely and accessible data has been vital for driving high quality decision making around priorities, performance monitoring and for measuring improvement. In her current role as Patient Experience Program Coordinator at The Royal Melbourne Hospital, Katie has led the development, implementation and evaluation of patient experience metrics, working with the Business Intelligence Unit to make this data available in a simple, interactive digital format on the wards to improve the patient experience.

After initially pursuing a career in Surgery, Andrew chose to switch to Emergency Medicine under the tutelage of Associate Professor Joe Epstein. Completed his Emergency Medicine training in 2000 and worked as an Emergency Physician at Western Health 2001-2011. Appointed as Director of Emergency Medicine at St Vincent’s Hospital Melbourne in February 2012.  Experienced in Emergency Medicine in the private sector, a) John Fawkner Hospital 1996-199, b) Epworth Hospital 1999-current). Involved in Victoria’s Health Disaster arrangements as a Field Emergency Medical Officer (FEMO) since December 2006. Medical interests include Disaster Medicine and Patient safety in the Emergency Department.

Jeremy is the Managing Director of Revita, the most passionate team of aged care physios and allied health staff in Australia. The Revita team is privileged to be working with Australian seniors living in aged care facilities, and in the community.  Jeremy is also a Committee Member of the Gerontology Physiotherapy Committee of the Australian Physiotherapy Association

Since 1985, Demos has held a number of positions in the health care sector including six years as Executive Officer with the health consumer organisation Preston/Northcote District Health Council. In 1991 he was appointed the Chief Executive Officer of North Richmond Community Health Centre and in 1999 as Director of the Centre for Culture Ethnicity and Health (CEH) positions he still holds concurrently. His professional interests include health and cultural diversity, health issues affecting refugees and migrants, health equity and human rights, health of Aboriginal Australians, health literacy, patient centred care and improving the consumer experience of healthcare. Demos is consulted regularly by all levels of government in Australia and overseas to provide advice on a broad range of health care issues.  In 2009 he was appointed to the Health Care Committee, a Principal Committee of the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC). He was reappointed for a second triennium term to the Health Care Committee in 2012. In 2013 He was appointed as member of the NHMRC Consumer and Community Advisory Group.

 Dr Tam Nguyen is an experienced research administrator with previous clinical research experience in biomedical engineering at numerous teaching hospitals and medical research institutes across Australia. In the current role as a senior executive of research at St Vincent’s Hospital Melbourne, he is responsible for research strategy, business development and administration. Tam leads a dynamic team dedicated to providing innovative solutions to facilitate health and medical research. This has included establishing the Research Valet® Service, St Vincent’s Bridge™ building links between clinical researchers, scientists and industry, and driving business development in clinical trials. His team are currently leading the sector initiative to build the Victorian Clinical Trials Gateway™ web portal, funded by a grant from the Victorian state government. Tam has a double degree in BiomedicalEngineering, a PhD in Biomechanics and an MBA in general management. He is an Adjunct Associate Professor at RMIT University and an Honorary Senior Fellow at the University of Melbourne. He is also a fellow of the Australian Institute of Management and a member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors. Tam recently co-founded an investment fund supporting Australian biotech and medtech start-ups.

Steve had an extensive military background prior to starting his own company.  Steve now has a strong focus on helping organisations improve efficiencies and productivity by streamlining business processes. Over the last 20+ years, Steve has been involved in numerous projects that have companies automate and digitise business workflow.

Steve’s other passion is cybersecurity and helping others protect data security, devices, and corporate IP.

Steve has been awarded various awards throughout his career including military awards and being awarded best instructor for IBM throughout Asia Pacific.

David has over 15 years’ experience in the data capture industry and has been focusing of Healthcare Solutions for over 10 years. David has been with Peacock Bros for 9 years and currently leads the Healthcare Division. He has great relationships with leading healthcare IT vendors for scanning, ergonomics and infection control and strives to ensure Peacocks is top of mind for any healthcare IT implementation.

Sanjoy is involved in the management of General Medicine service at the large tertiary teaching hospital at Counties Manukau Health, and also in the strategic management of Pharmacy and Medication Safety Services at Middlemore hospital.

Renee is a registered nurse who worked for many years in the specialty of Intensive Care following completion of her Intensive Care training at The Alfred Hospital. After eight years of working in ICU, she then returned to study her Masters in Training and Development and became a Nurse Educator and Course Co-ordinator working at Austin Health co-ordinating postgraduate students in conjunction with LaTrobe University for ten years. A further career change led her into the field of Quality and Safety where she became the Quality and Project Co-ordinator for one of the clinical service units at Austin Health. After a few years, she was appointed to the position of Consumer Engagement Manager at Austin Health, a position which she held for nearly 5 years before being appointed to her current position of Director of Consumer Engagement & Volunteer Services at Austin Health in December 2016. During this time, she has witnessed great change across the organisation in relation to the way staff and consumers engage with each other and work together to drive culture change toward improving the patient experience. Now that her portfolio has expanded to include Volunteer Services, she looks forward to embedding a stronger volunteer program across Austin Health which will continue to support and enhance this work.

Bronwyn has 15 years executive experience in the life sciences sector spanning corporate and business development, transaction management, investor relations and industry advocacy.

The former CEO of NZBIO, New Zealand’s national life sciences industry body, Bronwyn joined leading Australian Healthcare Venture Capital firm BioScience Managers in 2012 as Investment Director, where she was responsible for strategic positioning, marketing and external relations in addition to participating in deal origination, due diligence and negotiation for two funds totalling A$96m under management. Since 2014 she has project managed a number of significant transactions in the health technology & digital health sectors resulting in over A$65m of private and public equity raisings, including IPO’s on the Australia Stock Exchange and the UK Alternative Investments Market. She is currently Managing Director of ANDHealth, Australia’s National Digital Health Initiative and a Special Advisor to BioScience Managers, one of Australia’s leading healthcare venture capital firm

Associate Professor Sonja Pedell is Director of Swinburne’s Future Self and Design Living Lab. The FSD Living Lab has core development capabilities in the area of innovative socio-technical systems and design solutions for health and wellbeing with a focus on the ageing population. Technology, products and services can make a big difference to older adults, but it often does not address their needs. The FSD Living Lab develops solutions that are likely to be adopted as they meet the social-emotional goals and lead to commercial outcomes. The Lab also ensures that the spaces and homes housing these technologies meet user needs. Alongside this role, Dr Pedell is also Department Research Director for Swinburne’s Department of Communication and Digital Media Design. She contributes knowledge of human-computer interaction (HCI) and co-design methods to the teaching of digital media and communication design. Prior to taking up these roles at Swinburne, Dr Pedell completed a Masters of Psychology from the Technical University of Berlin and was employed as an Interaction Designer, Usability Consultant and Product Manager in industry for several years.

Liam is an Executive Director of Opaque Media Group, specialising in using emerging technologies to solve intractable problems in the Healthcare, Education and Enterprise spaces. He has lead a number of cutting-edge projects such as the award-winning Virtual Dementia Experience, which allows carers to better understand the perspective of a Person With Dementia through the use of emerging technology. He has worked with a diverse range of high-profile clients and partners such as Microsoft, Google, NASA and The Royal Children’s Hospital to produce industry-leading tools, projects and technologies.

Qualified, highly experienced, motivated, and committed senior health professional with high order management consulting, strategic planning and leadership skills. Demonstrated understanding of public healthcare system and health services’ priorities and constraints with proven success providing strategic advice and operational excellence within a large and complex health organisation. Extensive experience ensuring consistent delivery of cost-effective, high quality patient experience, person-centred care and safety outcomes through initiation of new policies, procedures and processes; improvements to clinical governance; and provision of appropriate nurse staffing levels and skills mix in compliance with nursing clinical standards. A confident communicator with the capacity to motivate, engage and maximise team performance with diverse analytical and innovative skills across clinical governance, health administration, workforce leadership, training and mentoring. Excellent professional relationship management with internal and external stakeholders and an ability to work comfortably in the complex public healthcare environment.

A dynamic and entrepreneurial leader with over 15 years of proven accomplishment in driving success in global healthcare organisations. Disciplined, results-driven with a personal commitment to developing people and working cross-functionally to achieve corporate objectives in highly complex and competitive markets. Currently focused on building a digital health ecosystem in Melbourne, Australia. Leveraging the robust startup environment (Top 20 globally) and tapping into Melbourne’s world-class hospitals and universities.  Founder & current organiser of StartUp HealthTech, a community dedicated to cultivating a digital ecosystem and provide a platform to inspire, inform, and build collaborative relationships among individuals & organisations interested in leveraging digital tools to create a new paradigm for healthcare in Australia and beyond. Has extensive experience in effective go-to-market strategies and change management across markets in US, UK and Asia Pacific.

Dr Menon has been the Clinical Director of Emergency at Peninsula Health since 2014. Prior to that, he was the Director of Emergency Medicine at Northern Health since 2011.

Ross leads Adyuvo, a chronic disease focussed startup, bringing together consumers and clinical professionals to enable improved health outcomes. With chronic disease affecting almost 50% of the Australian population, chronic disease is also recognised as a global health problem. Adyuvo is an essential, not a nice to have.

Sandeep has a background in Health Service Management, Public Health and Medicine. Following some years in clinical practice and medical education, Sandeep attained extensive experience managing various health service projects and formulating high-level policy in Australia, New Zealand and Europe. Sandeep has for the past many years focusing on teaching and research in healthcare management and public health. Sandeep also has a Ph.D., which involved a realist evaluation of emergency department access in the context of health reforms.

Patrik is the founder and director of Intensive Care at Home, the first Australian intensive home care service that is fully accredited. He is also Founder of Intensive Care Hotline, an online support platform for families of critically ill patients in intensive care. He also serves as a Clinical Nurse Specialist at the Intensive Care Unit at the Alfred Hospital.

Dr Yang Li is involved in building predictive and forecast models to solve the healthcare problems for a NSW local health department: Predicting the group of patients at high risk of readmission within 28 days; she also get into forecasting emergency department daily/monthly visiting volume; and researched on finding factors that have influence on the variation of daily admission number due to respiratory issues.

Dr Nicholas Opie is director and Chief Technical Officer of SmartStent Pty Ltd. Dr Opie is a biomedical engineer with extensive experience in the field of neural bionics. Dr Opie completed his PhD developing a sensor for the bionic eye, for Bionic Vision Australia (BVA). He was subsequently employed as the BVA surgical program coordinator at the Centre for Eye Research Australia. Dr Opie is a Research Fellow in the Department of Medicine, co-founder of the Melbourne Bionics Laboratory, and co-PI for the DARPA-RE NET program. Dr Opie is prototyping the Stentrode™.

Michael is the General Manager of LifeCare Health, a multidisciplinary sports medicine and physiotherapy group in Australia. His current interests are in the development of stem cell technology and treatment, and is a Director of Magellan Stem Cells.

Naomi is also a Fellow of the Australian College of Nursing, serves as an Adjunct Associate Professor at the Deakin University, and also Chairperson and Board Member, Victorian Board of Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia.

Chris Arnold has many years of experience in the corporate, government and the not for profit sectors. Chris’ six CEO roles include hospitals, law firms and a financial services & accounting firm. This is supplemented by consulting experience in governance, structuring, strategy and business planning and mentoring. Chris has held eight board roles, many in the philanthropic sector, including 6 years with Philanthropy Australia, 8 years with Australian Communities Foundation and, recently, with the Human Variome Project International Ltd. Chris’ current role as Executive Director is combined with continued consulting advice and executive mentoring outside the Foundation.

Robert Steele is an internationally trained Melbourne orthopaedic surgeon with subspecialty areas of interest in knee and hip surgery. Bob graduated from the University of Melbourne in 1994 going on to complete his orthopaedic training here in Victoria prior to undertaking highly sought after fellowships in the United Kingdom in lower limb joint replacement surgery and sports surgery of the knee. Bob has researched and published internationally on partial knee replacements and is currently part of an Australian design team for a new knee replacement prosthesis. Bob has a healthy interest in teaching having held faculty positions at the University of Melbourne and Stanford University California and continues to be very actively involved with registrar training through his consultant appointment at the Dandenong Public Hospital.

Mr Andrew Tang is the Director of the Epworth Musculoskeletal Clinical Institute. Andrew is an experienced Orthopaedic Surgeon who operates at Epworth Richmond having commenced as a specialist orthopaedic surgeon in 1994. He has undertaken international post-graduate postings in London at Kings College Hospital, as well as Singapore General Hospital (2006-2008) where he specialized in adult reconstructive knee surgery. Locally his career has included appointment as Director of Orthopaedic Surgery at the Alfred Hospital (2004-2006), overseeing a team of ten surgeons including the professional development of the unit’s Orthopaedic Registrars, in addition to his continued surgical practice. Andrew also serves on the executive of the Victoria Branch of the Australian Orthopaedic Association. Andrew’s career interests are in knee surgery including replacement and reconstruction, and trauma surgery. His current focusses are knee replacement, computer aided navigation in joint replacement and robotic surgery. Andrew takes on with enthusiasm the role of Director of the Musculoskeletal Clinical Institute which includes the specialties of Orthopaedic Surgery, Rheumatology and Sport and Exercise Medicine. He sees this as a unique opportunity to build on a first class clinical unit with strengths in research, education and clinical care.

Jim Kolitsis is an independent healthcare technology consultant with twenty years experience working in the health sector.

Jim specializes in new hospital solution architecture with a focus on digital theatres, catheter and EP lab.

Some of his past engagements include Chief Technology Officer for a global teleradiology organisation and senior technical project manager for Siemens Healthcare.

His interests today are leading him into the data driven realm of analyzing data entered into EMR systems to deliver proactive demand management insights.

Currently seconded from RCH since January 2017, Adrian is involved in the Business Case development for Medical Device Integration into an Electronic Medical Record (EMR) at Parkville Precinct. At RCH, he served as the CNIO. He has also prior experience serving as a Health data collection application analyst/software developer for countries outside Australia including PNG, Laos and the Solomon Islands.

Professor Frances Quirk is a Chartered Health Psychologist (Practitioner Psychologist Registration, Health Professions Council, UK) and behavioural scientist. Prof Quirk has worked in both the public and private sectors is recognised internationally for her research in respiratory medicine and sexual dysfunction and has additional ongoing research programs in health service and health systems, performance enhancement in sport, suicide and depression in athletes, medical education, gender differences in depression and resilience in farming families. Prof Quirk has been successful in numerous external grant applications (approximately $2 million) and is associated with funded applications of approximately $6.5 million. Prof Quirk has a notable citation record (most cited publication >2000) and is a cross-disciplinary and collaborative researcher with over 70 co-authors. Prof Quirk has been a Head of Department for Psychology and Head of Discipline, Mental Health at James Cook University, and is currently Director of Research at Barwon Health with a Clinical Professorship at the School of Medicine, Deakin University and an Adjunct Professorship in the School of Medicine, James Cook University. Prof Quirk has held several Board positions and is a current member of the Department of Justice and Regulation Human Research Ethics Committee and an Editorial Board member of the Elsevier Journal, Performance Enhancement and Health, previously Editor-in- Chief. Prof Quirk is Chair of the HealthPathways Research and Evaluation Sub Committee for Western Victoria PHN and Chair of the HealthPathways Evaluation Advisory Group (Australia/New Zealand).